Clinton’s email mess
Hillary Clinton has yet to believably explain away the latest “Clinton scandal.” While the press is focused on what and when emails were known or unknown, one should focus on the sheer amount of time to process 30,000-plus emails. At five minutes per email on average, in excess of 60 man-weeks of solid effort would be required. I doubt that type of effort was done in concert with the unbelievability of her explanations.
Robert Holland
Rockland
Speaking out
Thanks to the courage of victims who denounced Adam Metropoulos, an ex-Greek Orthodox priest was tried this week for allegedly possessing child pornography, surreptitiously photographing a woman taking a shower in his bathroom and sexually abusing a minor under the age of 13.
It is the duty of every citizen to do what he or she can to safeguard kids. It’s never too late for those who saw, suspected or suffered the wrongdoing of a sexual predator to step forward and to call law enforcement. Our silence is what allows sexual predators to continue their horrific crimes against children and vulnerable people.
Robert Gossart
Salisbury Cove
Collins praise
U.S. Sen. Susan Collins deserves our praise in her refusal to sign the Senate Republican’s letter to Iran undercutting President Barack Obama. Her statement to Politico that “it’s more appropriate for members of the Senate to give advice to the president, to Secretary of State John Kerry and to the negotiators” was well said. I think it’s true to the Maine tradition of respect for individuals we may disagree with.
As we may say in Maine, “we’re not that ignorant.”
Kip Swallow
Houlton
The Pledge
I agree with Alton Grant’s March 14 BDN letter. I would prefer the Pledge of Allegiance as it was when he (and I) were school kids and when he landed at Yokosuka on Aug. 27,1945. The only thing I might change from that pledge is “…liberty, justice and equality for all,” that is, adding “equality.” Justice, to me, incorporates equality, but I wouldn’t mind if equality were added for emphasis. Ike Eisenhower changed the pledge in 1954, and Congress approved.
Fred Gralenski
Pembroke
Thanks to Emily
A ray of sunshine after the weekend storm crept into the March 16 BDN OpEd pages in the form of an articulate, well-reasoned and fact-based letter by Emily Dunlap. She asks “why cut music programs when they help children learn?”
As a former music teacher, community chorus and church choir director, and currently singer in two choral organizations in Bangor, I can affirm and attest to Emily’s points of music-aided learning and social skills development.
Brain-wave studies on individuals who perform music reveal higher electrical activity than those who merely listen to music. Laurel Trainor, director of the Institute for Music and the Mind at McMaster University in West Hamilton, Ontario, compared preschool children who had taken music lessons with those who did not. Those with some training showed larger brain responses on a number of sound recognition tests given to the children. Trainor says that even a year or two of music training leads to enhanced levels of memory and attention when measured by the same type of tests that monitor electrical and magnetic impulses in the brain.
Thanks to Dunlap for writing an excellent argument supporting money for music in our schools. Without that support, her whole pitch goes flat.
Les Myers
Old Town
Elephant sadness
The March 6 BDN article about the elephants seems like a belated follow-up to a letter that I wrote some 20 years ago concerning the health of the Shrine Circus elephants.
We should all be proud of Jeff Kerlin.
It saddens me to realize that death was the only escape that this poor animal had from its human captors.
Thomas Hilyard
Pembroke
Raw milk sales
As a small-scale farmer with a few goats who produce more than enough milk for my own use, I have people who are interested in my milk and I would like to be able to sell it to them. The Legislature is considering a bill, LD 229, which would allow me to sell my milk and cheese to people who know me, my farm and even my animals. They would be aware that my products are not pasteurized. They would also be aware that those same products are consumed by my family.
At last Thursday’s hearing, opponents of these bills used the one-bad-apple argument saying that one incident of illness from an unlicensed farm would taint the whole dairy industry. That is pure nonsense. Recently, a fatality was reported from a pasteurized milk product, Blue Bell ice cream. Will Kate’s Butter suffer, or will Oakhurst go out of business? Not even likely. There have been no raw milk illness outbreaks in Maine. Let’s not discourage small farms and homesteads because of this fear.
Allowing face-to-face sales on the farm is very much in keeping with the policy of Maine Revised Statutes Title 7-A, 201-A, which encourages food self-sufficiency and directs the department to support policies that encourage local control, small-scale farming and food production, improved health and well-being, self-reliance and personal responsibility, and rural economic development. These bills go hand in hand with the local food ordinances being enacted in towns across the state.
Richard King
Liberty
Stand behind LD 868
With the recent increased interest in concealed carry of handguns, both in this state and nationwide, readers may be interested in a new bill introduced by state Sen. Paul Davis, R-Piscataquis. LD 868 would increase the recognition of Maine permits in other states, and other states’ permits here. His bill would make concealed handgun permits more like driver licenses, which are recognized in all 50 states.
LD 868 is a common-sense piece of legislation that would not change any of the processes or restrictions already placed on concealed handgun permits. LD 868 would make it easier for grandpa to protect himself in Florida on vacation or over the winter, without the need to get multiple permits in multiple states.
This small piece of legislation is one I think many different types of voters can get behind. Please ask your legislators to stand behind LD 868.
Lawrence DuBien
Greenville