To the Editor:

When I was little, my great aunt used to keep chickens.  They seemed to be gentle and friendly and I always enjoyed feeding them for her.

One day, when she sent me out with food, I discovered that one of the chickens had been hurt and was bleeding from an open wound.  As I watched, the other chickens all gathered around the wounded one and started pecking at it.  They kept after it until they killed it.

I was appalled but my aunt explained to me that it was fairly normal animal behavior.  She didn’t say it was normal human behavior but that incident was the first thing that came to my mind when I read your May 21 article titled “Willsey serves his time and moves to the Hill.”

Prejudice is prejudice whether it is blacks, gays, immigrants, or someone you think is below your social standing that you don’t want living in your neighborhood.  So let’s call it by what it is.

I use Craven Road frequently and Mr. [Kevin] Willsey’s property isn’t an eyesore that is going to bring property values down.   I’m willing to bet that, if I went to the town board meeting and complained about a messy neighbor, he would not get a visit from a reporter, a full page article in The Enterprise, a visit from the assistant building inspector, or the attention of the town attorney — but then I’m not a former town judge or chair of the planning board.  

I don’t personally know Mr. Willsey or either of the neighbors who were quoted in the article. As a 26-year resident and longtime Enterprise reader, I followed his story in the paper but this treatment of him is obscene.

I would be sympathetic if a murderer, a rapist, or a child molester moved into your neighborhood but this man wasn’t convicted of a violent crime.  It sounded to me like he was a young man who tried unsuccessfully to start a business and in doing so made some serious and illegal mistakes.

He paid for those mistakes with time in jail.  This is America.  Isn’t he entitled to a chance to start over and to live wherever he chooses?

If you can’t be helpful, friendly or “neighborly,” can’t you at least take care of your own property and give him his right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?

K. Knapp

Knox