To the Editor,
In the Letters to the Editor column on November 7, 2008, a Lorri Parisi asks the rhetorical question, “How can this be?” a reference to Neil Gardner’s kangaroo court trial. Not so rhetorical actually.
The short answer to this question is because good people have not taken steps to stop it from going this far. Many don’t want to get involved. Many are afraid of repercussions. Many more good people simply don’t know exactly what to do. Whatever is done, it needs to be more than just verbal support. Be sure it gets to all the media people, not just Rensselaer County. If you have legal or political connections, use them. Think outside of the box!
As for Neil’s “trial,” it was no trial; it was a travesty of justice, an unconscionable, inquisitorial witch hunt of one man – Neil Gardner. The (not so hidden), hidden hand behind all of this has made a capital offense out of spitting on the sidewalk. Make no mistake about it, this case is not about a spoonful of dirt or so called “loading-slips.” It is about politics; it is political; it is about a puppeteer and a coterie of fawning wanna-be’s seeking to run your town in spite of the democratic electoral process… something they couldn’t do as long as Neil was still “in place.”
My question to you good people of Stephentown, and it’s not rhetorical, is this – are we going to stand silent on this, or are we going to take our town back from the “shadow government’” that is trying to run Stephentown. If Neil loses, we all lose. We need to have this entire case quashed, set aside, overturned, thrown out in the interest of justice, annulled!
John E. DeFreest, Sr. M. MSC.
West Road, Stephentown