Gun rights and responsibility

I’ve been listening to people expound on the right to keep and bear arms. Where are the ones who believe that being responsible is as important as the right?

It’s easy for me to understand how people feel about any limitations or changes concerning firearms.They believe allowing any change will ultimately result in the total banning of firearms.

I carry openly and concealed, and truthfully it makes me aware of how sure one must be of the situation one is in before using his or her firearm.

My advice to all firearm owners is: Be as strong about your responsibility to the Second Amendment as you are about the right, and we won’t lose our firearms.

William A. Hover

Alton

Saving money, not heat

Where else but in Maine would people brag about saving money on oil by turning down their thermostats and putting on a jacket or two while living in their houses?

Linda McEachern

Greenville

Obama’s debt limit

President Barack Obama wants Congress to give him unlimited budget spending.

While he was still a senator in 2006, the president said that “the fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure.”

It is a sign that the U.S. government cannot pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our government’s reckless fiscal policies.

Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that “the buck stops here.”

Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. America deserves better.

Maybe he should practice what he preaches. Wake up, America.

Donald MacKenzie

Eddington

When will killing stop?

I cannot help but think often of the tragedy of 20 dead children and grieving parents in Newtown, Conn. The tragedy is duplicated over and over in all our war zones.

Will we ever stop the killing and the terror?

Jane Sanford

Belfast

Show it like it is

Many years ago in my capacity as an assistant district attorney for Piscataquis County, I was required to go to the scene of gunshot deaths. I went to several.

They were inevitably horrifying, with screaming people, blood-splattered walls and the smells of death.

Unlike such claptrap as the television show “Hawaii 5-0,” they were not populated by young beautiful people with immaculate hair and sunglasses.

It is unfortunate that television producers do not have the courage or decency to try to portray these events as they really occur.

James Austin

Dover-Foxcroft

Get a flu shot

In response to Katherine Meryweather Cavness’ OpEd from Jan. 14 called “Best way to fight the flu: Live a healthy lifestyle year-round,” these are all good tips for leading a healthy “lifestyle,” but they won’t help you prevent the flu.

Don’t wait until you or your children have the flu and must call your doctor; get the flu shot now. The virus does not care that you have a healthy immune system.

The only two people who did not get the flu shot in my family practice the healthy fresh fruit and vegetable and exercise regime being recommended by Cavness but still now have the flu.

The rest of us, all exposed, did not get the virus.

Carol Muth

Bar Harbor

Hidden fees

My daughter was involved in a car accident on Jan. 12 in Newburgh. Imagine my surprise when I was told I could buy the police report online in 48 hours.

It cost me $15.50, so I could get the needed paperwork to my insurance company. How many more hidden fees do we have to pay for?

Curt Lefebvre

Montville

Explanation please

I don’t get it. This nation is rightfully upset about the murder of 20 children in Newtown, Conn. But the murder of millions of unborn children is not an issue. Would someone please explain this to me?

Ben Hoffman

Bradford