Shame on the town officials of Turner. As an American citizen, William Whitman has the sovereign right not to be harassed, distressed or prosecuted for his non-compliance with certain frivolous town ordinances. Does he not pay his taxes? Does he not mind his own business? Who, I wonder, is complaining about him? Someone new in town, perhaps, as is so often the case these days?

Is it not just more than a little pretentious that such a tiny town even has a zoning or a junkyard ordinance? May I ask why? Were these ridiculous ordinance posturings initiated by old Turner families, I wonder, or by relative newcomers not willing to live and let live? Every town in Maine has, from time immemorial, had its local characters, its neat farms and its slovenly shacks.

We Mainers call it, “Mind your own business.”

The Whitman family are “old Mainers,” a breed increasingly being forced to live under the strictures of metropolitan-styled controls. Why do you suppose more and more of us are saying: “Welcome to Maine. Now go home!” Unfortunately for us indigenous locals, too many of us are being forced to pay for improvements we don’t need.

May I suggest that Mr. Whitman’s detractors, including those who run the town of Turner, find themselves another cause on which to pontificate, perhaps in another township where they might find some of their own kind who might, therefore, be more tolerant of their superior and totalitarian views.

George Stilphen, Otisfield

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