Last week I was alerted to a neighbor on Maplewood Avenue being hounded again by our local Code Enforcement department. This is a senior citizen, a veteran and long-time Whitehall resident (not the 1st one this has happened to). A gentle man who harms no one, on a fixed income mind you, I was yet again brought to anger at this ongoing harrassment of Whitehall’s citizens by their intrusive government. So much so I fired off an angry letter to the Whitehall News. I think it says it eloquently and sufficiently. It was perhaps the fastest letter I ever wrote, everything just poured out of me. Here is the letter followed by what exactly code enforcement is.
To the Editor,

“There is an older gentleman who can be seen walking his dog ‘Bo’ around the streets of Whitehall. His name is Tom Mentzer, he is 65 years old and lived in Whitehall since the Truman administration. Code enforcement can’t seem to leave him alone and I say it is tantamount to harrassment of a senior citizen by Whitehall’s government.

People constantly pine over a lost Whitehall where homeowners like Tom existed in much larger numbers, as I remember it too. Now, you have administrations bent on the destruction of this part of Whitehall’s character because it doesn’t fit their current personal notions of aesthetic beauty. Tom has a fine older home on Maplewood and is of a certain generation. Old bric-a-brac, beautiful flowers, very country-like. However, this doesn’t fit into the current overseers ideas of acceptable beauty for them regarding his private property. Neighbors seem to say ‘jump’ and code enforcement answers, ‘how high?’

The Whitehall of old was also people who lived in ‘homes’ and not ‘properties’ or ‘investments’. A neighborhood’s character is not made up of investments but people living in homes. This is what has changed and Whitehall is a part of that real problem. It pits neighbor against neighbor, citizens pushing others to be like them instead of tolerance for diversity and true character. Code enforcement opens that Pandora’s Box when it enforces taste and choice on personal, private property, that which is the citizens liberty to control, not the governments or authoritarian busy bodies who don’t understand what freedom and liberty truly is. When it is the government who insist on beauty and taste superseding personal liberty and freedom, it can be called by no other name than tyranny. As a native and long-time Whitehall resident, I find this practice disgusting.”

This is what code enforcement is, certainly here in Whitehall;

Code Enforcement is, in part, used as a weapon against:

• The fearful and timid
• The poor
• Those ignorant of law

This is done to:

• “Make the city look nice”
• exert Authoritarian control
• Chase out ‘undesirables’

It is hostile to:

• Freedom and Liberty…

…which disrespects veterans and dishonors their service and sacrifice.