End The Mudslinging

To the Editor:

This letter is in response to the criticism surrounding Meg Maurer’s presence on the panel regarding horse farming issues. I have known Meg Maurer for 30+ years, and a finer person cannot be found.

Personally, I would want Meg Maurer on any task force in town. She is smart, hard working and open-minded. I disagree that a panel researching this issue should be composed of four or five people who work directly with horses, and one or two people who do not. This is not equal representation. This is a town issue – not just a horse issue.

Meg Maurer finds time and makes sacrifices to attend countless meetings about the future of this town. She does not do this because she dislikes horses (she actually likes them very much). She has lived in Newtown her entire life, and truly cares about the town and its people. She wants to protect all landowners – not just those who own horses.

Meg is a busy mother of five children ages 5 through 14. She does not have the time to respond to derogatory flyers being distributed about her throughout town. I do. Personal attacks via flyers, ads, and the like are never ways to resolve an issue. Tearing down an individual, or course, has the opposite effect. Newtown could use more people like Meg Kennedy Meehan Maurer – and far less mudslinging propaganda.

Sincerely,

Kate Geerer Sclafani

10 Glover Avenue, Newtown                                      August 22, 2001