Rebuttal and war over
To the editor:
Wow! Boy! Edwina Foster really put me in my place!Her blockbuster letter in last week’s Observer asserts that I was “told to stand down” (by her) and at the end warns that she “doesn’t want to have to tell me again to button up” about “this disparagement” (huh?) regarding Chapel Street.
I am quaking in my flip-flops.
She states “No one wants to hear from him and his very, very bias (sic) opinions.”
Now that hurts. First of all, how does she know that?Did she poll the entire readership? I know for a fact that it isn’t true because I have two friends who regularly express admiration for my writing. (In the interest of fairness, I admit that the admiration usually follows my having plied them with alcohol.)
Then she says “If he wants to write so much, let him try writing a book.”Here, her research is simply lacking. That fact is, I’ve already tried writing a book twice. The result was two works that, in the world of oboe players at least, are considered quite significant. A copy of my “Essays for Oboists” is available in the Beach Library.There’s some interesting stuff in it for anyone who cares about becoming a professional musician. The other one is strictly a how-to manual on making oboe reeds, and nobody besides oboes players cares about that.
She is correct in suggesting that the Tezak Family Trust has filed an appeal of Judge Gerald’s ruling that the Town owns the end of Chapel Street and the beach access. What this appeal means is that the town will have to spend even more money in defending the case.
She doesn’t state that she has a vested interest in the appeal in that, should the verdict be reversed, she could well benefit since she owns the property across Chapel Street from the “disputed strip.”
I don’t know where she got the idea that I’ve tried to “subvert a citizen’s right to seek justice from city hall.” I spent three years in uniform defending hers and the Tezak family’s right to be as foolish with their statements and resources as they choose.
But that military service also included defending my right to comment on it. As for “creating disharmony in the community,” I remind her that I’m not the one who sued the town and that’s what has created the disharmony.
Aside from these few minor lapses, her letter was a prodigious paragon of prose.
Jay Light
Fort Myers Beach