East-west
Every east-west highway supporter I know wants a good future for Maine’s railroads. However, more than 85 percent of the commerce in North America, measured in dollar value, moves in trucks. The fact is if we can improve the economy of Maine, that can also help railroads gain added business. Maine is not big, strong, influential or economically significant enough to cause the trade of North America to move off trucks and back to rails.
Twenty years ago the Maine East-West Highway Association figured out that along with a shorter connection to the American Midwest, one goal of the highway should be connecting Maine to the economic centers of Montreal and Toronto. Looking at a map, anyone can see that a transportation system going west must either go north or south of Lake Champlain.
Going north of the lake takes the route to the Canadian border. Thus a route out of Maine at Coburn Gore works better than a route through Gilead or any place further south. By routing to Sherbrooke the road is only 40 miles north of the Vermont border. The older route through Gilead requires travel through the White Mountains and then around Lake Champlain; thus more miles to accomplish the same trip.
This is not a case of a “new” route if privately funded. The same route to Coburn Gore has been shown by most advocates for 20 years. The proposal is not primarily about highways. It is about Maine’s economy and jobs. Should we put more objections in the path?
Richard Bronson
Bangor
What middle?
Letter writer Kent Price on June 7 did a good job of exposing the shaky basis of Angus King’s independent candidacy for the U.S. Senate, but Price ignores a key aspect of King’s premise. That is, how can one aim at occupying the political middle ground when it has shifted so radically?
Aided and abetted by the news media, which badly wish to not offend anyone and to appear fair, many people think that “both sides are to blame,” that Democrats and Republicans are equally at fault in creating gridlock in Washington. The fact is that, while the Democrats have maintained a fairly even keel for decades, the Republicans in Congress have become increasingly extremist.
Senate Republicans have an announced goal of defeating President Obama regardless of what he favors or what the results for the nation. They threaten to filibuster any and all presidential proposals and thus have redefined a majority as not 50 percent plus one but 60 percent. The
Founding Fathers definitely did not have this travesty in mind.
House Republicans passed overwhelmingly a budget bill that could bankrupt the nation and impoverish millions of people. The Republican Tea Party faction doesn’t even march to the drum of its own speaker.
So, when Angus King says that he hopes to occupy the sensible middle, what is he saying? What middle? What sense? King has an admirable record that is totally at odds with today’s Republican Party. Is he really open to joining its caucus in the Senate?
Sarah Longden
Orrington
Logical stance
In a letter to the editor June 11, Harriet Real asks someone to explain why the Maine Education Association supports gay marriage.
As a member of another organization (the American Federation of Teachers), I’ll try.
Education opens our eyes to the world beyond our family and community. When effective, it helps us understand and not to fear social change. Education teaches us to value diversity of all kinds. Through education we learn that equality in America has been unavailable to some citizens.
Support for the rights of those citizens is a logical stance for a teacher’s association.
Peg Cruikshank
Corea
Good news is good news
Excuse me? How’s that? Gov. LePage says Maine’s economy is improving and it is not on page one, not a headline, not a page two story but a B5 mention. Good Lord, good news is good news, it belongs on page one above or even below the fold.
Wondering if LePage gagged as he said it or if he plans to lay claim to the credit, robbing the poor to make a point.
Sharon E. Weber
Calais
Dam right
Once again I find myself agreeing with Gov. LePage. My question to the Sentinel is: Why is it a good thing to destroy a perfectly good operating dam and then think that building these hideous-looking contraptions that mar Maine’s beautiful landscape is a plus? If we had a Legislature that had the courage of a chipmunk we would bar the windmills and promote the use of dams.
Take a plane ride over some of Maine and come across these terrible looking windmills and see for yourself what they do to the beauty of Maine’s woods. In addition what will the noise generated by these contraptions do to any one living near them and also what will the noise do to wildlife. The other day I read that Maine was 70 percent woods in the 1970s and that now its over 90 percent. How much is enough to these zealots?
Arthur Julia
Fairfield
Our culture
You wouldn’t know it by watching or reading the national news, but Christians are starting to come ahead in the Culture Wars. Last year eight states stopped funding Planned Parenthood of about $62 million.
Planned Parenthood is the country’s No. 1 abortion provider and has been supported by our taxes. This year — 2012 — Ohio, Iowa, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Arizona and now Maine have done the same: withholding funds. We have four pro-life female governors and 17 pro-life women in Congress. Gov. Mary Fallin of Oklahoma signed into law a bill requiring a woman to hear her baby’s heartbeat before having an abortion and another bill says the abortionist must be present when a woman receives medication to induce an abortion.
Although Obama came out in support of gay marriage, 37 states have laws or constitutional amendments keeping marriage between a man and a woman. The Catholic church has started 43 lawsuits against the Obama administration to stop his health care mandate to force religious Church-run charities, hospitals, schools and more to include contraception and abortion-causing pills in their health plans against their conscience. Christians who have traditionally been liberal are beginning to see how the left is going the way of godless socialism against our culture.
Thomas Coleman Sr.
Dedham
Texting times
Worried about teens texting while driving? Let the cellphone company monitor the Doppler shift of all text messages. Since the Doppler shift is a signature of a moving transmitter it would be easy to deny access to moving texters.
Walter Guinon
Lincolnville
Thomas Coleman Sr, how do you stand on supporting children born to people who are on welfare? Are you willing to support children who are born with life long birth defects that will need constant care? Are you willing to foot the bill or adopt these children?
By your name I think I can safely assume that you are a male of the species. When you develop the ability to bear children, maybe you can make the decision that women are faced with.
What gives any woman the right to murder her unborn child? After all, she participated in the risky behavior that spawned the unborn child. When does responsibility for one’s actions kick in, and when does the life of the child trump the immaturity and uncaring nature of the promiscuous mother?
Wow…risky? Promiscuous?
what do you expect from EJ, he doesn’t think bearing false witness, is lying.
So you are a Muslim that believes in Sharia Law? Ever heard of rape? Incest? Ever given birth?
Should the female of the species be stoned to death for being a victim?
Should she be forced to incubate the result of a rape?
Your twisting would make Chubby Checker jealous.
You are the one who made the blanket statement. Not everything is black or white. There are lots of shades of gray in between with other colors mixed in.
When it comes to life and death, that’s quite black and white.
What gives any military the right to murder innocent women and children?
Did you know that 51% of abortions are performed on women with income over $30,000, only 1% of abortions are because of rape or incest, 6% because of health of mother or child. 93% because it is unwanted or inconvenient.
Perhaps men should have more say when it comes to abortions, (and more responsibility to the child after it is born). After all it could not have been conceived without him.
I agree. If the man can legally force the woman to carry the child to term, he should have a greatly increased responsibility for the child.
It would all be so much easier if it were the men who bore children.
True enough! Of course, there would never have been a doubt as to the legality of abortion.
Prior to Roe v Wade, women of higher income didn’t have abortions. They had what was referred to as ‘Female Problems’. These were taken care of in nice sterile conditions with a procedure called a “D & C”.
Of course the trashy poor women were forced to go to back alley abortionist or be called welfare breeders because of all the children they bore.
Walter Guinon, umm, you do know that most motor vehicles are capable of carrying passengers. I wish there was a way to tell when a driver was texting or their passenger.
Would it be such a bad thing if nobody could text in a moving vehicle?
Yes, actually. I have plenty of legitimate reasons to text as a passenger, and it’s not my government’s job or place to decide whether I’m “allowed” to or not.
I got by in my life for over 60 years without a cell phone. It really wouldn’t bother me personally. But I have no objection to someone who is NOT driving using theirs to call or text.
IMO, anyone caught texting while driving should be punished just as much if not more than someone caught OUI. They are even more dangerous than drunk drivers.
While I have a mobile phone, I have it in my drawer and rarely use it. I don’t need to be on demand and if someone wants to talk to me they can call my house. I seldom send texts and it annoys me that text messages now take precedent over everything else. I see people texting while driving on the interstate, while walking in the dark on the street, and while having actual face-to-face conversations. I think it’s out of hand, especially with teenagers who seem to be able to communicate only with texting..
That being said, I disagree with the idea that the cell phones should be monitored in such a way as Mr. Guinon suggests. Of course, all of our phones are already monitored and tracked all the time anyway, so maybe it’s a moot point….
Your phone is not tracked all the time unless you allow it. You can set the GPS locator to “911 only”…use your manual to learn how. In this mode the GPS locator will only come on if you dial 911. Otherwise someone can only tell what tower you are using. Each tower covers a pretty good sized radius, so your precise location is not able to be tracked.
Yeah, I know. I take care of that, but not everyone knows about that. Do all phones have that option, though?
Shame on Thomas Coleman for trying to drag all Christians down to his level. The vast majority of Christians recognize one of the Ten Commandments is “Thou Shalt Not Lie,” but Coleman implies that taxpayers had paid for abortions through Planned Parenthood. Not true, the public funds Planned Parenthood receives are for health care for indigent women.
Coleman is also being dishonest by suggesting Christians are increasingly becoming homophobic. These denominations have married same gender couples in 7 US States and the District of Columbia:
The Episcopal Church
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Metropolitan Community Church
Reform Judaism
Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
Unitarian Universalist Church
United Church of Christ
These and many other denominations reject the hate speech inserted in the bible to hurt LGBT people. Modern Biblical scholars have proven the Bible was intentionally mistranslated relatively recently in order to provide “Biblical cover” for then-rising levels of homophobia. For example, the word “homosexual” didn’t even exist until 1850.
But in writing this letter now, Coleman seems to be endorsing the criminal activity committed by anti-gay hate cults in Maine in 2009. The Maine Ethics Commission has found that NOM violated Maine laws–and NOM still refuses to abide by our laws!
Jesus said something about “Render Unto Caesar,” but it seems Coleman wants Jesus to be anti-gay. Fortunately, most Christians know better and will disregard his attempt to equate homophobia, and a desire to start up the botched back room abortion mill, with Christianity. There is clearly nothing “Christian” about a desire to hurt Americans either way.
Thank you, this is well put.
3 quick points:
1) The Commandment is about bearing false witness, not lying.
2) You end your comment with, “There is clearly nothing “Christian” about a desire to hurt Americans either way.” There certainly is nothing humane about murdering unborn children.
3) Your knowledge of the Bible and the history of the Bible is sorely lacking.
What does “bearing false witness” mean to you?
Bearing false witness is, indeed, lying. However, it covers much more. For example, testifying against another by not giving all the facts, twisting the facts, or omitting facts is bearing false witness. It’s a game the politicians play every day, no matter their party. It’s a game the networks play every day, no matter their agenda. And it’s very common throughout these comment threads. Even I’ve been guilty of it from time to time, although I try my best to present the whole truth.
By the way, bearing false witness also can be construed as NOT sticking up for someone if you know they are being falsely accused or slandered.
I consider all of those things to be lies. You seem to be talking out of both sides of your mouth with that answer.
How do you figure, Bob?
EJ pretty much cover the main points and included lies by omission. He just didn’t say it the same way you would is all.
if, bearing false witness, is not lying, then what in the devil is?
Um, the “render unto Caesar” quote is Jesus’ response to a question, from the Pharisees about paying taxes. What does it have to do with the question of same sex marriage? Or are you defending using tax money to murder the unborn.
And just because a few churches are doing it doesn’t make it right. GOD called having sex with the same gender an abomination and claims, from dubious sources, of mistranslations are simply without merit.
Jesus was not anti-gay. He’s anti-sin and I prefer to follow His example the best I can, though I fall well short of the mark daily.
Now, I have recently posted here at BDN that the Bible ALSO says that God hates sin, but He loves the sinner so gay bashing is very unchristian behavior and I do not condone it.
Your God said that…according to a human.
Well then. If you’re going to go that direction then it nullifies the validity of using ANY church’s activity or approval as an example to further the gay marriage agenda.
So what’s it going to be here. Church or no church, but lets make up your collective minds. You will not have your cake and eat it too.
Yes, bronson, we must put objections in the path. If it had been such a good idea, it would have been done 15/20 years ago. The problem in this state is that the DOT and the bigger construction companies still have their heads wrapped around plans that were hatched in the 70’s and 80’s, impractical then and dumb in a new century.
When, in April, a no. of anti-abortion fanatics put up huge posters of aborted fetuses on the UMaine campus and came back the following day before going on the USM campus I asked them about supporting the American military. As I expected, they all love the military, oppose any cuts in its gigantic budget that might instead go to help poor women (and men), and strongly endorse military campaigns. Their pro-life agenda, like that of the Catholic Church, is rather limited in its scope. Thomas Coleman is likely similar. How easy to condemn any and all abortions from a distance. At least retired UMaine prof. Terry Hughes, who used to put up smaller sized posters on campus every few months, had the decency to adopt one or more babies who might otherwise have been adopted. How many anti-abortion fanatics do the same? Darn few, I suspect. Hypocrisy, eh?
Arthur Julia – Not only do dams enhance the environment, they create better and cleaner energy than these 400 foot monstrosities that will pay for themselves about the time they have to be replaced. And that’s with the continuing government subsidies. Wind turbines are ruining one of the most beautiful states in the country, and the people of Maine are allowing it to happen.
Thomas Coleman – You’re right. Therefore the left will drag you through the mud. Stand strong.
Sarah Longden – Get real. You’ve fallen for the left wing hate mantra.
And you are preaching your version of the bible, which is orignally, a hebrew script. The Commandment indicates bearing false witness, every christian knows that this is meant lying. Thump your version elseswhere. Just because people don’t agree with you politically or religiously, does not make them any less a citizen or christian.
Actually dams can and do damage the environment by flooding land that would not normally not be under water destrying that ecosystem.
They also damage the very rivers they are on by cooling the water damaging the native flora and fauna and removing silt that would normally be deposited downstream creating or maintaining exisitng land.
That is why it is better if we remove all unecessary dams to restore the rivers and ecosytems as best we can.
Properly planned and constructed dams enhance the landscape, provide better environments for wildlife and fish, provide cleaner energy, and provide recreational areas and activities to our increasingly lazy population.
There are really no positives to wind turbines when compared to dams, or any other energy source, for that matter.
Dams may or may not enhance the landscape, it depends on the person viewing the change but I bet the people who lived on the land or used the land before the dam would disagree with you.
Dams do not provide better environments for wildlife and fish. They change the type of environment therefore changing the types of fish and animals that may utilize the lake created by the dam. The river downstream from the dam is changed forever too, it becomes much colder and clear of silt thus killing off fish that cannot live in a colder, clearer water environment (brook trout can actually die from exposure to the sun if the water is too clear) and with less silt the river changes, most of the time for the worse, including more erosion and less silt being deposited in the river.
Dam-created lakes do not create more recreational oppurtunites just different ones, the flooded land is not longer available for wildlife and the people who use the wildlife for recreation, you know hunters and hikers to name two.
Wind turbines and other green energy sources have many positives as well as negatives, some people just chose to only see the negatives.
Peg Cruikshank:
As important it is to open eyes through education, it is equally important not to shield them from seeing both sides of an issue. Virtually anywhere SSM has come to a vote it has been defeated. Are liberal minded teachers like yourself presenting a balanced view and not just your personal views on homosexuality. Some would call that indoctrination and not education.
I’m sure your side feels that you have won every vote, so far. If the other side wins this time it will be a win-no effect result.
SSM is simply an attempt of cloaking deviant behaviour in a veil of “normality”.
Rats, another person’s obtained a copy of our agenda! This leak has to be stopped or they’ll ALL know of our master plan to marry our cats!!!
Apparently the teachers, not the parents, should decide when, at what age, and how someone’s child is exposed this behavior.
No wonder the private schools are booming.
Ms. Cruikshank: I agree that teachers can support SSM, with their vote. I respectfully disagree that their labor organization should take any stance on it.
A union can take a stance on any issue the members choose to take a stance on.
Not all their members want their money going to support these causes or candidates. And I doubt the teachers who are not members yet STILL must give money to the union like it, either.
Sarah Longden What you fail to understand that there is extremism on the left. Nearly all moderate Democrats have been either been alienated or removed from office. Granted we have what would pass fora moderate member of Congress in Michaud but he is totally out of the mainstream in his own party. Sen Snowe tried to get to a middle ground with Obama early in his term meeting with him on issues like the stimulus and healthcare bills. Since she was punched in the nose over that she did not meet with him again for the final 2.5 years of her term. When she announced her retirement she decried the lack of the ability to compromise and her barbs were aimed not at her own party as much as at Democrats.
Name your moderate Republicans in office.
And it was the Republicans who attacked Sen. Snowe not the Democrats.
Moderate Republicans:
US Senate: Snowe, ME: Collins, ME: Lugar, IN: Gregg, NH: Vionovich, OH: Murkowski, AK.
US House: Castle, DE: McHugh, NY: Reichert, WA: Cao, LA: Kirk, IL: Ehlers, MI: Upton, MI: Smith, NJ: Biggert, IL: LaTourette, OH: Lance, NJ: Dent, PA: Johnson, IL: Miller, MI: Emmerson, MO: Walden, OR: Gerlach, PA: LaBiondo, NJ: Platts, PA: King, NY: Capito, WV: Jones, NC: Murphy, PA.
According to NationalJournal.com.
I was talking about who she pointed her barbs at. There was a real reason she did not meet with Obama for her last 2.5 years after her many years meeting regularly with other Presidents.. Think it through. If that isn’t enough for you, find and read her comments in the BDN, Roll Call, The Hill.com and other media outlets at the time she announced her retirement.
Cheesecake you are right to point out that now and historically the problems have come from both parties. A Change of parties will not change the culture of the U.S. legislature or the Maine Legislature.
Only “We the People:” can change that..by becoming engaged day by day and by voting more carefully..not just by party for abut for people who carry the right message and will work for the right things.
Mr. Coleman, I won’t bother to argue your points, because obviously you would never let things like facts get in the way of a good diatribe.
Sarah Longden you are absolutely correct in each of your thoughtful observations and points. Thank you for your letter.
Peg Cruikshank , yes, yes, yes. Thank you for your letter.
Richard ” However, more than 85 percent of the commerce in North America, measured in dollar value, moves in trucks.” Do you have a cite/link on that . I have never seen that figure before.
Also, according to all the reports, including the Can Am report Vigue cites so often trucking is the most expensive way to ship anything and our dependence on trcuking adds as much as 46% to the value of goods (http://www.canamconnections.com/)
Neither the Can Am report nor any of the previous experts studies support all the claims Vigue is running around the sate making with his power point show. They all say just opposite..that there is little benefit to Maine an possible harm and that rail is the answer..
And Angus King himself said the same thing after the 1999 expert study . Here is King in in his own words :
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2457&dat=19991006&id=l6FJAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Ng0NAAAAIBAJ&pg=6268,1625501
http://www.maine.gov/mdot/1999eastwesthwystudy/govspeech.htm
Note..he repeats that the E/W Highway version Vigue is advocating is of little benefit and possible harm to Maine and that rail is he long term answer.
That hasn’t changed as the very recent Can Am report repeats.
It s a total mystery to me how the asphalt lobby can cling to these disproven and discarded claims of benefit to Maine and continue to press for this roadway.
Flabbergasting really.
I’m all for rail if it can be run by people who know how to run an efficient reliable rail service with good maintanence to both the rolling stock and the rail beds. Unfortunately that is a rare commodity in North America. For that kind of managerial skill you need to go to either Europe or Japan.
Important point, Patom1, thank you. Having a high quality rail system involves more than laying track. It is an overall commitment to new next generation technology..an investment that as you point out other countries are ahead of us in making.
Clinging to asphalt and trucking is not the way to step forward into a new economic future for Northern Maine.
Dear Arthur Julia: it is already proven that the noise from turbines is extremely damaging to humans and wildlife (though the wind zealots and companies will tell you no)..while the low frequency noise does not bother some humans many cannot sleep at night as it is IN THE WALLS of their homes- the wildlife leave from what I have been told by those who are near them in Mars Hill and Lincoln Lakes (beaver, moose, frogs etc)..they are bad bad news and the movie Windfall does a good job of showing that in an objective manner..LePage should be destroying the expedited wind law that Baldacci snuck in just as the wind companies have snuck in to rural Maine..some of the rural people are smart enough to do their research, think for themselves and learn that the financial gain promised to the locals is a scam as well and put into effect protective wind ordinances, their only true defense as the legal system is corrupt (e.g. DEP, BEP) if they cannot protect the environment as they are meant to do..when will people realize health and eco balance are more important than an unfounded brainwash of hysteria over a technology that is toxic ( google toxicity of wind turbines) and destructive..I am with you Arthur Julia all the way and hope Governor LePage can do something.
Mr. Julia’s letter points out the horrendous damage to rural Maine’s “Quality of Place” that is happening with the proliferation of sprawling industrial wind sites. Wind machines as tall as 45 story Boston skyscrapers do not belong on the ridges of rural Maine. The blasting, leveling, and scalping of the mountains for these projects is environmentally devastating, far outweighing any perceived “clean” energy advantages, especially when these turbines produce unpredictable, unreliable power at only 25% of their capacity. What a farce!
More people like Mr. Julia are catching on to the damage this scam is doing to Maine. For more information, go to: http://www.windtaskforce.org.
Thank you for the letter, Mr. Julia, warning of the damage to our beautiful state from industrial wind turbines. He spoke of seeing these from the air, which most people cannot do. To view the Rollins Wind Project in Lincoln Lakes from the air, go to this web album: https://picasaweb.google.com/101554457531034815464/RollinsWindProjectFromTheAirMay12011#
This project went on-line in July of last year. On Dec. 29, 2011 the developer First Wind got an ARRA Section 1603 grant of taxpayer money for $53.2 million for building the project. That is a free gift of taxpayer money for a project that doesn’t produce 25% of the design capacity of 60 MW. But 7 miles of ridges above the 13 Lincoln Lakes have been destroyed and 1,000 acres of carbon-sequestering forest have been permanently clear cut. We must stop destroying our state for the folly of wind power!