Pot proposal is wrong
Here we are in the worst recession in years. People cannot afford to put food on their
table, heat their homes and afford to pay their bills. Yet we have this Portland legislator, Democratic Rep. Diane Russell, trying to legalize marijuana (or is she trying to gather votes
for re-election?). I am sure she is going to get enough dope heads to support her vote for this.
Maine taxpayers should understand what this is going to cost us. Police departments oppose it, as does the attorney general. But they’ll do it anyway, regardless what our voters want.
Margaret Morin
Westfield
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We deserve better
I have only lived in Maine for 40 years, but unlike former Economic and Community Development Commissioner Phillip Congdon and the governor, I appreciate and support Maine’s diversity and the strength of her people.
Everywhere I have lived and worked — in the western mountains, Portland, the Midcoast region and now in Washington County — I have found people dedicated to the welfare of their families, their town and their state. I wish I could say the same for our current leadership in the State House.
It’s a sad day when Maine’s governor and his appointees show up on national news in company with Arizona’s Jan Brewer and Wisconsin’s Scott Walker, among the worst governors in the country. We deserve better.
I firmly believe this governor does not represent the people of Maine, and under law, we the people should have the right to replace him with someone who will uphold the oath of office as most of us understand it. We have qualified Republicans and Democrats who stand ready and able to serve.
We have no time or money to waste on a petulant bully who thinks the Blaine House belongs to him rather than the people of Maine. I am urging my representatives to create a recall mechanism so Maine can get back on track to deal with the real and serious issues that confront us. I encourage those of you who share my views to do the same.
Karen Johnson
Machias
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Vouchers would be IOUs
Under the Republican House’s plan for Medicare, the government would issue vouchers. People would apply them toward health insurance premiums. Congress would raise the voucher value to offset rises in insurance costs.
Voucher value, however, will not keep pace with medical costs. The result: increasingly inferior insurance coverage as people age, unless they’re well off to begin with.
Nothing ensures Medicare vouchers would continue over generations. Today some lawmakers threaten even the basic “full faith and credit” standard of U.S. government financial accountability — witness the debt, budget and shutdown arguments. It requires no imagination to predict attempts to undercut basic social contracts in the out years.
Government does renege.
No Congress can bind any future Congress. Issuing vouchers is the first step toward eliminating vouchers.
W. Kent Olson
Bass Harbor
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Weapon of mass destruction
On Saturday, May 7, the 62nd Arleigh Burke class Aegis guided missile destroyer — USS Michael Murphy DDG-112 — will be launched (christened!) at Bath Iron Works. It will cost well over $1 billion.
Its armaments include up to 96 Tomahawk cruise missiles, which can carry nuclear as well as conventional warheads, and so it is considered a tactical nuclear weapons system. It may also play a part in the Ballistic Missile Defense system.
It is a true weapon of mass destruction.
Even so, the price we pay in using these weapons is not being told completely. Depleted uranium is used as ballast in these Tomahawk cruise missiles, and we have left a trail of this deadly poison wherever we have used them (over 180 Tomahawk cruise missiles in Libya, over 1,000 in Iraq and over 100 in Afghanistan).
How many cancers and other illnesses have resulted from the firing of Tomahawk cruise missiles into populated areas? If children are being contaminated by depleted uranium when we use these missiles, are we then guilty of war crimes? These questions need to be asked before we build such warships.
Now is the time to look at the true cost and purpose of these guided missile warships. They are killing us spiritually as well as physically and ecologically. They are a real crime against humanity.
It is time to end the building of guided missile destroyers by General Dynamics at Bath Iron Works and instead build something there that promotes life.
Maureen and George Kehoe-Ostensen
Hope
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Nuclear power’s burden
The perpetual problem of nuclear waste has not been solved, nor can it be without subjecting the earth to accumulating toxins that only dissipate over thousands of years. This is true even though all the spent fuel rods in the world could be set onto a few acres of land.
The term “spent fuel” is actually a misnomer, as these rods contain hazardous isotopes that, with any breach in handling or containment, diffuse into regional or global ecosystems and overload DNA repair mechanisms with gradual but inexorable malignant effects on the human genome.
The green alternatives (solar, wind, geothermal, hydro, tidal) are going to need very large commitments to conservation and efficiency and require large acreage, but have the distinct advantage of not having the toxic burden that makes nuclear power unsustainable.
Chet Husted
Houlton
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Veterans would be hurt
Are veterans paying attention to the Republican budget proposal?
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul D. Ryan‘s, R-Wisc., budget proposal, which his panel approved on a party-line vote last week, would allocate $128 billion for the VA — $4.2 billion below the president‘s request. According to reports, Chairman Ryan told a veterans group that he is studying a plan to stop letting any veteran who doesn‘t have a service-connected medical condition from using VA health care services and canceling the enrollment of anyone currently using those services without a service-connected condition.
This would throw hundreds of thousands of veterans, who have no other source of health care, literally onto the street.
While there is no question that the VA needs to be closely monitored to root out waste and abuse, the cost of taking care of the nation‘s veterans is a cost of war and skimping on their care is simply not an option.
Veterans must oppose these plans. Contact your congressional representatives now to oppose these plans.
Larry Ferrell
Maine Submarine Veterans
Newport