Display horrifying
I would like to draw our community’s attention to the horrifying display atop Dave’s Romantic Supermart Movie Center in Bangor. Clenched in the jaws of a T-Rex is a female mannequin’s bloodied leg. Her brunette head, also covered in blood, hangs from his claws and her dismembered body lies mangled below his body.
Violence against women is not sexy, humorous, or appropriate, even when cloaked in the bizarre fantasy of a dinosaur devouring its prey. It isn’t clear to me whether this atrocity is merely Halloween decor or a glorification of gender-based violence to attract customers. Either way, I suspect the designer also lacks such clarity. While I respect Dave’s constitutionally protected freedom of expression, I cannot condone such a harmful portrayal of violence and expect that many others in our community would agree.
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, a time to examine our culture’s role in the epidemic of abuse against women and to set good examples for our children, both male and female. Perhaps Dave’s should have considered this when it put a bloodied female mannequin on display for all to see.
Andrea L. Irwin
Brewer
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Not a cross word
My husband and I want to thank the BDN for returning to the crossword puzzles of Wayne Robert Williams. His puzzles are more challenging and interesting than the ones that had replaced his. We very much enjoy working on Mr. Williams’ puzzles together.
Karen Wardwell
Bucksport
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Backs Snowe’s work
It is with dismay that we again find pundits trying to put their spin on health care with partisan information and leaving out the facts as they relate to Sen. Olympia Snowe’s position on the matter.
Sen. Snowe has valiantly tried to bridge the gap between conservatives and liberals from both parties, to come to a workable solution to the malaise in this country’s health care system.
Sen. Snowe offered an amendment to have the costs of the new health program determined before a final Senate vote on health care, including a reasonable amount of time to review the bill before any vote.
Sen. Snowe’s vision was very clear as she offered to have a trigger mechanism for a public option included if the health care industry would not bring reduced costs to U.S. citizens.
I am very proud of Sen. Snowe’s efforts to bring compromise into the process. She was driven by her Maine values to have a responsible, financially accountable and affordable bill for her constituents. This country and our grandchildren can ill-afford the spending policies of the current and past presidential administrations.
To act irresponsibly in new federal spending is not an option. We must seek and support those who represent Maine responsibly at all levels of government. Sen. Snowe has demonstrated her leadership and convictions extremely well.
Don Tardie
Ashland
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Clinton is to blame
A recent letter to the editor arguing for socialized health care pointed out the rise in insurance profits since the advent of HMOs. The letter writer seems unaware, however, that HMOs were a result of the Clinton administration’s move to socialize medicine. In effect, he is arguing that by doing more of what has caused our problems we will solve our problems.
That just doesn’t make sense.
We do need reform in health care but socialized medicine is not it. A 1,400-page bill is not needed. Some simple changes to the tax code and an opening up of insurance competition across state borders would solve much of it. Would you like to the see the compassion of the IRS, and the efficiency of the DMV brought to your health care? I would not.
Travis Bogan
Winterport
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Next curriculum
To answer the Oct. 3 BDN front page headline, “Will Maine Schools Ever Teach Gay Marriage?”: My guess is that Maine schools will do so just like they taught interracial marriage, abortion and sodomy after bans on each of them were eliminated.
Duane Hanselman
Holden
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Bad resolution
After hearing about the letter carrier and pepper spray incident and reading the recent article about how no charges were made and neither were any apologies, I was shocked.
To me, the thought that someone could fear for their safety when being barked at by an 8-month-old Chihuahua suggests some instability. It’s ridiculous. She could have said something to the owner, who according to the article was right there, or taken some reasonable measure rather than continuously spraying a puppy and then an innocent little girl.
If the postal service is trying to protect its reputation, it isn’t doing a good job at all. Making the victims go to the post office to pick up mail every day is nuts. The letter carrier should not only apologize to the Wintles, but should be paying for medical expenses for both the puppy and the girl related to the attack.
I fear my safety and that of my dogs if letter carriers are going around pepper-spraying innocent creatures.
Ruth Mares
Orono
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Nine questions
Time to play nine questions; I am sure there are 11 more, but in the end does it really matter? Besides, they only allow 250 words. The questions are something to think about amidst all the discussion relative to changing our country, presumably for the better.
1. What generation reaped the rewards of a post-World War II economy and had the best chance for a college education of any generation past or present?
2. What generation said not to trust anyone over 30?
3. What generation decided it was better to tune in, turn on and drop out?
4. What generation promoted a counterculture, free-love, the drug culture and communes, where “do whatever feels good” replaced responsibility?
5. What generation gave us disco and formed the base for the “Me Generation” (yuppies) for the 1980s?
6. What generation makes up the majority of the public work force jobs, our teachers among them?
7. What generation has individual retirement savings equal to less than one year’s salary?
8. What generation makes up the majority of our representatives and senators?
9. What generation is pushing for more government to supplement its ineptness during prime working years and will bankrupt Social Security in the next five years?
If you answered the baby boomer generation to all of the above, you are correct. As the election of 2010 approaches maybe we should be thinking why trust anyone between the ages of 49 and 65. It may not be realistic, but it is sadly ironic.
Bub Saunders
Winterport