I wish that I had gone up to the North Windham business district last Sunday but I was kind of burned out as we had new windows, increased insulation and new siding done to our house last week. Normally we try to travel somewhere in order to give the contractor free reign of the house without us interfering with his work but that didn’t work out this time. As luck would have it, I found out that there was a bunch of protesters in North Windham last Sunday that were protesting against so-called puppy mills. I could only wish that they were protesting against wind turbines instead.

Mind you, I feel the ability of Americans to protest against whatever they feel is wrong is a God-given right under the Constitution of the United States. I protested against the Town of Windham instituting the personal property tax and somehow won that fight as many others joined with me in. I have protested against AARP holding a sign that labeled that organization “Americans Against Retired People” because of their stance against lowering taxes including those that take money away from seniors.

Without a doubt the biggest statement this group of protesters was trying to make was that every puppy in the store that they were protesting against came from one of those puppy mills where dogs live and are bred their entire lives. Even I would not engage in purchasing a puppy from a place like that. My wife and I have had three dogs throughout our marriage. One was a stray that wandered into our house when I was stationed down south. There was no requirement for a dog license, no animal control officer in town and no way for us to rid ourselves of the dog unless I wanted to shoot it or take it somewhere else and drop it off to become another person’s problem. In the end, it became a loved member of our family. The other two dogs were adult dachshunds that we adopted.

We adopted those two dachshunds because we did not want to go through the motions of raising a puppy into a trained adult dog. That was our choice but it is understandable that parents with a young child or children might want to have a puppy grow up and mature. I personally have no problem if that puppy comes from a friend, someone else whose dog had a puppy, or a business that sells puppies as long as those puppies don’t come from puppy mills.

Before I submitted this column I asked several friends and acquaintances what they thought about the demonstrators in North Windham and their answers were all pretty much the same. It’s something that I do for just about every column because people are kind enough to give me input and a surprising amount of comments and suggestions to put in a column or create a new column. It was unanimous that the demonstrators were a nuisance and should leave the business alone so it can produce a living for the employees and owner alike. The other popular comment was that it was time for them to get life of their own, which I agree with.

The most surprising comment came when we discussed the right of free speech that Americans enjoy while in other places in the world residents have little or no freedom whatsoever. Everyone fully acknowledged the rights of the demonstrators to do what they are doing but wondered what happened to the rights of the store owners that they are demonstrating against.

Portland faced that predicament when the Occupy Portland movement began. Portland is also facing the same problem with the homeless panhandling and the anti-abortion protestors. In true American fashion many of the decisions will be done in court where the outcome of laws and legislation seem to be decided today instead of by our elected representatives or even by the people.

Lane Hiltunen of Windham will soon be working to create a website if he doesn’t overload the chips in his brain first.