Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2012: Foreign aid, Akin, marriage

Nation’s needs before aid

Every day we are assailed with another cut, shortfall, reduction of services or elimination of programs to the American people. We the people of the United States of America fund over 70 percent of NATO yet our veterans are homeless and in desperate need of better medical care.

We spend billions on building and staffing hospitals around the world, yet our seniors’ Medicare is constantly in jeopardy, our farmers and farmlands are in constant financial turmoil, but countless efforts and resources are applied to developing better farming around the globe.

The educational system is falling further and further behind as untold thousands are educated here only to leave. The average wage earner struggles to pay health care coverage for a family and watches as doors are thrown open to tens of thousands who have illegally entered the country for subsidized care.

When will this mad notion that the American government can embrace the world with abandon in an effort to be a good neighbor but blatantly disrespect its own citizens end? It is time for Americans to take care of Americans. We are slowly being bled to death as a nation while trying to save virtually every needy country and cause in the world.

It used to be called nationalism. Now it might simply be a last-ditch effort at self-preservation. At the polls this fall, vote for candidates who would strive to put nation’s needs before foreign aid.

Michael Aygam

Orrington

In response to Akin

I am writing in response to Missouri Sen. Todd Akin’s claims regarding the probability of a rape victim becoming pregnant. Many have condemned his words as ignorant, ridiculous and abhorrent, so I won’t bother doing so here, though I completely agree.

What I will do is encourage people to realize that Akin’s words are not those of a crazy individual on the fringe but instead are indicative of a pattern of beliefs. Perhaps unwittingly, Akin gave America a glimpse into what is increasingly the mainstream mind of the Republican Party.

He is not alone in his extreme ideology, which would not only deny a woman’s right to choose abortion under any circumstance, but would also elevate the status of a fetus to a legal position above her own and deny her access to the contraceptives that could actually help reduce the overall need for abortions. His views on women’s bodies are shared by many, including our would-be vice president Paul Ryan.

For everyone out there who found Akin’s words shocking, please consider what it will mean for his ever-further-right party to gain more power in Washington. Please think about what it will mean for your sisters, your wives, your daughters — for yourself.

I am not an advocate of one-issue voting. I understand that there are many important matters at stake in this election. However, it seems to me that maintaining and championing the basic human rights and health care freedoms of women must be a priority.

Regina Rooney

Old Town

Negative comments against Collins

Columnist Chris Busby’s “The fairy tale of Susan Collins and the freckled people” (BDN Friday, Aug. 17, 2012) is nothing more than a feeble, mean-spirited attempt to smear Sen. Susan Collins for her political views.

His strained, amateurish reference to the marriage rights of so-called “freckled people” are better suited to the population of Maine south of the proposed Vigue Road (aka the eternal east-west highway). The Bangor Daily News also would better serve its northern subscribers if it kept that in mind.

Carroll B. Knox

Caribou

Editorial sophomoric

The editorial called “Marriage and Legal Rights” (BDN, Aug. 22) contains the most sophomoric of perspectives on where our rights “come from.” The statement that government is “exactly where they (rights) come from” is ludicrous in any context. It seems to echo the recent “you didn’t build that” sentiment from our president.

The editor has the nerve to dismiss religious principles as being “beside the point” in the “larger picture.” This lack of teleological acknowledgement aside, the stated foundation of our government refers to certain “inalienable rights endowed by the Creator” according to a “self-evident” truth. Sounds like natural law to me. How this indicates a slam-dunk endorsement of redefining marriage to a definition that has nothing to do with one man and one woman is beyond most reasonable and God-fearing people.

Homosexual so-called marriage can never be marriage regardless of law, government or the decree of anyone representing a particular religion. The complementary nature of the body, mind and spirit of each gender to the other cannot be fabricated or attributed to any other form of union. Here, there is a clear truth upon which was built not only the institution of the family, but that of government.

Susan Mendell

Palmyra

Prime directive in Tampa

I’ll be in Tampa this week, serving as a delegate to the Republican National Convention as part of the “10/10” compromise offered by the Republican National Committee. The compromise is a consequence of RNC rules violations at the Maine State Convention earlier this year. The

compromise provides that 10 Ron Paul delegates will be seated and 10 Mitt Romney delegates will be seated in Tampa.

By agreeing to be seated as part of this compromise, I will be representing all Maine Republicans, both those with traditional conservative leanings as well as those with libertarian leanings.

Based on my understanding of the 10/10 compromise, I expect all Maine Republicans could agree it is better for Maine to be represented by the 10/10 delegates to the convention than not to be represented at all.

Republicans, libertarians, many, if not most, independents, and conservative-leaning Democrats will also agree that the survival of our republic will require all of our energy to reverse the bankrupting slide into a European brand of socialism by returning to the founding American principles of individual liberty and accountability incorporated in our U.S. Constitution and its corresponding free enterprise economic system.

Therefore, the “prime directive” of the Republican Party, beginning this week in Tampa, must be to unite and focus on the defeat in November of President Barack Obama and those who share his collectivist ideology.

Hayes Gahagan

Presque Isle