Cut NPR funding
NPR has hijacked the taxpayers with inconsistent political correctness.
National Public Radio’s federal funding should be stopped. It is egregious that taxpayer money has been continuing to fund and insulate an inconsistent one-sided point of view that was made clear by the recent firing of reporter Juan Williams for expressing his opinion about his fears of Muslim extremism.
Taxpayers now have proof of NPR’s biased ideological strategy and publicly funded censorship plans. NPR President Vivian Schiller’s personal attack undermining Williams’ credibility should be grounds for her dismissal if she is unwilling to fire other NPR reporters who have statements that are “inconsistent with our editorial standard and practices, and undermines credibility as a news analyst with NPR.”
Although Schiller later apologized, the dripping political correctness is what many people are still gagging on. For example, NPR reporter Nina Totenberg wished that former Sen. Jesse Helms and-or his grandchildren would get AIDS as a matter of divine justice, yet she is still NPR’s legal affairs correspondent.
This is yet another example of why people who pay taxes are angry, disillusioned and frankly fed up with the lack of accountability regarding where and how taxpayer money is being spent. NPR’s mission to “create a more informed public” was hijacked a long time ago, and taxpayers should no longer foot the bill.
Tim Kelly
Bangor
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Cedar and deer
I’ve been reading a lot lately about the damage coyotes and deep snow are doing to our deer herd. I agree they are hard on the deer, especially the coyotes because of their growing numbers. But I still believe the near elimination of our traditional cedar swamps is doing the most harm to our herd. As the value of cedar tree products increased, more cedar was harvested. Winter deer yards were in cedar swamps. The deer trampled the deep snow and they reached up to nibble their favorite food — cedar needles.
I have a summer home on East Grand Lake in Aroostook County. In the late 1970s, I planted cedar trees and hedges. The cedar grew well and I kept the hedges trimmed. Around 2003, I noticed that the cedar had been eaten by deer during the winter. In 2006 I would see 15 or 20 deer when I went down in the winter. It got so bad that one of my neighbors pulled out his cedar and planted hemlock trees because he read deer would not eat hemlock. The next spring all the hemlock was gone. Starving deer will eat anything. I pulled my cedar out in 2008 — they were all dead anyway — and planted perennial flowers.
Elbridge Gagnon
Houlton
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Gas masks needed
Residents of Mattawamkeag should pay close attention to Perma Treat Corp.’s filing with the DEP to burn chipped, pressure-treated railroad ties in its biomass boilers.
If the DEP approves this permit, residents should immediately be provided with certified chemical and biological warfare masks.
Pressure-treated railroad ties contain some of the most potent cancer causing agents, including pentachlorophenol and arsenic, both highly toxic to humans and the environment.
Penny Gray
Fort Kent
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Wild about Wilde
The recent “Fourth Dimension” column by Dana Wilde was excellent. I kept reading it over and over again trying to comprehend the theory of “block time.” The possibility that the past, present and future are all in one is amazing.
I have always been suspicious of the concept of time and its meaning; is yesterday really gone? Dana Wilde’s column confirms many of my wildest thoughts about time.
I hope many Bangor Daily News readers saw the column. As Yogi Berra once said, “The future ain’t what it used to be!”
Rick Emmert
Eastport
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Overworked nurses
Historically, nurses have always been in high demand. Generally, once one has obtained a degree in nursing from a reputable institution of higher learning, it is relatively easy to find a position in the field. However, consistent with high demand is the fact that nursing is also one of the most overworked professions in the developed world.
There are many jobs in our society which require long hours, but the difference here is that nurses and doctors deal not with objects or numbers, but human beings. For example, a college professor is overworked, and because he or she is tired, he or she falls asleep in class, resulting in a poor educational experience for his or her students. That is a tragedy, but let’s look at an analogous situation in the medical field.
A nurse is overworked, and because he or she is tired, he or she accidentally administers an excessive dose, killing a patient. We as a community expect our nurses and doctors to provide top-notch care 100 percent of the time, and that cannot happen if they are as tired and overworked as they now are.
My mother is one of 850 nurses in the Maine State Nurses Association who are currently renegotiating their collective contract with Eastern Maine Medical Center. At the top of the agenda is the need to address short staffing. I can understand not wanting to hire more nurses to save money, but with nurses being the foot soldiers of the medical establishment is that a sacrifice we can, in good conscience, make?
Douglas Lamb
Bangor
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The costs of coal
There is no doubt that coal makes our lives easier and comfortable. It provides cheap and abundant energy that humans use for electricity, heat, cooking and transportation. But the only reason that this energy is so cheap is that so many of the costs are hidden from our view, to be suffered by future generations and by those living downstream from coal mining operations.
Coal mining is one of the worst causes of freshwater pollution in the nation. The burning of coal is one of the largest contributors to climate change and air pollution. And mountaintop removal destroys entire Appalachian ecosystems and watersheds.
Are the luxuries and comforts provided by “cheap” and abundant coal really worth risking clean water and air, a stable climate system, and healthy wilderness areas? Anybody who has lived downstream from coal mines and had to suffer the effects of their pollution would almost invariably answer a resounding “no.”
It is time that we reassess our priorities and begin valuing clean water and air, a healthy climate, and intact ecosystems over the cheap energy provided by coal. After all, what good is electricity if we don’t even have clean water to drink and clean air to breathe?
Thomas Young
Bangor