To The Editor:

I want to take this final opportunity to endorse Chris Lyddy for reelection as our state representative for the 106th District. I want to thank him and elaborate on just one more of the many reasons why he deserves our support.

For many years, there has been a gentlemen’s agreement between the Democrats and Republicans in Newtown regarding lawn signs. The dictionary defines gentlemen’s agreement as, “An agreement that, although unenforceable at law, is binding as a matter of personal honor.”

This agreement has obviously disintegrated by the actions of groups on both sides of the aisle and there is no getting it back. Newtown has joined the ranks of Derby, Bethel, and North Haven, giving up our quaint, rustic, and scenic charm.

Martin Luther King, Jr, said, “A person who has personal honor has conscientiously determined the standards by which he will live and proceeds to carry them out, without fail, regardless of difficulty, and in the face of opposition, and it is not enough to have standards. In order to have personal honor, one lives, acts upon, and exercises those principals.”

I have lived in Newtown for over 20 years and have been involved in local politics for many of those years. There were many reasons for this agreement in Newtown, but the two main reasons were that the limited amount of money available for campaigns is better spent on flyers, handouts, or advertisements that provide information concerning candidates and their positions. The main reason though, is that these signs are obnoxious, ugly, and hideous, especially once it escalates to the point where neighbors are competing to see who can fit more on their lawns.

Chris Lyddy is living by the agreement as a matter of personal honor and I thank him for that.

It was always nice over the years to pull back into Newtown at the end of the day and return to the scenic charm without all of the lawn litter. It will get worse every campaign season from now on, now that the majority of the gentlemen on both sides of the agreement have either gone away of simply given up their personal honor.

So, again, I thank Chris Lyddy for remaining a gentleman, retaining his personal honor, and for his courage to stand his ground regarding this issue.

Please join me in supporting Chris for reelection as our state representative for the 106th District. He is a gentleman and a man of honor. He not only cares about Newtown, he cares what Newtown looks like too. Remember that in years to come when we have campaign signs hanging on the flagpole.

Joe Hemingway

10 Overlook Knoll, Sandy Hook October 25, 2010