Clear-Headed Suggestions

To the Editor:

I want to say how grateful I am to Ruby Johnson whose concern for and clear-headed suggestions for our town’s welfare never ceases. I admire tenacity like that. Ever since we bought Fairfield Hills Hospital and its grounds, she has been in there pitching, articulating how she thinks the space should be used. As a former teacher she knows the value of pounding away at the same ideas over and over to make them stick and not get tabled or trashed. Furthermore, she knows what she thinks about something. No fuzzy ideas, but clear solutions to our problems, according to her own lights.

In the Newtown Bee’s Letter Hive (January 6, 2006) she lists 21 problems for our town officials to consider, discuss, decide on, table, or cast aside. Herb Rosenthal and Bob Geckle and others do not have to agree with any of them or initiate positive action. But at least, right there, in black and white, is a well-expressed agenda of items they can take up, each one in turn, and agree or disagree on its merits. Ruby has put a lot of thought into her list, using her sharp, concerned eye and mind to spot what she feels is needed, getting Ken to drive her around to check out a situation, see what might be possible, and then put her solution down in terse, accurate language so it won’t be overlooked.

Keep it up, Ruby. You make us think and keep our eyes open!

Mary Mitchell

12 Budd Drive, Newtown                                         January 9, 2006