Trash down chimney?
I walk in downtown Bangor about five mornings a week. I walked the morning of Sunday, Dec. 7, and discovered an unpleasant sight. It appears that during the parade and tree lighting, a lot of coffee and hot chocolate was consumed. The whole street and sidewalk were littered with hundreds of paper and plastic cups and paper food containers. Some of these also were in the Kenduskeag Stream on the way to Penobscot Bay. Whales don’t eat paper!
Parents have taught their children the wrong lesson. It shouldn’t be much of a burden to take your trash home or to a proper receptacle. I hope Santa doesn’t fill your chimney with trash. The sponsors of the event should think twice about doing it again next year.
Larry Grante
Carmel
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Cut taxes, regulations
Recently, Husson University hosted a public panel focusing on how international trade agreements affect Maine business and labor. The Bangor Daily News reported that the popular demand to the Legislature is for it to figure out a way to somehow influence how Maine does business on an international level.
Maine will not solve its recession problems by blocking trade with foreign countries. In fact, isolating our state economy from world markets will only make the problem worse.
The Tax Foundation’s 2009 State Business Tax Climate Index lists Maine as the 11th worst state in the union for businesses to operate. This is based on an assessment of Maine’s corporate tax rates, regulation levels and other factors as compared to other states. And therein lies the problem.
Cutting taxes and easing regulation is the answer to so many of the needless economic difficulties that this state continues to experience. And along this path Maine will also find solutions to the burden of the welfare state and the number of Mainers without health insurance.
Recent history proves that this road to economic prosperity works when applied. The only naysayers are those who support continued government involvement and expansion, and that kind of government these last eight years has not (and will not) put Maine on the road to recovery.
Joshua J. Radke
Bangor
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DePoy deserves honor
The Disability and Aging Services Helpline network housed at Eastern Area Agency on Aging would like to applaud the work of Dr. Elizabeth DePoy of the University of Maine Center of Community Inclusion and Disability Studies and her recent award through the American Public Health Association.
Her leadership and innovation in working on development of new programs and ways to work with community members is greatly valued and appreciated.
Dr. DePoy is a wonderful asset to the aging and disability community in our region and we honor this shining star!
Chevelle Marshall,
Chairperson of DASH coalition
University of Maine Center on Aging RSVP
Bangor
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Ill-fated decision
A Dec. 8 BDN headline reported that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice “Regrets bad intelligence on Iraq but defends the war.”
“I would give anything to be able to go back and to know exactly what we were going to find when we got there. But that isn’t the way that these things work,” Rice said, “and I still believe that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein is going to turn out to be a great strategic achievement.”
Bob Woodward’s book, “Plan of Attack,” states: “Sunday, Sept. 16, 2001. Bush told Rice that the first target of the war on terrorism was going to be Afghanistan. ‘We won’t do Iraq now,’ the president said, ‘we’re putting Iraq off, but eventually we’ll have to return to that question.’”
On Sept. 17, the president signed the order that Afghanistan was the first priority. Then, “Rumsfeld was directed to continue working on Iraq war plans.” Thus, it is obvious that the United States would attack Iraq eventually.
Evidently, Rice’s statement that the overthrow of Hussein was “a great strategic achievement” demonstrates her thinking on this horrendous war. If she believes the death of over 4,000 American soldiers and the wounding of over 30,000, and the killing of some 100,000 Iraqis is compensation for killing Saddam Hussein, she and President Bush were wrong.
More than 2 million Iraqis have fled and settled in Syria and Jordan. Iraqi homes, buildings, roads, power lines and water supplies are in shambles. It will take trillions of dollars and years of rebuilding to restore Iraq to what it was before this ill-fated decision.
Nat Crowley Sr.
Stockton Springs
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At the flip of a switch
I was really surprised when reading Tom Gocze’s column in Saturday’s business section. He said “What a million dollar idea it would be if someone came up with a snow melt system for porch steps.”
When we built our former home in Dover 44 years ago, our Shawnee steps had a built-in electrical system so when there was a chance that we’d have ice all we had to do was flip a switch and it was taken care of. We loved it.
Barbara Herrick
Guilford
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Wind farm concerns
With growing concern, we read the report of radiologist Dr. Michael Nissenbaum’s testimony about adverse health effects of wind farms, which are amplified over bodies of water (BDN, Dec. 21). This is because First Wind is seeking permission from LURC to erect 17 wind turbines within a mile of Upper and Lower Hot Brook Lakes, just west of the Danforth town line which goes down the middle of the lakes.
Wind farms appropriately placed will benefit the companies and the U.S. power grid. However, the 17 proposed wind towers proposed for Owl and Jimmey mountains would not be appropriately placed. Amplification over water of audible and low-frequency “sound” from wind turbines can cause bad health effects such as nausea, hypertension and sleep loss. The waterfront dwellings at the south end and east shore of Upper Hot Brook Lake are within a mile or two of the proposed 400-foot wind turbines. Much too close!
As owners of property on Upper Hot Brook Lake and the steep hillside rising on the east above, we were sent notification of First Wind’s application, but it arrived on the day that comments and requests for a public hearing were due. We have since learned there is extra time for reactions to First Wind’s filing. Reasons for a hearing other than aesthetics must be given. There are no tangible benefits regarding Stetson II, but only health risks and decrease of property values for those most directly affected.
Harrison and Marilyn Roper
Houlton