To whom it concerns:

Nothing justifies theft of personal property. By stealing campaign signs, you have neither hurt my feelings nor deterred my momentum as a parent who supports the penny tax referendum.   In fact, I thank you for giving me reason to speak in this public forum against your theft, your trespassing, and your otherwise dishonorable behavior in the Lake Forest subdivision in Daphne. You see, your cowardly behavior has been the catalyst to my letter to the editor.

If you see my little white pick-up truck anywhere along the 18-or-so miles I’ve promised to canvass in Lake Forest, you will notice that there is a green garbage can with its lid strapped down, lying sideways inside the bed of my truck.  AFTER I have talked to the property owner for permission to post a campaign sign on a particular property, I pick up any litter while I’m busy on that lot. In fact, at the corner lot beside the east entrance to Lake Forest just past the overhead power lines, I pulled the weeds obscuring that “for sale by owner” sign, used my own permanent marker to darken the fading telephone number on his sign, and picked up all the litter on his lawn before I called him back to thank him for allowing me to put the sign in his yard. This morning I replaced the campaign sign that was stolen from there.

So far $45 of my own money has disappeared because of theft of these campaign signs. Another of those stolen signs was taken from a widow’s lawn! What kind of a person would steal something out of a widow’s yard?

It is a great country where we can disagree about something as critical as how to fund our school children’s future. None of us will go to jail for our differing opinions.  But in the end, I come to light as a mother who goes the extra mile to gain private property owners’ permission to do what I do. You come to light as the dishonorable, trespassing thief that you are.

Anonymously leave your $5 per sign at the Daphne Police Department in an envelope marked with my name on it, and I will recant that you are a thief in a follow-up letter to the editor.  

Respectfully (albeit) disagreeably yours,

Judy H. Sullivan

Daphne