Campfires cost
On Aug. 19, I worked a forest fire on an island on First Machias Lake.
The island was completely burned, due to it being remote and because of the travel time for firefighters responding. It was burning the causeway to the mainland when we arrived, and in a few more minutes it would have been on the mainland and been a much larger and more serious fire.
The cause of the fire was an illegal, unextinguished campfire. I hope the people who caused this go back there and see the devastation caused by their illegal activity. This is the second island that I have seen completely burned by campers.
So many campers today are clueless about fire safety, do not respect private land ownership and the laws and rules of wildland camping. There have been a number of island fires recently.
Any fire is bad, but especially now. Since it’s so dry, the fires burn deep and kill the tree roots and thus the trees then may be blown down in the first high wind. It burns the ground cover to mineral soil, thus precluding a quick recovery of plants and trees.
Campers should only camp in landowner and state forestry approved camp sites.
Those responsible for this fire should step up and admit to what they caused, pay the fine and costs of recovery.
Stephen S. Torrey
Deblois
···
American principles
I am appalled by the reaction to the proposed establishment of an Islamic center near the site of the World Trade Center, a reaction that flies in the face of the principles on which this great country was founded.
We must not hold all Muslims responsible for the actions of an extremist few. We cannot think that these Muslims were somehow involved in or even approved of the 9/11 attack. If we apply the same logic to the Christian crusaders, Christian churches could be barred from the Holy Land and Jewish singing not allowed within, say, five miles of the spot where Christ was crucified.
We must be careful not to help the 9/11 attackers by letting our reactions to the attack do even more damage to the freedoms and principles that we hold dear than the attack itself. We should remember there were many Muslim victims of the 9/11 attack and let the center be built as a memorial to them, and the less said about it the better.
Fred B. Otto
Orono
···
Declare a cease-fire
We are spending $12 billion a month on the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan, claiming that we are trying to win hearts and minds as we fight a few thousand “terrorists.”
There are 20 million homeless people in Pakistan today because of their recent floods and 6 million facing starvation, while disease lurks in the background. This is a disaster of biblical proportions.
Yet to date we have pledged $76 million for relief efforts, just over one half of 1 percent of the amount we spend each month on the war. No one knows how many drones and manned airships we are using in the war effort. We were able to spare 19 helicopters to help flood victims.
What would our foreign policy look like if those dollar figures were reversed? How much terror would we combat, and how many fewer recruits would there be for the organizations that are only too glad to fight the soldiers we send to their part of the world?
We have an opportunity to combat terror in Pakistan in a way that might actually win hearts and minds, yet we insist on prosecuting a military strategy that shows no evidence of success, while Muslim charities, some of them tied to the Taliban, are already on the ground in Pakistan distributing aid.
Declare a cease-fire in our war. Send all of our helicopters and the organizational capacity of our armed forces against the greater terror of flood, starvation and disease. At least that is a strategy that has a chance of working.
Judson Esty-Kendall
Bucksport
···
Cost of heavy trucks
Regarding the Aug. 18 letter to the editor, “80,000-pound trucks,” the writer, in advocating lowering the state weight limit to match the interstate limit, makes valid points. Issues regarding safety aside, the damage to roads and other infrastructure caused by heavy trucks is massive and not always obvious.
Route 1A through the center of Winterport, Main Street, was rebuilt under contract to the MDOT in 2003. The rebuild design was to heavy-truck standards. A high percentage of the traffic through Winterport is high-weight trucks. As part of the construction, the Winterport Water and Sewer District’s pipes and manholes were replaced under a separate contract at the district’s expense.
In the seven years since, cover assemblies of a number of the new manholes, installed as part of the MDOT rebuild, are failing. Those that have not failed are showing signs of progressive damage. A major cause of the significant failure is the heavy trucks. The district will be responsible for the cost of these necessary repairs.
Repairs involve excavation, manhole top replacement, leak testing, repaving, flagging, etc., of each manhole. Costs will be significant.
The district has a total of 300 customers. Rate payers cannot afford these repairs, which, after their repair, will likely reoccur in a few years. So far as I know, the district does not benefit from road taxes. These costs are a form of hidden taxes to the district customers for which they receive no benefit.
Road failures continuously are occurring across the state.
Winterport is not alone in having to incur these costs.
Brian P. Richardson
Trustee
Winterport Water and Sewer District
···
Religion prohibition
In the Friday, Aug. 20, edition of the Bangor Daily News, John Langerak refers to “that part of the Constitution, which states that there will be a separation of church and state.”
This is the actual wording from the United States Constitution: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
I do not see a “separation” clause, but I do see “prohibiting free exercise thereof,” which literally means that the government cannot hinder me from exercising my right to worship. Which is exactly what has been done to children in public schools.
Kerry Zimmerman
Holden