I must say it’s time to admit I live in a town full of jellyfish, especially with all the political stupidity in local politics.

If I had to rate the Town Council, manager, municipal departments and the new school unit as a whole, on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the best, I would have to say that Windham just set a new world-record low.

I have no problem stating this is going to be, without a doubt, the most controversial and upsetting column to Windham residents I have ever written.

Windham deserves it, because all one has to do is look at the current election season for seats on the Town Council. If you think I am talking nonsense, that’s fine because as a taxpayer you deserve what you are getting. Or, in the case of Windham, what you don’t have is that which even smaller and poorer communities have.

Where’s the transfer station, what happened to bulky waste removal and what do the employees of Public Works do when it’s raining? I know the answer to the last question because I worked for a cemetery department and, when it rained, we went home without pay for the day.

For now, I’m going to get something off my chest. Councilor Liz Wisecup was quoted in this paper as saying that most businesses know enough to stay out of politics because it is risky business. Anyone care to guess why that’s true in Windham?

When I stood up against the implementation of the personal property tax in Windham, I received twice as many calls saying that “they” would get me. Who were “they”? Callers stated the Town Council, the town manager, the school department and the police department would hound me until I left town. My answer was let them try because I am not intimidated easily – and yet I do know of cases where people left for that exact reason.

I personally believe that someone would have to be an idiot not to believe that Councilor Wisecup knew what the result of her phone calls to businesses would result in. She calls herself a conservative and when the three newly elected councilors wanted to cut hundreds of thousands of dollars from the budget, her measly cut of $200 from the Windham Police Department budget proved how conservative she really isn’t.

I respect people who stand behind what they really believe in no matter what it is. I would much rather have an enemy that I know than a friend with no backbone. Therein comes the title of this column, mentioning jellyfish. I would rather slither with snakes than swim with jellyfish.

I have never lived in a town anywhere in the world – and that includes the United States, Europe and Asia – where so many people, including business owners, would rather cower to threats instead of stand up to what they really believe in. Maybe the problem is they don’t believe in anything at this point because of Windham’s history.

I have no problem stating the phone calls Councilor Wisecup made were made for a reason. I fully expect the Windham Town Council to make Forrest Gump look intelligent.

Lane Hiltunen lives in Windham.

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