Ashamed of Bangor
For certain, there are many residents in agreement with Barbara Sosman’s assessment in her letter (BDN, Aug. 30) of the Bangor Waterfront, in particular, the noise.
My concern is the trashy appearance of the waterfront property. Driving by with an out-of-town guest on Sept. 4, I observed and was embarrassed by the ugly concert staging reaching into the sky, fences everywhere, some covered with blue tarps, paper cups and trash strewn over the ground, a mish-mash of trailers, golf carts and miscellaneous equipment and lines of portable toilets.
This is the sorry scene that greets tourists approaching Bangor. Is it any wonder that the cover of the Bangor Chamber of Commerce Visitor Guide depicts the Bangor Waterfront at night?
In another area, how many residents have experienced culture shock when passing through the heart of Bangor’s downtown, stunned by the recent “beautification” of Broad Street? Gone is the Fitz-Gerald sculpture and the fountain, replaced with an outdoor beer garden replete with Guinness beer signs on fencing and umbrellas. How sad.
Anna Guesman
Bangor
We vote
I watched the Republican National Convention with interest, waiting for someone, anyone, to mention the fact that we are at war and that thousands of our troops are in the field. In vain did I wait for the Republican nominee to mention the thousands of American families who had suffered the loss of a loved one, families where a chair will always be empty. I am a member of such a family.
When queried about this absence of comment, Mitt Romney replied that he did not consult “laundry lists” of details while making public remarks.
I have another detail for Romney: we vote.
Deirdre Felton
Rockland
Move forward
Is it my imagine or have I missed the boat somewhere? On Page 1 of the weekend edition of the BDN (Sept. 16) the headline reads, “How can rural maine attract business?” Then on page B1 another article headline reads, “Committee formed to fight Quimby national park plan.”
If we had a governor and Legislature who understood this problem, we’d have a committee working on a plan to give low-interest loans and educational assistance to potential business owners if Roxanne Quimby’s land was turned into a national park.
There could be courses helping people understand how to invest in hiking trails, bicycle and kayak rentals and trips, food and restaurant businesses and more to bring people into a North Woods National Park. Acadia National Park brings millions of visitors to the area who spend millions of dollars to hike, bike, kayak, camp and eat, while enjoying the park for seven months every year.
The people who live in the area could be helped to become business owners who would create jobs for others rather than destroying the idea of another national park in Maine. If committees were set up now, the people in the area could determine what kind of park it would be.
People of the area would be smart to look down the road to the year 2025 or later, rather than looking back 50 years ago at how it was. Either we move forward, or we live in a state that has little or no future.
Alice MacDonald Long
Bar Harbor
Sarah Smiley for School Committee
A commitment to academic excellence by teachers, parents, administrators and City Hall has made the Bangor School System the best in the state. This success is no accident. On Nov. 6, Bangor voters have the opportunity to elect a new member to the Bangor School Committee who will continue this tradition as well as tackle the significant challenges we face as a result of economic and legislative uncertainties.
Sarah Smiley has a bachelor’s degree in education and is involved in a number of parents’ organizations in the area. More importantly, Smiley not only talks the talk but walks the walk as a mother of three boys who attend three different Bangor schools. This unique perspective gives Smiley valuable insight into how we can best support our teachers, allocate resources effectively and open up lines of communication between parents and school officials.
She is the type of person who can bring people together, and that is just what our schools need in order to adapt to a changing educational climate. She has lived all over the country but has chosen to stay here in Bangor and to keep her kids in public schools because she knows how good the schools are and how important they are to our community.
She is a person of great integrity, and she is already an asset to our schools as a parent. She will do even more good as a member of the school committee. I urge all Bangor voters to cast a vote for Smiley this November.
Ben Sprague
Bangor
Vote Chase
I urge you to vote for Lloyd Chase, the Democratic candidate for Maine House District 44 (Appleton, Hope, Islesboro, Liberty, Lincolnville, Morrill, and Searsmont) on Nov. 6.
I’ve met Chase several times (and his three Labrador dogs) over the summer at local events. He strikes me as informed and concerned about the economy, sensitive and caring about people, and conscientiously clear-headed about his priorities to once again restore “balance and cooperation in state government.”
Born and raised in Maine, a graduate of the County’s Ricker College, a Vietnam veteran serving in the Navy and Air National Guard, recently retired after 30 years with Delta Airlines, long married to Pam and father of two, he’s “too young to whittle; it’s time to give back,” Chase told me.
You can learn more from his brochure he’ll be glad to hand you at Lincolnville’s parades, farmers markets, libraries’ candidates nights and knocking on doors in his seven towns. Running for his first elected post, he’s committed to learning what his future constituents think is important.
A resident of Liberty, Chase pledges to reach across the aisle and work with everyone to eliminate fraud and waste, require accountability, restore state public education funding, protect seniors and others most vulnerable while growing the economy and protecting Maine’s unique environment.
I’m convinced Chase is the best person for the job. I hope you’ll run into Chase soon and see for yourself. If you do, look for his dogs.
Jeff Smith
Belfast
Hooray Deidre! The man cannot open his mouth without offending someone. A dangerous man to be the leader of the free world.
The dangerous man is running for re-election.
Rev. wright, convicted terrorist bill ayers, and he promised to destroy the coal industry……nobody said anything….dont be a fool twice….our countries future depends on another leader….pretty simple….
good, get rid of the coal industry
A Mormon, super-rich elitist Bain job-destroyer; who thinks that 46.4% of the country who don’t pay federal income tax — because they are retired, or in the military services, or have low-paying jobs — want a handout (they pay plenty of other taxes, by the way); a politician who insulted our British allies when he went to the Olympics (the Brits called him “Mitt the Twit”); who says he’ll cut the deficit but won’t say how; who says that more tax cuts for millionares will create a stronger middle class; who is secretive about his own taxes; who has changed every position he ever held; who opposes his own Romneycare; who says we should deregulate Wall Street and do again all the things that got us into trouble the last time: Mitt’s unfit to be president.
Hoping the ratio of my likes to yours plays out in November.
Alice I love the picture you paint of a revived Millinocket. When I head north and go through the area I stop nowhere now. Nothing invites me to stop. But I go to Bar Harbor a lot. A very inviting and thriving business community.
We’d just as soon you continue your love affair with Bah Habbah.
North Maine is working forest country.
Would everyone that is out of work in Millinocket, East Millinocket and Medway agree with you?
Not everyone, but a vast majority would.
The ability to open your door and be in the woods within fifteen minutes is part of the reason they’re still here, but Roxanne Quimby obviously doesn’t see it that way.
Okay, if that is they way you want it to play out. That is fine by me.
Alice MacDonald Long
We here in North Maine have had a very good working relationship with nearly all the industrial forest landowners throughout the years, allowing access and usage of their lands.
Now Roxanne Quimby comes along, and the only places that I can’t access are her lands.
Is it any wonder most up here have no use for her and her plans for us ?
You go ahead and cater to the Acadia visitors, and we will continue to make our livings in the forest products industry.
It really is that simple.
Whatsmatta Yowsa? Dont you think people from Bar Harbor and Cape Elizabeth know whats best for northern Maine? This whole topic is silly with ths state of the national economy.
What’s wrong with the national economy?
Didn’t Obama fix it, already?
Just like he’s fixed the country’s foreign policy, eh?
Couldn’t these kind of businesses be started without there being a National/State park there?
Obviously the current tourist market isn’t enough to support the startups.
Great letter, Deirdre Felton. Mitt Romney is a man of the Gilded Age of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Those robber barons finally led Europe into the insanity of WW I to protect their markets, and our robber barons finally got into the act as they had loaned so much money to England and France they wanted to make sure they obtained a return on their investment. To this gilded class the soldiers in the trenches were mere “cannon fodder.”
Romney’s five sons are busy getting their father elected. They have no desire to bear arms to fight the wars their father supports. Thankfully, he won’t be elected and we won’t be dragged into a war with Iran.
I’m voting for Romney.
You and 46% of all Americans who vote will do likewise. Your candidate might earn as many as 191 electoral votes. He will graciously concede to President Obama at around 10:30 p.m. on election night. Be there to watch it on television.
The real battle will be whether Congressman Ryan will retain his House seat. He sees the handwriting on the wall and has begun spending on that re-election campaign.
Ryan’s seat is is considered “safe” by all of the prognosticators that I see. There will be no “battle” over that seat in a district where even a majority of Democrats vote for Ryan. 52% in 2010 when he got 68% of the vote. The district is slightly more Republican this time out because of redistricting. Your comments about his seat are based in ignorance.
As for Obama, should he be re-elected he will retain and extend his title as the most ineffective President in post WW2 history.
I am having fun with Brightmeadows; however, Ryan will surely not get 68% of the vote this time around. The bright light of publicity has not been kind to him and his Ayn Randian ideas. It is curious that he is spending money on his Congressional campaign that he could legally donate to more endangered Republicans.
Rescue of the auto industry, expansion of health care coverage, re-regulation of Wall Street, the death of Bin Laden, the end of the Iraq War, and the announced end of the Afghanistan War sure don’t seem to be the hallmarks of an ineffective President. You must be referring to the ineffective “Do Nothing Congress” we elected in 2010.
Ford would be our most ineffective President since WW II and Bush II our worst. But lest I be accused of damning Bush II with faint superlatives, he is our worst president ever.
It is not unusual for a politician to run for two offices when running for President. It depends on the laws in that particular state. Don’t read too much into that. There are no polls to indicate anything but a blowout.
All of the “achievements” you mentioned were “accomplished” in Obama’s first few months in office and even some of those began under the Bush Administration. Iraq SOFA, auto bailout two quick examples. It is tough to take credit for them at the same time as condemning the President that helped put them in place, but Obama with your help, seems to have managed.
The other “accomplishments” you name were in then first few months in office. Since then the President has been unable to accomplish anything except by executive order and “rulemaking” in agencies and you know how short lived those things can be. Before you go off on the “Do Nothing Congress” other Presidents have been able to negotiate differences with opposition Congresses and move the agenda forward. This President is unable too and that reflects as much if not more on his leadership abilities than it does Congress. It is his name on the front door afterall.
SOFA was forced upon Bush II when the Iraqis, seeing that Senator Obama was going to win, stuck to their demand for a complete pull-out. The bridge loan by Bush II as a lame duck was the start of the auto rescue, but President Obama performed the lion’s share of the work.
The ACA and Dodd-Frank were not accomplishments in the first few months. They became law in 2010. That a Republican Senate minority refused to even consider Elizabeth Warren as the first head of the CFPB shows how dedicated the Republicans are to blocking any progress in financial regulation.
Read the scholarly study by Poole and Rosenthal reported by NPR on April 13, 2012, which rates this the most conservative Republican contingent in Congress in 100 years. Read the Mann/Ornstein piece in the Washington Post this April which describes the intransigence of the Republicans. Note that Ornstein is employed by the American Enterprise Institute.
The fact is the most Conservative Congress in 100 years was voted in by a majority of the American people and the President is obligated to negotiate with the peoples representatives. He refuses to.
Had you followed the debt ceiling hostage-taking, you would have seen that the President and Boehner reached a deal, but that Boehner backed out when he could not bring the Tea Party along.
Consider that never before had the debt ceiling vote been so politicized. Yes, in prior years members of the minority party cast votes against raising the ceiling, but never was non-passage of a higher ceiling a possibility until this Congress.
When one party won’t agree to raising taxes by a penny despite a yawning deficit it has ceased to be a responsible partner in governance.
Negotiating with Iran is easier than negotiating with the Republican House.
No. Not the way it happened. The two in fact did reach an agreement that Boehner believed he could sell to the Tea Party folks which included tax increases. He went back to talk with Republican officials and secured an agreement and went back to work the final details with The President. After an agreement had been reached the President pushed for additional tax increases. Boehner returned to his people and did not communicate with the President for most of two days…. that ended the deal. Source: Bob Woodward
Agreed that the process was heavily politicized, but for it to be so takes two sides.
As we are not in negotiations with Iran your comment is irrelevant.
Matt Bai’s piece this spring in the New York Times Sunday magazine tells a different story.
When has this nation ever before come so close to default? What happened last July was unprecedented.
We have had indirect talks with the Iranians.
Yes, yes, and yes. There are always backdoor talks going on.
And I would add that the unprecedented intransigence of the Republicans caused the country to lose its top credit rating which resulted in much higher costs to us. Once again the Republicans wasted our country’s money.
Btw I heard Bill Daley on Charlie Rose describe exactly what happened with the budget deliberations, how the ‘grand bargain’ fell apart, how Boehner refused to return the President’s call for 2 days etc. His explanation clearly puts the blame on Boehner not being able to control the tea party coalition. Funny thing is, Woodward was Rose’s next guest and he said that no one could have given a clearer or more accurate description of what actually happened than Daley had just done.
I have heard Woodward say that as President, Obama should have been stronger with the Republicans. I do not buy this since it always takes two and the Republicans simply refused to dance.
Thanks.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll Obama 46% Romney 46%
Look at the composite poll analyses at RealClearPolitics, FiveThirtyEight, or Pollster.com. As a matter of statistics, the composite analyses are more reliable. They show an average margin of 3.5 % or higher. It is even more grim for Romney in the swing states such as Ohio, Florida, and Virginia.
Wake up and smell the coffee.
it is not the percent of popular vote that matters, it is all about the electoral college. RIght now Obama leads in Ohio and Florida, which are two very important states.
It gets worse and worse for Romney. He used to be able to rely on the Gallup and Rasmussen tracking polls to show a relatively even race. Now Gallup has him six points down. His “47%” gaffe will limit him to 46% of the vote.
me too
Actually, War with Iran may be inevitable, whether planned for or stumbled into.
Such a war is never inevitable. Neither the American nor the Israeli military see any utility to a war with Iran. It is only Netanyahu and the American Likudniks who want you to believe this.
War is never inevitable? Ask the PLO! Ask Hamas! Ask Ahmadinejad! Cheanard… you’re totally anti-Jewish. Shame on you!
How many wars has Ahmadinejad started? When did the PLO last take up arms against Israel? If criticizing Israel’s leader makes me anti-Jewish, does your criticism of President Obama make you anti-American?
Get real.
You might want to take at the column that I recommended above to chanard and learn something.
sorry, meant chenard.
Here is a link to a terrific column on that dangerous Netanyahu .
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/25/opinion/roger-cohen-Netanyahus-Iran-Blunders.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Good article. Thanks for the link.
Great column. The Likudniks in this country would probably falsely call Cohen a self-hating Jew. Sigh.
Those aren’t the only folks advocating for war. So do Saudi and the gulf states. There is no love lost across the gulf. You should also pay some attention to the fact that Iranian generals have posited what they call a “pre-emptive” strike on US forces. Likely that is bluster only, but when you have 30 nations in the Gulf with military and naval forces mistakes can happen.
As for your “War is never inevitable” comment you should consider Neville Chamberlain’s Peace in our time statement in 1938. Mistakes happen, people miscaluclate, people misunderstand signals.
I read another article on this topic the other day. I can’t find it atm. This will do.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/02/21/87061/war-game-shows-how-attacking-iran.html
The advent of nuclear weapons has changed the nature of war, making it a far riskier venture than had previously been the case. I have modified my post above. I would agree that the Civil War and WW II were inevitable, given the insanity prevailing in the South and Germany at the time these conflicts began. Read the link below from usedgoodsense. This war is surely not inevitable.
The advent of nuclear weapons has indeed changed wars nature but has not prevented them. Presumably this war would be one to prevent a country actually obtaining those weapons.
Do not misunderstand me. I am NOT advocating for a war. Exactly the opposite. The article tears into bibi pretty good and is whether intended or not, evidence that stumbling and bumbling into conflict is more probable than one being planned.
I’m glad to see we agree. Although I would prefer to not see Iran join the nuclear club, I think war to prevent it (which would require an invasion, as an air strike wouldn’t effectively reach underground laboratories) would be madness.
Wake up!
Anna Guesman, Deidre Felton, Alice Long: good letters.
What the school committee needs is some fresh faces and some people willing to try new ideas. The committee that we have now is locked down and controlled by a couple of folks who don’t even have school aged kids. I continue to be sorely disappointed by the school committee and have all but given up hope that it can be improved.
I think Sarah Smiley would be a great school board member. I love reading her BDN articles each week.
Deirdre – Voluntary blindness and deafness is rampant in the left, as is the ability to focus on one small issue and ignore the real issues. The presence of the military at the RNC was so great that some of the left wing bloggers actually wrote that they felt they were in a militarized environment. So, to focus on the absence of a mention of the military in a speech that was intended to fill in the gaps about the candidate is petty. We who are in uniform or have been in uniform know very well how respected we are by both Romney and Ryan. And we know how disrespected we are by the present CIC.