Re-elect Sprague
It is such a delight to have someone like Ben Sprague represent our city. In the time that he has served on the Bangor City Council, he has quickly become a model for how all politicians should behave. Communicative. Accessible. Positive. His ability to contemplate both sides of an issue and earnestly seek common ground is rare in today’s political climate.
His commitment to education, wellness, economic security and economic opportunity for the residents and the city itself, is clearly rooted in a genuine love for his hometown. He wants the best for Bangor and Bangor needs the best serving on its’ city council. Join me in thanking him for his service by re-electing Sprague for city council.
Melissa Huston
Bangor
Remembering Millie
We are deeply saddened by the death of Millie MacFarland. Her bout with cancer was courageous and inspirational.
As former legislators, we appreciated her professionalism, knowledge, accessibility, friendliness, impartiality and class as Clerk of the House. She set very high standards for her successors to emulate. She will be missed at the Legislature.
We extend our sympathies to her family and friends.
Ross and Judy Paradis
Frenchville
National park solution
I have two words for the Millinocket region pending the recent closure of Great Northern Paper: National park.
Look at Acadia. The mill(s) won’t be back; don’t let false hope get the best of you. Imagine fishing with a few folks from away and getting paid for it, too.
Samuel Gath
Burnham
Shame on Michaud
“When you have no defense, attack,” seems to be the latest political tactic. No one could have followed Rep. Mike Michaud around all day recording his every move without his approval, tacit or otherwise. Alex Steed is an ardent supporter of Michaud and, apparently, will go to great lengths to get his idol elected governor. Michaud had to know the purpose of the video.
Whose picture was on the screen when the voice crooned “I’m the king of Maine”? The answer is Michaud. Who was the video supposed to promote? The answer is Michaud. Who is it who apparently allows non-staff members to produce and distribute material promoting his campaign without any oversight? The answer is Michaud.
Who definitely had nothing to do with producing and distributing such trash? The answer is the honorable senator from Maine, Susan Collins, and the Maine GOP. All women should be disgusted with anyone associated with such filth.
Michaud should issue an immediate and complete apology for this degrading and insulting attack on women in general and his political opponents in particular.
J. Daniel Techentin
Islesboro
Society reaps what it sows
Two violent ballplayers have arisen in the news and society demands their livelihoods.
According to the book “Heavy Hands: An Introduction to the Crimes of Family Violence” by Denise Kindschi Gosselin: “Abusive behavior is handed down from generation to generation as an appropriate way to handle conflict: Violence begets violence. This does not suggest that battering tendencies are inherited: rather, they are experienced. People who observe violence in the home as children are more likely to resort to battering in their own relationships later in life. Simply put, if a child is abused, he or she learns that it is an acceptable, if not normal, way to achieve his or her goal. The child becomes an abusing adult—toward a spouse and often toward his or her own children” (page 77).
One of these ballplayers said that he used an implement on his child as his own father had done.
We are missing an opportunity. These men could rehabilitate and be required to become instruments of change. They have the power to pass on a different intergenerational outcome.
Education should be utilized to change a life, a family and a society. We should not be punished for the lottery of the family we were born. We need to change our punishment-hungry culture.
If this isn’t enough to convince someone, then how about the 2.2 million people we have incarcerated. Insisting on severe punishment or acquiescing makes us all responsible as an accomplice to a society of violence, instead of education.
Carolyn Bluhm
Waterville
National park standards
It looks like the days of papermaking in the Katahdin region are coming to an end. We are going to be hearing more and more about how a national park will help improve the economy.
National parks have amenities. You’ll find electricity, running water and toilets you can flush. They also have visitor centers, souvenir shops, and restaurants. Some parks even have hotels. Roads are well maintained, and many are paved. Currently you won’t find any of these in the proposed national park area.
Roxanne Quimby wants this land to become a national park. I feel she should build the amenities that you would find in a national park before she donates the land to the government. The problem is, she is against motorized recreation and it is unlikely she would want to develop the property to accommodate the facilities you find in national parks.
It seems highly unlikely she is going to hand her property over to the government with no strings attached. Even if she donates the land to the government, I’m sure she’ll have restrictions on what can be done with the land. Since she is against motorized recreation, especially snowmobiling (which is allowed in many national parks), I don’t see this area ever getting developed to national park standards.
If the land is not allowed to be developed to national park standards, visitor use will not increase above current numbers, and promises that the park will help the economy of the region will never come true.
William Barker
Fort Fairfield
Education numbers
According to Nell Gluckman’s Sept. 21 BDN education article, Bangor School Committee Chairman Warren Caruso implied that education needs more money or will have to cut programs.
Years ago, the school employees wanted the same pay as we got in the mill. Well, turnabout should be fair.
Most of the younger mill workers lost their pensions, insurance and jobs. Now the mills are being torn down and with it goes the taxes. A good percentage of the people are seniors. They had planned to retire with a pension and a house with some value. Now houses are worth almost nothing and they have no pension and only medicare.
Let education stop crying and try to economize the education program. Or they may end up like the mill workers did.
Daniel Birt
East Millinocket