Gays are among us
The fact is there is a percentage of our population who are gay. Just as there are folks who are lefties, or who have blue, brown or hazel eyes.
They are here. They live among us — every day.
They are your daughters and sons, your grandsons and granddaughters, nieces, nephews and cousins. They are your friends, neighbors and colleagues. They teach and coach your children, fight your fires and patrol your streets. They preach your sermons, invest your hard-earned dollars, build your homes and take your pulse. They volunteer at your food pantry, bake sale and national park.
They are Americans, endowed with certain unalienable rights. Please grant them the full benefit of their citizenship and vote No on 1 Nov. 3.
Susan Murphy
Bar Harbor
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Coed to extreme
Everyone knows I’m a prude, because I won’t drop my panties and plunge into Moosehead Lake buck naked for a free lunch, although I heartily encourage and would willingly assist everyone else to carry on. I have limits and all the hoo-haa over regulations and sexual etiquette in college dorms (“Colleges heed needs of ‘sexiled’ students,” BDN, Oct. 17-18) has pushed me to the edge, where I take up less space.
Thankfully, my misspent college years were before the era of coed dorms or coed floors and coed rooms were only a figment of a fraternity boy’s imagination. Housing a bunch of hormone-rich, common-sense deprived 18- to 20-year-olds in close quarters while expecting civil behavior is inane.
College administrations should not have to waste time policing sexual behavior simply because parents have failed to instill in their kids self-respect, dignity and integrity. Throw all the rotten tomatoes at me that you wish: there are many positives about women’s dorms and men’s dorms. The twain shall meet but in a more appropriate manner and administrators will have time to focus on the collegiate things they are expected to focus on.
Penny Lehman
Hampden
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Guidance questioned
I read with interest and deep concern the article, “Educators split on Question 1” (BDN, Oct. 15), which addressed the competing views regarding same-sex marriage of two Nokomis Regional High School educators who have been included in television commercials for Question 1 on the Nov. 3 ballot.
My concern is that the article failed to address more specifically a suggested disturbing situation highlighted in the debate over the potential impact of Question 1 on the education curriculum for Maine students.
Nokomis guidance counselor, Donald Mendell, spoke for “Yes on 1” in the TV commercials. Clearly, he has every right to express his opinion of same-sex marriage. However, what I find disturbing is that Mr. Mendell’s professional role as guidance counselor raises serious questions on how he is, and will be, able to interact with his gay students in an impartial — and effective — manner.
Mr. Mendell said in his 36 years of counseling he “has seen the stress that having homosexual parents can cause for adolescents.” I suspect he has also witnessed the stress that having heterosexual parents or having a single parent can cause for many adolescents.
I worry about those adolescents at Nokomis, and those at every other middle and high school in Maine who are struggling with their own questions and fears related to their sexual orientation. I hope they feel comfortable and confident to approach a guidance counselor within their school. Please vote no on Question 1.
Bill Davis
Brewer
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Wolf in sheep’s clothing
I suspected it all along; Olympia Snowe is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
After she announced her intended vote on health care, she said “when history calls, history calls.” What the senator thought was history calling was really her constituents in Maine calling her office urging her to vote no. Guess we know our calls were to no avail. I have to wonder if she got any calls in favor of her voting yes?
I will be trying to get our supposedly Republican senators voted out when their terms are up, and that goes for any incumbent in the House as well. Right now, I think everyone holding an office is looking for two things — to keep their seats forever and be another Obama lemming.
Linda Batey
Garland
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Proud of Snowe
I want to thank Sen. Snowe for her thoughtful and wise vote in favor of health care reform. It is my sincere hope that she will continue to work on the issue of the “public option” for inclusion in the final bill.
As a registered nurse, I have seen all too often the devastation for patients and their families of the those dreaded words “self-pay.”
I’m so proud Olympia Snowe is my senator.
Linda Martin
Bar Harbor
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Do the math
On Nov. 3, I am voting yes on Question 6, the transportation bond, because it doesn’t take long to do the math.
Our economy and our roads are both losing ground. Maine’s unemployment rate was at 8.6 percent in August and is likely to go up now that summer is over and jobs have peaked for the year. We are in the middle of the biggest economic downturn since the Great Depression.
The $71.25 million bond will bring $148 million in matching funds.
That total investment of $219 million will bring 4,600 jobs, that’s based on federal estimates, not mine, to the hard working families of our state.
As far as road conditions are concerned, there is no need to preach. We all see the poor conditions every day. I urge readers to vote yes on Question 6, because the matching funds are smart money and our economy and families deserve the jobs.
Rodney P. Lane
Bangor
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Unfair excise tax
I am not opposed to a fair excise tax. The problem with the current tax is that they are charging on money not spent.
For example, last year I sized down the vehicle I was driving for something more economical. I purchased a vehicle for $10,000 less than the sticker price. It was a great deal, I thought, until I had to register it. I had to bring in the sticker from the window and I paid taxes on the total sticker price not on the purchase price. This resulted in approximately an extra $200 of taxes on money that was never spent.
I do want to pay my share, but not taxes on money not spent.
Paula Logan
Bangor
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Election notice
The Bangor Daily News will stop accepting election-related letters and commentary on Wednesday, Oct. 28. The newspaper will continue to publish such letters and commentary after that date, ending with the Saturday-Sunday, Oct. 31-Nov. 1 issue. Not all submissions can be published.