American flag guide
During the summer months, more and more people are showing pride in their nation by flying American flags at their homes. I have noticed more and more flags being displayed, which is a great thing. However, many of them are not being displayed properly.
Many people believe that when they buy a flag at their local hardware or home improvement store, they can just hang the flag out in their yard and that is the end of their responsibility.
Displaying a flag requires you to know and follow a very specific set of guidelines that most people are not aware of or do not care about. For instance, the flag should be either taken down at night or illuminated at all times.
Once the flag is faded, torn, or no longer fit to serve as a symbol of our great country, it should be properly disposed of by burning in a dignified manner. This does not mean you should throw it on your fire pit while roasting marshmallows.
If you need to dispose of a flag and do not know how to do it, you can give the flag to most American Legions or local Boy Scout troops to do it for you.
If you are proud enough to display our nation’s flag at your home, please follow the rules and accept the responsibilities that come with this honor. You should look up on the Internet the proper guidelines to follow for displaying the flag and follow them.
If you cannot display our flag with pride and follow the proper guidelines for doing so, then do not display it at all, because it is an insult to the men and women who have fought for that flag and for you.
Greg Pooler
Carmel
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Backs junk food ban
I am writing in support of the Aug. 2 letter by Robin Buckley, “Junk food ban fan.” She makes so much sense. I would love to spend time working with her and anyone else who agrees banning junk food from the food stamp program needs to happen.
Wanda Passero
Etna
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Keep quarry open
The warnings on the Frankfort Quarry should be taken like the warnings on prescription medications. There are side effects, and these side effects should be considered when using this product.
For more than 40 years I have been taking children in my charge to Frankfort Quarry. Not one of them has suffered a scratch. What they did get was relief from the hot, crowded trailer parks where they lived. The cool waters of that quarry refresh, invigorate and make the world seem far away.
The hike up to that place is difficult and is a “warning” in itself that only healthy folks need apply. Someone cut the cables and dropped the superstructure into the water about 10 years ago. They were obviously attempting to “do good,” but the result was that the easiest and safest way into the water was removed.
It is obvious how the writer of your story “Bucksport woman dies at popular Frankfort quarry” (BDN Aug. 3) feels about this place, but I wonder how many critics have actually used this facility?
Care should be used when swimming on Mount Waldo, as well as driving the Maine Turnpike, consuming alcohol or using your own bathroom (all of which destroy more lives than swimming in quarries). I hope the Frankfort selectmen will once again fight the urge to close and demolish a place where so many people have had enjoyment.
I never lost one of my (more than 100) charges to a swimming accident. I have, however, lost them to methadone overdoses, auto accidents and violent interaction with others.
Harry H. Snyder III
Tamarac Farm
Whiting
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Clever groundhog
The letter published last week which expressed skepticism about groundhogs being able to climb trees amused me and brought back memories. My mother, who lived on a Presque Isle potato farm for many years, had several groundhogs plague her vegetable and flower gardens each season.
I could always depend on her calling me to catch these marauders in a Havahart trap. I would take these animals in my car and let them out on a nearby riverbank. In all my experience with these stressed-out, fleeing and suddenly homeless groundhogs, I never saw one climb a tree.
After my mother had been gone for several years, I had to put the trap to use again. This happened in an urban area (very close to Main Street in Rockland). I started having a groundhog walk up my front walk every day on his way to visit my backyard vegetable garden. For a while I could chase him away, but he eventually became so tame that he would come into my garden and eat from a row near where I was weeding.
This could not go on, so out came my trap and away the groundhog went to a large area of trimmed grass fields with a few trees and available water. I let him out of the trap and he dashed to an isolated tree about 50 feet away. Much to my surprise, he easily climbed up the tree.
So I can confirm with absolute certainty that groundhogs can climb trees!
Leone Knowles
Rockland
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Groundhog escapes
This is in response to Dale J. Gordon’s letter from the weekend edition regarding the ability of a groundhog to climb a tree.
Tree-climbing groundhogs are unusual, I agree, but I watched one move rapidly up a tree a few years ago. Wouldn’t you do whatever is necessary to escape a screeching, hoe wielding wild woman intent on protecting her garden?
Gloria S. Faulkner
Eddington
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Public left in the dark
What are the “true numbers” where wind power is concerned? As a concerned citizen of Maine who has read extensively about the performance statistics of wind power, I feel that the public is being left in the dark on this issue.
Why are the very people who serve us so reluctant to spill the facts on the lack of effectiveness of wind energy? Could it possibly be that they do not want us to know the truth?
There have been reports regarding the poor performance of wind turbines in the news recently. It is very troubling to me to see the way this is downplayed by most of the media, and how wind energy is pushed forward as the cure-all for Maine’s dependence on oil. I don’t get it. How is wind power going to help Maine’s depend-ence on oil?
I recently read a challenge to Angus King and Jonathan Carter to debate the wind power issues in a public forum so that the questions citizens have may be brought to light and answered in a straight forward way.
I happen to know that Jonathan Carter is very willing to debate Angus King publicly on the issues of wind energy. Will Angus King accept the challenge? I think the public has a right to have the honest facts about the effectiveness of wind power. What better way to get them out in the open? How about it, Mr. King?
Linda Miller
Lexington Township