Can’t drive after 75
The BDN’s coverage of the problem of elderly drivers described the problem well, but did not offer any solutions. Having had to deal with the issue in my own family, I have given it much thought and have arrived at what I consider a reasonable suggestion.
We have set a legal age to begin driving; we should set a legal age to end driving. Just as 16 has been determined to be a reasonable age to permit persons to drive, some age, based on statistical averages, should be the end of permitted driving. Yes, it would be somewhat arbitrary and would not be appropriate for everyone to have to give up the keys after, say 75, but in the same way, there are plenty of 13-year-olds who could drive a car competently.
Of course, it would raise all sorts of problems especially in rural areas, but almost all of these problems could be taken care of by improvements in public transportation, and there are plenty of other reasons for developing and improving public transportation. This would add incentive and urgency.
If it were just a fact of life that you no longer drive after your 75th birthday, there would be none of the emotional struggles between children and parents over when to stop. Instead everyone simply would prepare for it and have alternatives in place — like before you were 16 — remember?
Carl A. Chase
Brooksville
···
Saving is gone
I read in the BDN that the digital TV converter box program is in need of more funding. What has this country come to — another unneeded bailout? I couldn’t believe it when I read originally that the government was going to subsidize converter boxes at the cost of $1.34 billion so people could watch television.
It is bad enough that we have to borrow money from countries such as China to bail out or loan to our automotive industry, banks, housing and who knows what else in the coming months. When will we go back to the days of, “If we don’t have the money for a converter we don’t get one”? While we are at it, if we don’t have the money for a house, car or anything else, why not wait and save for it, then buy it?
Is it so wrong to think that if we can’t afford it we shouldn’t buy it? I preached this for 19 years to my employees and we became very successful. This is how I have raised my son, and I am proud that so far in his 21 years he is following my and his mother’s advice.
We need to toughen up as a nation, make tough choices, learn to say “no more easy road” or we will end up inevitably in a national bankruptcy. Then what do we become — the USA, a division of China?
Fred Gagne
Old Town
···
Final answer: Maine
I enjoyed Sarah Smiley’s column, “Maine? Florida? Both?” (BDN, Jan. 5). I can relate to it on many levels. I grew up in a military family and we moved regularly and we had to adjust to new places, new climates and new customs. My father was from Lincolnville and we vacationed there visiting my grandparents at Ducktrap. What wonderful times those were.
Most of my adult life was spent living and working in Hawaii with family vacations to Ducktrap mostly in summer or fall. Hawaii is pretty much a beach community but with hardly any bad hurricanes — we had two in the 35 years we lived there. Like Florida, Hawaii has a benign climate with “subtle” seasons, all kinds of bugs, roaches, mosquitoes and my all time unfavorite, flying termites. It’s a wonderful place to visit, but after a while it becomes cloying.
We moved to Belfast in 2003 when we retired and I can honestly say we have no interest in going back to live in hot, insect-infested places ever again. Give me four honest seasons (or five, if you count mud) and a couple weeks of black flies anytime.
I would bet that if Sarah Smiley stays here in Maine for a couple more years it will be very difficult for her to go back to live in the tropics.
It will be “been there, done that,” just as it has been for us.
John Nickerson
Belfast