Editor, Gazette-Journal:

As chair of the Gloucester County Democratic Committee, all day long I’ve been receiving calls from concerned citizens who have seen a racially offensive sign posted on Route 17 at Cedar Lane in Ark. The sign compares the President of the United States to a caged beast and states he’s not an American. The person who posted it has been putting up anti-Obama signs all summer and fall, with varying degrees of coherence. We don’t dispute the resident’s 1st Amendment right to say anything he or she wants to and post it on the lawn. (Frankly, I thought the creative spellings and use of SpongeBob argued for ‘our’ side). However, freedom of speech doesn’t mean you can’t be criticized in public. We think this sign is racially offensive and in the worst possible taste. We wish the resident would take it down.

Last week, the memorial to the only Gloucester resident to win the Congressional Medal of Honor was vandalized and defaced in the Courthouse Circle. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that James Daniel Gardiner was also a black man of national stature. The fact that he’s been dead for a hundred years doesn’t seem to mitigate some people’s hatred. Gloucester is better than this; we should ‘do’ better than this.

Dianne Carter de Mayo

Chair, Gloucester County Democratic

Committee