Dear editor,

A Vancouver Sun article by Stephen Hume is titled Tiny town runs up huge bill suing a taxpayer who blogs with sarcasm on political decisions.

He refers to that taxpayer as a gadfly.

For your information, this term was first used by Socrates when he was on trial for his life. He pointed out that dissent, like the gadfly, was easy to swat, but the cost to society of silencing individuals who were irritating could be very high.

鈥淚f you kill a man like me, you will injure yourselves more than you will injure me,鈥� because his role was that of a gadfly 鈥渢o sting people and whip them into a fury, all in the service of truth.鈥�

Well, I am one of many taxpayers here in Union Bay who feels stung and I am angry! One turns to the media to shed light on such matters, not to aid in creating last-minute red herrings.

June Haner,

Union Bay