Night bear hunt
The controversy regarding bear baiting and trapping is not dead – only hibernating.
It seems to me that one bare fact has been missing or ignored. Bears may make daytime appearances to trash your trash can or burglarize your bird feeder, but bears living near human habitation tend to be more extensively nocturnal. Of course, the bear population is burgeoning; we are feeding them and hunting them when most of them are safely holed up. It is not entirely unrealistic to suggest that hunters hunt for bears at night.
First and foremost, the hunter would have to obtain a license. With license in hand, he would receive detailed and legally enforceable instructions to follow before he could take to the woods. He would have to wear night vision goggles (standard or designer), a warm white jacket (made in Maine) instead of the traditional tan or camouflage one usually worn by daytime hunters; a Kevlar vest and a helmet. The helmet must have a red light on the back and a flashing red light on the front so he wouldn’t be mistaken for a bear by another hunter.
Think of the boost to the economy. Warm white jackets and Kevlar vests from L.L. Bean and other sportswear outfitters, and helmets – all made in Maine; batteries for the lights; replacement bulbs and batteries. Somebody might come up with a special horn or whistle that would imitate the sound of an amorous male or female bear. Everybody would benefit – the state of Maine, the merchants, the hunters and the hunter’s family (if he gets a bear).
If my suggestions are adopted, I envision many happy families enjoying a feast of roasted bear meat while admiring their bearskin rugs.
Rita M. Souther
Camden
Palestinians held captive
On Nov. 20, 2007, there was high hope for the Annapolis Peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians, but I had predicted that no positive results would come of it. And none did. The reason was that no one spoke up about the Palestinians being captives, which, among the mainstream media, is still true today, seven years later. AIPAC and our media, which fervently support Israel, choose not to talk about it.
We Americans, uninformed as we are, tend to think of the Israeli occupation as a sort of benevolent oversight of their neighbors, but nothing could be further from the truth. Israel manages the Palestinian territories like a giant internment camp, punishing Palestinians for any infractions, real or imagined, either by shutting off their electricity, their water or food supplies, their access to the outside world to sell their product, or by precise aerial bombings and military incursions.
Israel claims that they must occupy Palestine in order to put down the rebellion, and the Palestinians, in turn, are rebelling against Israel’s occupation of their land.
Eliot Chandler
Augusta
Stealing to survive
Gov. Paul LePage is at it again, this time wreaking havoc in Portland. If LePage had ever been homeless, as he so frequently claims, he would know that before the down and out curl up in a ball and die for lack of sustenance, they will steal. And I mean steal — anything they can get their hands on by whatever means necessary that will buy them another day on planet Earth.
I know this is true because I was once homeless as a migrant laborer on the West Coast. Between harvests, when there were no oranges, peaches, apricots, plums, pears, apples or Idaho potatoes to pick, we — my father, uncle and I — stole whatever we could get our hands on to eke out another day. We survived, even getting our name in a storied American novel as a result of a chance encounter in a California cotton field north of Indio with a guy who was a writer.
So I think I speak with some authority when I say those undocumented folks in Portland, to whom LePage wants to deny the breath of life by shutting off any kind of state aid, will not simply go gentle into that good night.
Hang on Portland. If you think your constabulary is adequate, you’re in for a jolt.
Phil Tobin
Ellsworth
Awaiting Poliquin apology
It has been two weeks since the mid-term elections and Bruce Poliquin still has not apologized to Emily Cain for the despicable campaign theatrics and intimidation he used against her. This young legislator deserves a medal of valor after being subjected to such below-the-belt attacks on her character, dignity, intelligence and work ethics while she kept on message, stayed composed, and never batted an eyelash while Poliquin continued to demean and rudely try to stare her down during the debates.
Poliquin, with his holier than thou attitude and overbearing arrogance, will hopefully very quickly be chewed up and spit out by Congress before being retired back to Maine in 2016 to the First Congressional District, his real home.
Patricia Nevers
Presque Isle
$5 million wasted on Q1
In his Nov. 13 rant against the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, bemoaning the fact that non-consumptive users have little control over managing Maine’s fish and wildlife resources, John Glowa neglected to note that it is in fact the consumptive users who pay for the management of these resources through license fees and taxes on their hunting and fishing equipment. To the best of my knowledge, Maine’s General Fund contributes little to the state’s fishery and wildlife management programs.
One thing is for sure, more than $2 million was spent by the Humane Society of the United States to advance its cause in Maine, requiring those interested in maintaining Maine’s hunting traditions to spend another $2 million-plus.
Almost $5 million has been, in effect, pounded down a rat hole as a consequence of this “needed” bear referendum. Think of what that amount of money might have done had it been dedicated to conserving fish and wildlife habitat and management programs that benefit all species.
Paul Johnson
Oakland
Phone restored, finally
I wish to thank the gentlemen from Tennessee and California and other places who came to our community to fix our phone lines. With any luck, tomorrow will be my turn to get phone restored.
I’m trying to have kind thoughts about FairPoint and the strikers who were out there protesting during all this, but not having too much success.
Mary Offutt
Deer Isle