Kudos to U.S. Sen. Susan Collins
Sen. Collins’ recent successful intervention in helping to prevent the closing of the Hampden processing facility once more allows us to marvel at her abilities.
She completely understood the hardships that would come about if that plant had been closed. Not only would it have put hundreds of hard-working postal workers in the unemployment line but hundreds of thousands of Mainers would have had their mail delayed by as much as three days. This was a burden, especially on our elderly, many of whom depend upon the mail for the delivery of their medications and receipt of that daily mail including their newspaper.
Not only the elderly would have suffered, thousands of businesses in the second district would have also been severely affected. From financial institutions to hospitals to the ordinary businesses like our own, we all would have been negatively affected.
Our company, which processes millions of pieces of mail each year for our customers watched the development of this potential crisis with much interest. Like everyone else in our district we were thankful to the senator for her efforts on behalf of all of us.
Things are back to normal. Postal employees still have good-paying jobs, companies like our own will still be able to offer our customers discounts on their mailings and in a couple of months this averted threat will most likely be forgotten.
We need to remember who made things happen. It was Sen. Collins who led the charge in Washington for this reversal.
Ed Armstrong
Chairman, The Snowman Group
Hermon
Is Freedom too noisy?
We have a dilemma in Bangor. On one hand, we have a waterfront concert that disturbed the peace within a mile radius until 11:30 p.m. with screeching shouts purported to be music.
On the flip side, we have a citizen, who objects to past government policies, disrupting by shouting, a graduation speech at Colby College. Who is exercising the freedom to be heard, and who is disturbing the peace? Where does individual freedom become infringement on others, as opposed to the legitimate right to speak out and to be heard? When does the end justify the means?
Does the money brought into Bangor from the concerts offset the right for folks to peacefully enjoy a weekend evening? Does the education and empowerment generated by disrupting an invited speaker whose policies underwrote an ill-advised war, offset the disturbance experienced by those who were there simply to witness their child graduate from college? What is justified in both these instances, and how do we arrive at that justification? Who do we punish, who do we encourage, and why do we do either in either case?
What priorities determine our individual judgment in both of these situations? How many parents objected to the protests at the graduation, but took their graduating child to the waterfront concert as a gift, fully aware that the evening’s peace and quiet throughout Bangor was disturbed?
There’s no getting around it: democracy is a messy business, and it never is easy.
Nancy Nadzo
Bangor
Approval meeting
If repeated often enough, the same old story gets boring, even if it’s true.
That may be the case with “We are in tough economic times.” That same old story is repeated often this time of year when school systems are developing and promoting their budgets. In most school systems the public approval of a school budget is a two-part process: a public town-meeting type session where the budget is approved by citizens of the district, section by section, and a secret ballot validation vote on primary day in June.
For RSU 67 (Chester, Lincoln, Mattawamkeag) the approval meeting date is May 29 and the validation vote is June 12. This has been a year of unrest in RSU 67 with a high turnover in administration and teaching staff, along with developing lack of trust in the district’s top leadership. I strongly urge the voting citizens of RSU 67 to attend the approval meeting on May 29 at 6:30 p.m. at Mattanawcook Academy. At this meeting the citizens and taxpayers can ask questions and make comments about the budget, its development, and its effect on the education of their children.
Sarah M. Crockett
Lincoln
Yes, husband of State Senator Plowman, your fellow Republican Senator Collins deserves praise for working so hard in keeping the Hampden facility open. But some of us who don’t quite elevate her to sainthood wish that, when the Republicans controlled the US Senate, she had held hearings on the failure of so many Humvees in Iraq to operate more safely and the consequent loss of lives of so many American soldiers because of their inadequacies. Loyal to Pres. Bush, she steadfastly resisted all pleas to try to improve the manufacture and maintenance of Humvees. Rest assured that Sen. Collins lost no sleep over the troops’ endangerment. But, as a secular saint, she almost never gets criticized for anything.
husband of State Senator Plowman?????
Who are you talking about?
Did I miss the letter from Dave Plowman?
You caught it. This person is obviously not connected to the community. :)
Armstrong is chair of the Snowman Group. We know the snowman always comes before the plowman.
What a bunch of B.s. Republicans do everything possible to help the military receive the best equipment available, especially John McCain. In times of war dems like to act treasonous do things like cut military spending. Democrat libs were on TV today saying how they were uncomfortable calling fallen soldiers heroes. It’s also funny how Republicans are supported by the vast majority of military personnel.
Your wonderful Republicans are now backing out of their deal with the democrats, they all failed to come to a compromise so now the $8 billion agreed cut is no good the R’s want to add it back to the military spending even though the pentagon says no they don’t need it. By the way the R’s forgot to pay for the increase by either taxes or cuts, typical Republicans “my way or the highway”. Why anybody would vote Republican is beyond me. Even now they are getting ready to tax the poor and middle class more so they can give more cuts to the rich. This is one of the things Eric Cantor is promoting. What a bunch of uncaring people.
It is when our soldiers come home missing a limb or ravaged by PTSD that the Republicans abandon them. Historically, Democrats have always increased funding for veterans’ care, while Republicans have too often let our veterans suffer. Under Bush, the services were discharging PTSD or MBI veterans for bogus pre-existing psychiatric disorders as a way of keeping expenses down.
You’re point to a television commentator and trying to compare him to a Senator. That’s ridiculous.
I happen to remember – like it was yesterday – that soldiers didn’t have correct body armor or armored humvees in the beginning of the Iraq war, and for quite awhile into it. Parents were buying and sending the armor to their sons and daughters. Yeah, sure, the Republicans always see that the military gets what it needs.
Ed Armstrong–Susan Collins needed to do this as she was one of the people in the Senate praising the passage of this bill. I am not sure the fact she had received $35,000 from UPS had anything to do with it or not. Just saying!!!!!
Didn’t Collins vote for the 2006 over -the-top pre funding Postal bill that caused the shortfall ?
Yes she did.
In 2006, Sen. Collins cosponsored the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act. This is the act to destabilize the postal service to cause the cash problems that bother it today. That was the laws purpose. Job well done for ALEC/Koch.
Susan Collins (R ME) who has ties to Koch money, is also supporting Koch’s EPA deregulation and environmental denial of climate change.
So, she helped cause the problem and then steps in to rescue the Hampden plant from her work for ALEC.
Many unhappy constituents makes for an unpleasant re-election campaign.
If enough unhappy constituents learn the facts behind the Senators actions, maybe we can get somone who truly represents the people.
Nice to know a little more info. I always thought she talked out of both sides of her mouth.
Thank you.
Nancy Nadzo–Great letter! It is because I feel strongly about freedom of speech rights in one of your two cases that I hold my tongue concerning the other, which I do not favor so much.
The Susan Collins /Koch/USPS deal is an interesting betrayal of both the voters and the money behind her.
Dear Mapleton Man: your comment about John McCain has nothing to do with mine about Susan Collins. You obviously can’t imagine that a saintly Republican like “Our Senator” could possibly have undermined our troops. Alas, the facts are readily available re Humvees’ problems early in the Iraq War and Collins’ refusal to hurt Pres. Bush by holding Senate hearings. You probably missed Colin Powell’s recent condemnation of Mitt Romney’s desire to engage in ever more overseas military expeditions. But, of course, how could the opinion and military experience of Powell compare with those of Mitt, who, along with his five sons, never served a day in any military outfit. Your defense of your fellow Republicans sounds nice, but it doesn’t exactly fit the facts.
Sarah M. Crockett, the answer to most of the states school budgets is that taxes will have to be raised. The costs just to operate the physical buildings is going up, heat and utilities.
One thing that might bring the costs down for the various RSU’s is to finally tell Augusta and Washington that you are ending all mandated programs that have nothing to do with teaching. That includes free breakfast, lunch and after school snacks. Their parents made these children and their parents are responsible for feeding them. The cost saving could be put toward restoring teaching programs that have been cut in the past.
Let’s not be too quick with praise of Senator Collins in the troubles faced by the USPS. Where was Sen. Collins when the PAEA was passed in 2006? She was in back room negotiations that resulted in the death knell for the USPS . The PAEA (Postal Accountability and Employment Act) requires the USPS to PREPAY between $5.4 billion and $5.8 billion annually between 2007 and 2016 into a retirement fund. This represents 75 years of pension funding that Congress requires the postal service to fund in only 10 years (meaning billions are going to pensions for USPS employees that are not even born yet) According to the American Workers Postal Union, removal of this prepayment would allow the USPS to operate in the black. Senator Collins was deeply involved in the passage of PAEA (HR-6407) which was enacted without a roll call or debate so there was no public accountability. One might also wonder about Senator Collins’ receipt of $35,000 in campaign contributions from UPS. You can read the whole story here:
http://trueblueprogressivereport.blogspot.com/2011/10/dismantling-postal-service.html
Hooray for keeping one office open in Maine but how many facilities are going to be lost nationwide how many PO jobs are going to be killed, how many elderly and how many businesses are going to be hurt because of Ms. Collins and the others in congress who secretly passed this travesty of a bill?
Thank you.