[The below letter relates to the news brief “Former Mamakating supervisor accused of knocking down activist,” on page 2.]

As a cartoonist and satirist I have lampooned and criticized any number of local politicians and public figures. Our society protects my right to free speech—as it also protects artists, writers, the editorial boards of media outlets and regular people who have their letters to the editor published. We have this right even if what we say is unpleasant to some, or even abhorrent to many. I have drawn Duane Roe Jr. and been critical of him. He is a former Mamakating town supervisor, former chairman of the Republican Party in Mamakating, and was publicly involved as an agent for controversial developer Shalom Lamm in Lamm’s early attempts to take over the village of Bloomingburg. He is a public figure. I am shocked by Roe’s physical attack against me.

I have not been alone over the past several years. There are others in our community braver than I, who continue to speak their minds and advocate publicly for justice and the rule of law in Bloomingburg despite inaction on the part of law enforcement and many elected officials to, among other things, prosecute and/or denounce matters like election fraud and intimidation by a private security force. I want to remind everyone, particularly those involved in Town of Mamakating politics and Lamm’s Village of Bloomingburg development project, that we live in a civil society where we are all diminished when money buys favors and also prevents people from asserting their rights in court. What’s more, this is a society, unlike many, that has no tolerance for physical intimidation and violence directed at those who speak their minds.

Andy Weil

Summitville, NY