Suing for rights


To the Editor:


While I totally agree with Mr. Waddington as regards the “stupid law” requiring fishing licenses — it being not only a poorly conceived, hastily drafted and hurriedly implemented law that encumbers long established rights, but also an unfunded mandate — I find myself unable to resist pointing out what I would think is obvious, and yet seems to be missed by him and his associates on the board, which is that the Town of Shelter Island has been doing this to its citizens for decades now. As I said about home rule before, my eye is incapable of distinguishing between the thumb of my neighbor and that of a stranger.


It is a shame that we have to sue for our town’s rights, but it is equally shameful that individual residents have to sue for their rights in this same town. They have not only to pay their attorney’s and other court fees, but also pay our town attorney, through their tax dollars, to fight against them. That’s something I would think we’d want to avoid putting someone through unnecessarily, and it’s not so hard to do. You just have to follow one rule: do unto others as you would have done unto you, though reading the Constitution wouldn’t hurt. Those two things would do a great deal to keep us on track, and it doesn’t bode well for Shelter Island that we persistently ignore them in pursuit of ever narrower and more shallow interests.


PAUL SHEPHERD


Town supervisor candidate