Distressing column
Sarah Smiley’s column, “Elections distressing to military families” (BDN, Nov. 10), proclaims that Obama’s victory on Nov. 4 is distressing to military families. She says that the important role of a president as commander in chief requires a president who has lived the military life.
McCain suffered terribly as a prisoner of war and should be honored for that endurance. However, few of the many people who have suffered terribly are capable of leading this country as president. On the other hand, many military leaders and families of this country endorsed Barak Obama for president. Perhaps the most famous is Gen. Colin Powell, who has intimate experience in combat and in the highest levels of government. Gen. Powell strongly endorsed Obama for president.
How can she cite the Swift Boat lies about John Kerry as grounds for denying Kerry’s suitability as president and fail to mention George W. Bush’s clear avoidance of combat service? It was Kerry who actually served honorably in combat while Bush used his family connections to stay home. The president who led us to victory in World War II, Franklin D. Roosevelt, did not serve in the military. There are many examples from history that refute the core of Smiley’s argument.
Today, I am filled with hope that Obama will bring our wars of aggression to an end and take care of our veterans, especially those who have been wounded physically and psychically. We can build a more peaceful world as we defend ourselves against the aggression of others.
Martha Dickinson
Ellsworth
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Visual pollution
Regarding Douglas Kazdoy’s Nov. 7 letter to the editor which suggested political signs were “visual pollution”: I concur that such signage is completely out of hand. To say that it is redundant understates the problem. Can anyone seriously believe that placing repetitive signage every 10 or 12 feet apart actually does any good? In some areas they become a traffic hazard.
For those who agree there is political signage overkill, get on your elected officials to enact ordinances that control the problem. I would guess that if this issue were left to the voters to decide, political signage would be a thing of the past. A great place to start would be with the State Department of Transportation – no signs in the right of way, period!
Maine is a beautiful place and a great place to live. One is led to wonder whether or not those we elect to represent us really give a hoot what it looks like. This last comment will no doubt lead to the reply that “it is only for a week two times a year,” but that is two weeks too much from this point of view.
Russ Irwin
Hampden
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Obama’s ‘to do’ list
The first priority of the new Obama administration will be to avoid an impending depression. However, other steps should be taken promptly to repair America’s tattered image throughout the world, promote peace and save taxpayer dollars.
The new president should categorically renounce and forbid all forms of torture, including water boarding, by all agencies of the U.S. government, and close the Guantanamo prison camp, saving $100 million in annual operating costs.
He should give the costly, gargantuan U.S. embassy campus in Baghdad to Iraq for use as a public university, and move to a normal-size facility.
President Obama should hold talks with Iran (diplomacy is for enemies, it’s not needed with friends); announce that aid to Israel, presently the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid, will cease if Israel does not promptly obey United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 by withdrawing from the occupied territories; and withdraw from the unproductive war in Afghanistan. Last month the British commander there said it cannot be won.
He should also abandon plans for stationing missiles in Poland and Czechoslovakia. These plans revive the Cold War, are opposed by the people of these countries, and exacerbate already fragile relations with nuclear-armed Russia.
Gene Clifford
Southwest Harbor
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Shop and drop?
Recently I was waiting in my vehicle for my wife to return from a shopping venture inside a Brewer box store. While waiting I noticed the occupants of two New Brunswick cars having conversation regarding purchases of the day. It was apparent that the purchases were to be “defrocked” of sales slips prior to the start of the return trip either to a local motel or to the beginning of the exodus to the border.
With the conversations being wrapped up, the driver of one of the vehicles decided that it wasn’t necessary to keep the wrappings, so he immediately threw some of the cardboard refuse on the ground for the shopping center to take care of at a later date. This is not the first time I have seen this type of behavior from these people. When living in Madawaska it was normal behavior to be seen after making purchases at local stores.
Why should local taxes be spent to clean up after people who refuse to clean up after themselves? Maybe the local police department should check out the “dirtying” of our shopping centers by this type of shopper.
Kenneth Parker
Holden
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Cut top state earners
I read with some interest the BDN’s recent article describing state government’s plan to cut expenses. While efforts to curb expenses are appreciated by all of us who pay taxes, I am concerned about the tack the proposed cuts appear to be taking. Perhaps there are too many employees, but as I understand it, our governor also has a profusion of advisers earning six-figure incomes.
It would seem to me that this late in the game, the administration should be able to get along with fewer advisers in favor of keeping experienced employees on the job, our courts open and operating, all state police on the road, and our game wardens on the job. How about it, governor?
Walter Simmons
Lincolnville
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Budget cuts gut services
Dean Crocker, the state’s ombudsman for children’s service wrote in an OpEd column (“A better, smarter way to deliver children’s services,” BDN, Nov. 8-9): “In many cases better care can be less expensive care.” Mr. Crocker then goes on to cite evidence-based practice to back up the state’s decision to enact draconian cuts to children’s mental health.
These cuts have gutted children’s services, not improved them. The Baldacci administration has balanced the budget on the backs of the weakest, most vulnerable of Maine’s people, damaging a generation of children, destroying several agencies, and losing many good paying jobs.
Jim Alciere
East Machias