Earlier, I thought I would postpone writing this letter until tomorrow, but now I could not sleep because I realize that I would be thinking about it all night, and it is better for me to write now and to try to forget and sleep. I'm also mindful that what I have on my mind will make you uncomfortable and perhaps angry, and that you will reply "enough is enough". I love you.  I ask myself is it better for you that I should tell you my thoughts or that I should keep them to myself. I cannot and will not try to tell you what to do. I will tell you what I think. You do not have to read what I have to say. You surely do not have to reply. 

I admit that the 18 years of controversy in the courts with the Town of Nantucket have left me with a post traumatic distress syndrome. It is necessary to have shared the distress in order to be able to recognize the trauma. No one who has not shared the distress can understand the trauma.  It is because I fear that the Nantucket authorities will do to you what they did to me, that I write to you.

At issue is the series of inspections which you plan to request from the Nantucket Building Department. The securing of the plumbing inspection is, in fact, not your obligation but that of the plumber. The wiring inspector is bound by a code to which he will adhere. It is however possible that he may require the appointment of a licensed electrician to replace Rex Rowley. I cannot predict whom you would find, what the new electrician would require or what other complications the appointment of a new electrician will entail.  I have no intuition as to how the fire department inspector would interpret or whether he would accept the surface wiring, which is not conventional.  I believe that there is at least a 50 percent probability that the Historic District Commission will refuse to comply with the regulations and demand extensive and very expensive, esthetically repugnant rebuilding of the house.  Hypothetically you could at great expense hire lawyers to appeal to the Board of Selectmen, to Nantucket Superior Court, to the Appeals Court, but the likelihood is that you would be so distraught by the process that you you would dump the house on the market and sell it for whatever you could get, and subsequently feel very much overwhelmed and depressed. 

At the same time, the legal obligation for the wiring is Rex Rowley's not yours and not even mine.  It is my obligation, as holder of the building permit to obtain these inspections. If I choose not to ask for inspections but to wait until they are demanded by the authortities, it is because I am at a loss of words to describe the depravity of the administrative and judicial processes of the Commonwealth. The house is now ready for use. All members of the family may make use of it. But to demand that it be inspected prior to use is to ignore the risk that inspection by Nantucket authorities may cause the house to be lost.  Forgive me. Please don't be angry with me. I understand that I may be very wrong. Good night with all my love.