Ebola precautions
I don’t think that we can deny that Kaci Hickox has done a great deed to help the people who have contracted Ebola. However, unless she is all knowing, she can’t be 100 percent sure she did not contract anything. A nursing degree does not make her immune from the virus. While she may be more knowledgeable of the symptoms, unfortunately by then it is too late.
I am not “afraid” or “paranoid.” I feel that it is merely a responsibility as a human being to take precaution. If she doesn’t have Ebola, so be it. We take precautions every day to stop the spread of viruses in order to not infect our fellow elderly neighbors, neighborhood children, ourselves, family and coworkers. We use hand sanitizer, get vaccinated, cover our mouths when we cough. And, how much money do we spend on advertising to make sure we get a flu shot? These precautions are for illnesses that may not be as serious as Ebola, but we do it. Why?
I realize that the media is perhaps blowing things out of proportion. And, I understand it’s an inconvenience for those that the government feel the need to quarantine. But if it gets her immediate medical help to save her life and she does not spread the virus, isn’t that a small price to pay?
Again, I am not on the paranoid train. The medical/science world is not 100 percent educated on this deadly virus. If they feel it is a necessary precaution, then shouldn’t this humanitarian nurse put others before herself as she did in a foreign country? Again, she may not have Ebola, but unless she has more knowledge than the top doctors on this virus, there is a chance.
Deborah Chretien
Holden
Wasted campaign money
Every day, I am inundated with radio ads, TV ads, paper mailings and flyers tucked into my door. I appreciate that you are trying to convince me that your brand is the best and I should vote for you.
My personal dilemma right now is focused on my son’s school and its playground in need of replacing. Our kids need a safe place to grow and play. Since there is no money in the budget for new equipment (to the point of laying off staff members) it falls unto the parents to raise more money than I have in my current life savings to purchase new and safe playground equipment.
My question is, how much money is spent (wasted) on 50 “vote for me” signs lining the streets in a 25-yard length that could have gone to a swing set? How many 30-second “He’s a crook, but I’m a saint” radio ads can buy a slide? How many “the sky is falling” flyers crammed into my tiny mailbox could have purchased an ADA-accessible play structure?
You want my vote to send you to City Hall or Augusta or D.C.? Call an end to the muckraking and psycho-babble and just tell me the good you are doing. Take all of this election money and buy our kids a new playground.
Edward Cormier
Sanford
Frick and frack
Corporate titans of the oil industry love fracking. They promise an abundant supply of natural gas in return for regulation-free operations. Currently, they are protected from disclosing the toxic ingredients used in the fracking process. They fend off any concern about environmental effects by successfully lobbying for laws protecting them from pesky lawsuits claiming damage from contaminated groundwater or faucet taps that catch fire.
Fracking, including by Koch Industries, has been expanded to include fracking of the political process. Why not? The cost of lobbying and buying politicians is small change; $200 million or $300 million spent in secret is a small price to pay for the political clout for sale. How about fracking any opposition to pipelines, equal pay, a minimum wage and anything else that threatens the bottom line? Only a few more million.
We should not be surprised that to further their goals they support every attempt by their political surrogates to suppress the right to vote. Their efforts to restrict voting have been especially evident in Texas, for example, where a 93-year-old veteran who had always voted was sadly turned away recently for lack of proper voter ID thanks to new and stricter voting laws the Kochs heartily supported.
What a great country they live in.
Chris Young
Caratunk
Minimum wage fallacies
After spending billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money to bail out Wall Street, it’s obvious that the Great Recession isn’t over for many Americans. While the 1 percenters got richer, the rest of us got poorer. And now, to appease the masses for all the jobs they destroyed or didn’t create, President Obama and his liberal friends want to raise the minimum wage.
Citing the job growth of 13 states that raised their minimum wage, they claim it would stimulate the economy and create more jobs. But, raising the minimum wage doesn’t affect most companies. In fact, its greatest impact is on those with narrow profit margins such as restaurants and retail businesses. In the 13 states that raised their minimum wage, job growth in these two industries has been only 0.6 percent, while states that kept their minimum wage unchanged saw a job growth of 2 percent.
The debate over raising the minimum wage can be settled with one observation: If the price of a product goes from $7.50 to $10.10, how much more of it are you going to buy?
Politicians have no problem giving out raises. All they have to do to cover the expense is raise taxes or government debt. Most private-sector businesses, however, operate on a payroll budget based on their sales. If sales don’t grow to cover the increased budget from a higher minimum wage, they have to cut employees hours. If they can’t afford to cut back on hours they have to find other ways to cut cost, either by cutting back on the quality or quantity of their product or service or raising prices.
If our elected officials really want to help the poor, and for that matter the rest of us, they need to get the hell out of the way and let our free enterprise system work. The more jobs that are created in a free market, the more businesses have to compete for good employees.
David Smith
Newport