Women, be aware
I write for all women who put their families before themselves. On three separate occasions, women have come to me and asked how I am doing.
I tell them “fine,” and proceed with the conversation about breast cancer, and how the new digital mammogram spotted mine so early.
In these hard economic times, we forget about ourselves. We look after the children and our spouses first and maybe then ourselves. My recent experience with our health care system encourages me to write this letter.
The month of October is traditionally set aside for breast cancer awareness. But we need to focus more on a daily awareness. With each new day, somewhere another woman is diagnosed with this disease.
Recently, we have heard about cuts in state programs. One program that so far has not been affected is the Maine Breast and Cervical Health Program. I encourage women in the 50-64 age group to call 1-800-350-5180 and see if you qualify. If you have insurance, but a high deductible, you may qualify.
We may live in small towns, but our two local hospitals, Mount Desert Island and Maine Coast Memorial, each have the new digital mammogram machines. These new machines make the pictures so much clearer. Remember, early detection is key. Maine Coast Memorial Hospital has a scholarship program if you do not qualify for the MBCHP. All women who have not had a recent exam with their primary physician, should look into these services.
Julie S. Fernald
Mount Desert
···
Sad at loss of MPBN
I am really disappointed in MPBN. Why can’t antennas be directed to the north of Bangor? Why not do a special fundraising to do just that, and delay the beginning of digital broadcasting until the money is available?
Maine is a rural state. The listeners in rural areas need MPBN most of all. Though I live south of Bangor, I do not have access to cable nor could I afford it if I did. I, too, have trouble receiving the new digital signals.
I am so sad that I can’t get my VCR to work, just as we had such a historical inauguration. Contrary to the info on TV, the change to digital is not easily done, especially if money is limited. Losing any of the networks is not good.
Maggie Wilcox
Unity
···
Time to raise sales tax
The state is on its third round of budget cuts in the last two years, and it is clear that they go to the bone. Blue Hill Hospital is on the verge of bankruptcy; to survive, it may cut out their wonderful, loving obstetrics department, where my two children were born. Dr. Tom Bugbee, my doctor, and chief of medical staff for the hospital, has written eloquently to the local paper about how he has been squeezed, and how he may have to leave the state. (One of the proposed cuts in the budget is a cut in state reimbursement to hospital-based physicians for their MaineCare practice.)
Primary care physicians have it tough all over, but already, in Maine, it is tougher than elsewhere. Dr. Bugbee works long hours now. Besides his primary care practice, he does minor surgery and colonoscopies, and serves as emergency room physician in three local hospitals.
To think that we could make substantial cuts somewhere else without harm is a delusion. The answer is obvious: we need to raise taxes. When the sales tax temporarily went up ½ percent a few years ago, I never noticed. I leave it to the Legislature and the governor to decide what taxes must go up, and how much. To refuse to raise taxes at this juncture strikes me as short-sighted stinginess: Would we really rather ditch good doctors and hospitals, than pay a little more in tax?
Rufus Wanning
Orland
···
On abortion funding
It didn’t take long. Jan. 22, the 36th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade ruling that sanctioned killing the entire next generation of Americans, President Obama has issued an executive order striking down the earlier orders by Presidents Reagan, Bush 41, and Bush 43 that prohibited using American taxpayers’ money to fund organizations that promote and execute abortions in Third World countries. Under President Clinton, this funding mushroomed to many tens of millions of dollars annually. President Obama has boosted this funding to $460 million annually.
President Obama told us during his campaign that he would look at every item of federal spending and remove from the budget all pork-barrel items. A bailout of the abortion industry, when it targets babies in the Third World, is an essential expenditure for President Obama. African babies are particularly targeted by these organizations, especially Planned Parenthood International.
President Bush used taxpayers’ dollars to fight AIDS and malaria in Africa, with much success. He is a hero in Africa as a result. But that’s not “change” Obama believes in. Killing black babies by abortion tops his agenda in Africa.
Terence J. Hughes
Orono
···
Roberts butchered oath
Regarding your political cartoon on the Jan. 22 editorial page, Barack Obama did not “faithfully butcher the oath”! Chief Justice John Roberts was the butcher, and Obama tried to, alternately, repeat and-or correct the words he was given. Shame on the BDN for inaccurately portraying an important element of this inauguration.
Lee Holmes
Sedgwick
···
Professor Obama?
On the Jan. 21 “NBC Nightly News,” anchor Brian Williams referred to President Barack Obama as a “law professor,” apparently relying on President Obama’s reference during the presidential campaign as being a “professor of constitutional law.”
It is my understanding that he was a guest lecturer at a Chicago law school but certainly not a “professor” or even an assistant professor or instructor. It is an arduous task to legitimately become a professor, a position much aspired to and coveted in colleges and universities. It is a title that is bestowed, not assumed.
How about it, academia? Could this false portrayal be deemed, even remotely, accidental?
Does passing oneself off as a professor without paying his dues stir even the least bit of ire in others in the field?
Barry Tyne
Burlington