Defending new home
Reading the Bangor Daily News article about the Feb. 3 Bar Harbor Town Council meeting, we were surprised to see ourselves described as wealthy absentee landlords, dismayed to learn the town might regard us as wanting to make money at the expense of others’ quality of life and shocked to learn the council would regard us as bullies.
Before making a decision to purchase Unit 7 of Stone Haven, we had been vacationing in Bar Harbor for more than 20 years. In many ways we have thought of it as our second home.
When our beloved vacation cottage (Sunset Point) came up for sale, we had to think long and hard. We are not wealthy, which was one reason we chose to rent the cottage. Purchasing it was not an obligation we could take on lightly. However, we agreed that our attachment to this land was so strong that we wanted to keep it in our family.
Our financial reality was such that we would need to continue to use our cottage as a vacation rental for another five or so years. At that point we could consider spending more time at Sunset Point or building a larger home on the site.
Since our purchase, we have come to love our cabin and the land around it even more. We have made many improvements, as people who own as opposed to renting often do.
We felt we had no choice but to divert more of our savings to defending our right to use our home as we saw fit, as every homeowner should have a right to do.
Joe and Terri Nowinski
Tolland, Conn.
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Restore George
We are approaching the Presidents Day holiday. As many readers will recall, we used to celebrate Washington’s birthday in February, which gave teachers an ideal occasion to teach about the greatest of our nation’s Founding Fathers. Schoolchildren made cutouts of hatchets and cherry trees and other symbols of George Washington’s life and taped them to schoolhouse windows.
We all knew the story of Washington as the commanding general in the Revolutionary War, as our country’s first president and as a great statesman. He was “first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.”
Some time ago, Washington’s birthday was switched to Presidents Day to include the memory of Abraham Lincoln, who was born Feb. 12. By changing the name of that holiday, we have effectively removed Washington from a position of honor. Hardly anyone speaks of Washington or Lincoln on Presidents Day.
You might think we were honoring Millard Fillmore, Grover Cleveland or Herbert Hoover. Oddly, it has become an occasion for mattress merchants to hawk their merchandise.
By stripping Washington of his own holiday, we have diminished him in the American psyche, precisely at a time when we need to assimilate our huge numbers of immigrants into our culture by familiarizing them with the great leaders of America’s past. It is almost as if the people pushing Presidents Day are hoping to wipe out our memories of the heroes who created the land of the free and the home of the brave. Shame on us for letting them get away with it.
Rep. Henry Joy
Crystal
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SCHIP prevents crime
Our world would be a better place if we never had to arrest another Maine youth for breaking the law. Unfortunately, we have seen too many Maine young people who end up in our custody. In many cases, if early intervention had been provided, several of the youths would have had viable alternative paths to follow.
It’s always heartening for us to see elected leaders who understand the value of prevention and are willing to make prevention programs a higher priority. Such is the case with the recently enacted expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program championed by our Sen. Olympia Snowe in the Senate Finance Com-mittee and passed by both the House and Senate with the support of Sen. Collins, Rep. Michaud and Rep. Pingree.
The SCHIP expansion will provide needed health insurance coverage, including mental health coverage, to 4 million at-risk kids across our country. Untreated behavioral and mental health problems can be a precursor to late crime and violence. Research shows that youth with untreated mental health needs are more likely to get into trouble in school and our communities and jeopardize public safety. By now covering needed mental health services for at-risk kids in Maine and nationally, SCHIP can help ensure that behavioral and emotional problems and mental illness are identified and treated as early as possible, and thus reduce future crime.
Ron Gastia
Bangor chief of police
Glenn Ross
Penobscot County sheriff
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Build auditorium now
Our current auditorium was built too short to have an official size hockey rink. An oversight!
When Bob Hope appeared there, his opening comment was “are there any more cow barns like this in the area?” That was embarrassing! When Kenny Rogers first appeared with a circular stage and extensive lighting effects — the roof leaked onto the stage. A fan offered him an umbrella and he finished his performance avoid-ing the rain. Very embarrassing!
I mention these items to let City Council members know what we have known for many years, that a new auditorium-civic center is needed.
About 10 years ago, neighborhood meetings were held to inform residents of the plans for a new auditorium-civic center and get their input. The cost was estimated to be $30 million. Two years ago, the subject came up again with a cost of $90 million. Now there’s talk of another delay and buying a new study at a cost of $75,000 and waiting two to three years to begin construction. If the delays continue, the project will soon grow to $250 million or more.
Yes, our country is in troubled times, but I also know that the residents of Bangor and all of eastern Maine are very generous with civic projects. I often refer to Bangor as “The Little City That Could.” Just look around for examples — Children’s Museum, Penobscot Theater, American Folk Festival, Art Festival, Cascade Park, Senior League World Series, etc.
Bangor is a great little city; let’s build a new auditorium-civic center now.
Gerry Turner
Bangor
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Universal health care
England started its National Health Service right after World War II. Those were dire times. These are dire times — 625,000 jobs lost in January and no end in sight.
No job? No health care. People would retire earlier if they knew they had guaranteed health care, freeing up jobs. They would spend money if they didn’t feel their savings could be wiped out by one illness or injury. What better way to stimulate the economy? The time has come for “Medicare for all,” i.e., universal health care.
Doris Plumer
Bar Harbor
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