Have you “Saw” this?

How can a family friendly store like Wal-Mart have posters at its entrances featuring grotesque depictions of the human body? It’s time to take them down, for the public good.

Have you seen the “Saw II” posters at the entrances to Wal-Mart in Windham? Just inside the store, a fairly large poster featuring two mangled, greenish, deadened fingers with disgusting fingernails greets shoppers on their way into and out of the store. To put it bluntly, these posters are gross.

It’s bad enough that a 30-something like me has little choice but to look at the poster (it kind of forces its ugly image as you pass), I just wonder how parents with young kids are handling this poster. If I had a child with me while entering the store, I’d cover his or her eyes for sure. It’s just surprising this poster is at Wal-Mart, supposedly a place that’s safe to bring the family.

And anyone who has seen the previews to the first “Saw” movie knows it’s a prurient and utterly disgusting concept of a movie. Two guys chained to pipes in a forgotten utility room, all the while a pawn in some guy named Jigsaw’s twisted torture game – the game that forces them to hurt themselves or the other person to gain freedom. That’s basically what the movie is about. Who knows how sick “Saw II” is.

Hopefully, it’s time for Wal-Mart to take the poster down and put up the next movie poster. Here’s hoping it’s for Bambi II.

Town manager’s a citizen, too

Town managers have just as much right to develop property as anyone else. But, just the same, town managers – or anyone in government for that matter – should be held to the same high standards as other subdivision applicants.

Standish Town Manager Gordon Billington’s proposed 100-acre subdivision on his Route 35 property is drawing some criticism as of late. Some are questioning whether a public official, who they say is in charge (and in control) of all decision makers, should be allowed to develop their property.

Hello? Is this America? If it still is – and the last time we checked, Standish was still part of this great, freedom-loving country – then there is no reason a law-abiding citizen, despite what his day job may be, can’t do what he wants with his own property. If the Standish manager is a law-abiding citizen, he should be allowed a chance to earn a handsome fee from the sale of his property. That’s America, folks.

But, because he is also a public figure, his project will attract more attention than other projects, obviously. And Billington, no doubt with all the recent attention, is coming to understand this. That’s America, too. We have high expectations of our public figures. But if he dots every I and crosses his Ts, then, by all means, he should be able to do as he wants. No more and no less than anyone else.

Billington also should get no preferential treatment from Standish leaders, who are no doubt friendly with him. If it takes the Planning Board an average of six months to go from preliminary drawings to final approval, then it should take six months for Billington’s plan to go through as well. No more, no less.

But, for freedom’s sake, if we start outlawing town managers and others in public service from having the ability to develop property and make money, then this “culture of corruption,” as everyone’s talking about in Washington D.C. nowadays, is indeed paralyzing our country.

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