Yes on Question 1
I was disappointed that the Oct. 3 BDN editorial, “Maine biologists can influence bear vote — with facts, not state resources” failed to include those facts supporting a ban. Maine’s black bear population has increased by 30 percent since the last effort to ban feeding (baiting) bears in 2004, thanks to the millions pounds of junk food being dumped in the Maine woods every year. There was no mention of the fact that baiting bears increases the productivity of females, and improves the survival rate of the cubs. The officials at the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife are essentially sanctioning cruelty in hunting, and have offered no solutions.
DIF&W would have us think that all is well, yet it has not offered any data to support the claim that these cruel, unsporting practices are necessary to achieve the goal of stabilizing the bear population. The department’s position is indefensible, as it has, in fact, failed to work.
I trust Mainers will not be fooled when viewing the DIF&W videos designed to scare Mainers into voting no. These practices serve only to benefit a small number of guides at the expense of Mainers who are real hunters, and at the expense of the humane, responsible treatment of our black bears.
I personally plan to vote yes on Question 1. Hunting is a Maine tradition; cruelty is not, and these practices do not represent Maine values when it comes to the welfare of our revered wildlife.
Gina Stoll
Portland
Bellows’ distortions
The distortions of Sen. Susan Collins’ record by her opponent Shenna Bellows, who has been rated as the most far-left candidate running for the Senate this year, are as incredible as they are farcical. Bellows makes the claim that Collins is against equal pay for women. This is obviously preposterous, but since the misrepresentation is being backed up by more than $500,000 of negative television ads run by Bellows and her left-wing allies, I wanted to set the record straight.
Collins has always supported equal pay for equal work. It has been illegal to pay women less than men (or men less than women) for the same work since the Equal Pay Act passed in 1963. That doesn’t mean that pay discrimination doesn’t exist in some workplaces. That’s why she voted for a 2009 law that gives workers more time to bring pay discrimination complaints.
John Musk
Westbrook
Voting Burstein
Since our high school-age children began first grade together, I’ve had the opportunity to get to know Christine Burstein and her husband, John. I’ve known Burstein to be a hard worker, thorough in her approach to her job and family. Now, she is a candidate for the state Legislature and she has truly taken this election to heart, spending her days researching the issues and reaching out to her constituents daily, going door-to-door discussing issues and needs with home and business owners.
In the midst of the argumentative rhetoric on welfare issues, she is seeking a pragmatic approach supporting increased efficiency and reliability in the welfare program, including a focus on eliminating fraud when and where it’s found. She wants to take a hard look at the system to make sure people who are truly needy are getting, in her words, “a hand up and not just a hand out.”
As a registered nurse, she supports expanding Medicaid to cover all Maine people so they can get preventative care, and reduce the incidence of the uninsured using expensive hospital emergency rooms for their personal care. Burstein wants to evaluate the success of the state’s investment in growing jobs, eliminating programs that don’t work, and putting funds into proven winners like the Maine Technology Institute, which helps startups and entrepreneurs.
If you want a hard-working, pragmatic state representative, with a lifetime of valuable, learned skill sets, please join me in voting for Burstein.
Chris Osgood
Lincolnville
Clean power now
John Bernard’s great column, “We need limits on carbon pollution from power plants — strong ones — for our kids” (BDN, Sept. 28), reminded grandparents, parents and all people that the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan regulations need public support, and are just a first step in the right direction.
I, too, can play the grandparent card: my grandson lives in Bangor. I spend most of my time volunteering for Citizens’ Climate Lobby because, although the EPA is doing good work on climate change, congressional legislation could be much more effective at lowering emissions quickly, cheaply and equitably.
While Bernard urges more emphasis on renewables, energy efficiency and deeper emissions cuts, Citizens’ Climate Lobby (along with most economists, politicians, scientists and even Wall Street Journal business writers) recognizes that new congressional legislation would do a better job of lowering emissions and motivating private enterprise to develop renewables and generate greater energy efficiencies.
In order for Congress to consider legislation to lower emissions faster than the EPA’s Clean Power Plan, voters must only vote for congressional candidates who acknowledge climate change’s urgency, and promise to enact climate change legislation.
Judy Weiss
Brookline, Mass.
Repeal pay-per-bag
On Nov. 4, Rockland residents have the opportunity to defeat the “pay per bag” initiative by voting yes to repeal it and send the council the message that Rockland wants a better waste management plan.
We have a mandatory recycling program, which is not enforced. If you recycle and assume you only pay for what you dispose of, you are being mislead. An estimated 30 percent recycle, 70 percent of businesses and residents do not, using instead commercial haulers. How will the cost to haul to an incinerator be covered? Haulers using the “hopper” currently pay $115 per ton, the cost to dispose at PERC is estimated at $145 a ton. PERC in Orrington is scheduled to close in 2018. The proposals for waste incinerators at Argyle and Greenbush were recently denied.
The proposed Greenbush and Argyle sites will be more of the same solution that is failing now. For an incinerator program to work, it needs waste tonnage. Tonnage means less recycling and increased trucking costs. Do not be fooled by the “zero sort” method Casella is using.
Nearby, St. George relies on recycling of at least 45 percent to 55 percent waste with less to haul to incineration. Rockland, according to the Municipal Review Committee, recycles about 11 percent. The city of San Francisco recycles waste at 80 percent. Both use the “zero waste” program.
The Rockland Council needs to rethink the issue and spend our tax dollars on the latest and most innovative program for the future. Involve the community. Vote yes on the referendum to defeat pay per bag.
Sandra Schramm
Rockland