To the editor:

Saranac Lake resident John Edelberg so disliked the multilingual “Hate Has No Home Here” sign he saw on private property overlooking Moody Pond that he wrote to this newspaper about it (“A militant sign,” Aug. 5). As one of several homeowners who display such signs at our residences around the pond, I’m responding on behalf of my neighbors as well as my household.

In his letter, Mr. Edelberg claimed that posting such a “militant” sign must mean that the owners do not favor border security. That is both incorrect and irrelevant to our main concern. We posted our sign two years ago to try to help people of diverse backgrounds feel more welcome in this town following several ugly racist and xeonphobic incidents in the region. It remains on our lawn because the need remains. He also concluded that we must be immature, vain, impudent and so forth for posting it. We are mystified how this sign could merit such a response.

We want people to feel welcome in Saranac Lake regardless of their nationality, ethnic background, sexual orientation or religion. Keeping the sign on our lawn is one of our ways of saying that.

In “Walden,” Henry David Thoreau wrote that a lake is “Earth’s eye, looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.” Perhaps on his next visit to our neighborhood Mr. Edelberg should simply turn his back to the welcoming signs that offend him so much and look out over the placid mirror of Moody Pond instead, the better to contemplate his own nature rather than ours.

J. Curt Stager

Saranac Lake