To the editor:

Let me differ with Scott Boyd’s letter defending town candidate Michael DiPaola’s obscene and tasteless public tantrum displayed in large colorful signs along East Main Road (“While unsightly, DiPaola’s sign display injures no one,” Aug. 22, The Portsmouth Times).

To be clear: One’s right to express opinions, even if unpopular or repugnant, is not the issue. Nor is any citizen constrained from voicing publicly a gripe against their town government. But how you tell can reveal more than what you tell.

Voters can and do draw working conclusions about another citizen — in this case a candidate — from the words he chooses. Tendency to gutter language suggests where the mind that formed it dwells.

If nothing else counts, courtesy ought to. Yet Mr. DiPaola’s rantings show scant regard for parents of young children who must either seek a detour or endure the inevitable, “Mommy, what does ‘F.U.’ mean?”

I am not a Portsmouth voter, but I’m counting on those who are to teach this fellow what his mother failed to.

Ron Marsh

Tiverton