Madam, - Dr Billy Leonard has worked as a democratically elected representative of Coleraine Council. His fairness in representing the people of his local constituency has been demonstrated by outspoken and courageous criticism of those who would impose their particular iconography on others. Reasonably, he tries to understand why people choose fascism to create ghetto areas and to exercise control over them.
Billy Leonard would wish to rid us of all ghettoes where intimidation exists. As a local politician he would also wish to expand the potential development of each person so that more may feel empowered through increased self-confidence to face change as a challenge rather than feeling threatened by it.
Those who, like myself, admire how Billy Leonard is striving for fairness in society here must hope that whoever shamed themselves by throwing a tin of paint through a bedroom window of his family home and leaving a hoax bomb at the front door will explain this wicked act.
Otherwise the rest of us may conclude that there was no reason for such action apart from blatant ignorance.
It has been reassuring, nevertheless, to hear Gregory Campbell, member of a different political party to Dr Leonard's, condemning in forthright terms what took place at the Leonard home. In so doing he highlighted that the cowardly attack on this family home could be interpreted as a vicious attack on democracy itself.
"Later on the same day as we heard Gregory Campbell's statement, a group of people set about the car of an MLA who had come to Ballymoney to meet local peoplefor critical discussion.
So much for freedom of thought and speech! The vicious kicking of the visitor's car was despicable and was unlikely to help anything.
The people whose names appear on the nearby Ballymoney War Memorial were prepared to risk their lives for freedom and democracy. Surely they would have been ashamed of the denial of the same outside the council offices in Ballymoney last Tuesday afternoon. - Yours, etc.,
JOHN ROBB, Charlotte Street, Ballymoney, Co Antrim.