Friday, July 20, 2012: Angus King, same-sex marriage and LePage’s comments

Be a part of the foundation

Think of a house. It’s a structure, but it is also much more than that. It is the juncture of aesthetic design and practicality; it is the culmination of tens of thousands of years of both innovation and failure; it is many unique parts, all critical, making a whole.

Now imagine a house that has been fastened specifically to restrict changes to its structure. One house may vary slightly from the next, but given the uniform foundation is there really any difference between them?

This question is what brought me onto the Angus King for U.S. Senate campaign. If there is one thing I have taken away from my time volunteering for the former governor, it is that every voice holds weight. As long as you bring reason and thoroughness to your proposal, any perspective can influence the foundation of the house.

The Democratic and Republican parties do not have this flexibility.
Independent candidates, too, are bound — but to the common principles that serve the person, community and state, not to a party platform. In the current political system, our abilities to question, understand and progress are grossly underutilized tools. We must learn from past failures and listen to what the people are saying, not the politics, because good policy is created and not dictated. With a vote for King for U.S. Senate, you are voting to have a personal stake in public policy. And now, more than ever, we need every perspective.

Wilson Collins

Camden

Frey vote

I was pleased to learn that Aaron Frey is running to serve District 18 in the Maine House.

As a defense attorney in Bangor, Frey has a lot of experience bringing people together in order to find lasting solutions to problems. I know that in the Legislature, Aaron would use this experience to solve the challenges facing Maine by finding common ground with colleagues on both sides of the aisle. He is just the type of person that we should want representing us in Augusta.

I hope you will join me in voting for Frey in the upcoming election this November.

Laura Stowe

Bangor

Cookie-cutter crisis

Thank you, Bangor Daily News and Jackie Farwell, for the recent article, “A Home for Katie.” It helps to explain why many of Maine’s disabled adults are not being placed in housing.

With this spring’s restructuring of the Department of Health and Human Services by Maine legislators, changes were added that limit those who qualify first for adult-disabled housing. DHHS policy now states that only those individuals that medically qualify and are abused, neglected or exploited will be placed on priority one wait list for housing.

Why must a medically qualified person be also abused or neglected to be placed on the priority one wait list? Are there not families with extenuating circumstances with their adult children who are not being neglected or abused that should also be considered? What message does this “abuse clause” send to those that are desperately seeking help for their disabled adult child? We are trying to change this department’s policies concerning housing by separating this “abuse clause” and allow fair judgement on an individual basis and not with this department’s new cookie-cutter approach.

We need to question legislators as to why this bill was approved. The decisions for disabled adults should be made with compassion and common sense in mind and not solely on worded phrases in a manual. We feel that decisions are being made unjustly and need to be acted on quickly and responsibly before the cookies start to crumble.

John and Rita Spencer

Hermon

Sign pollution

What kind of person leaves their political signs up after the election is long over? Bruce Poliquin.

Yes, our state treasurer, after losing in the primaries, has chosen to leave signs on the roadsides and at intersections in Aroostook County. Blatant littering.

Ann Currier

Oxbow Plantation

District 16 run

I was thrilled to hear that John Schneck is running for the Maine House of Representatives in District 16. We should support Schneck because he owned a successful small business for many years, and as a seasoned businessman he is aware of the need to bring people with opposing views together in order to find reasonable solutions to problems.

He is not the type of person who engages in the petty disagreements that currently plague the Maine Legislature. He will work hard to find common-sense solutions to our economic hardships and to lift our Maine government out of its current state of dysfunction. I encourage all voters in Bangor to join me in casting your vote for Schneck for state representative this November.

Frank Booker

Bangor

Suppressing opinions

As a longtime subscriber to the Bangor Daily News, I’m more than a little worried that the editorial “we” of the paper is more like an editorial “me.” And, as with all singular sources of control, there are forces at work to suppress opinions that do not support those of the editorial page editor.

In particular the redefining of marriage has been a stated preference of the BDN. Countless editorials and letters are given to print that flatter this movement. Amazingly, thoughts and ideas supporting the current law of the land are, apparently, not worthy of printing.

Donald Mendell

Palmyra

Add and subtract

Among the strange assertions made by opponents of same-sex marriage is that allowing gay people to marry someone they love will change the very nature of marriage, “redefining it” as they say. Like, I suppose, when women were finally allowed to vote — that changed the very nature of voting, right?

It seems to me that when we add to marriage, we will not be subtracting anything from it.

Peter Rees

Trenton

Think before you speak

I was always warned and just recently warned my grandkids: Once spoken your words cannot be taken back. Saying “sorry” later doesn’t work.

Our governor needs to learn this immediately. He spends more time apologizing later. Think before you speak, sir, so you won’t need to retract!

Maine is getting a bad reputation because of Gov. Paul LePage’s mouth. I was in California and, when asked where I lived and replied Maine, people said to me, “Oh, the kiss-my-butt state.” As the saying goes: “You can’t unring the bell.” Hope he cleans up his act soon for all of us residents.

Shirley Pagel

Lincoln