Orono basketball story overplayed
The BDN has devoted three print articles and a blog post to the topic of Orono High School’s women’s basketball coach in the past week. It is hard to get a school board to be unanimous on any topic, but we are unanimous on four points.
It is inappropriate to comment on details or even specific cases, but the board has high confidence in the values Superintendent Joanne Harriman, Principal Jim Chasse and Athletic Director Mike Archer have shown over their careers in the hiring and supervising of coaches and in the professionalism with which they handle this responsibility.
We are disturbed to see that so much ink was spilled on what basically was innuendo and speculation with very few actual facts — much of it came from anonymous sources who clearly had an agenda and was speculation even on the part of the sources.
We are appalled a member of the team, a minor, was unnecessarily singled out and named amid innuendo about parents and students complaining about playing time. This is beyond inappropriate and comes across as the BDN using its soapbox to bully a child, which has encouraged others in online comments and in real life to do the same.
We are saddened but not surprised that four articles were devoted to a very part-time after-school activity, while the April 7 retirement last week of Carolee Mountcastle, Orono Middle School’s guidance counselor, went completely unremarked upon. She has served in public schools for more than 50 years and in Orono schools for more than 30. She has touched countless lives. This is a far more newsworthy subject.
Mark Brewer
Jacob Eckert
Shari Kinnison
Brian McGill
Jenna Mehnert
RSU 26 Board of Directors
Orono
Support palliative care
Palliative care often is mistakenly used interchangeably with hospice or end-of-life care. It is a type of patient- and family-centered care that focuses on relief of symptoms, both physical and emotional. It provides a team of support including doctors, nurses, social workers and other specialists to help guide treatment and care. Palliative care is available at any age and at any stage of any serious illness and can even be accessed while in curative treatment.
The Legislature will be considering LD 782, An Act to Improve the Quality of Life of Persons with Serious Illnesses, this spring. LD 782 would create an advisory council, bringing together professionals across the state to assess and improve the current state of access to palliative care. It also would provide educational materials to the public and professionals to inform treatment options for the Maine people affected by serious illnesses ranging from diabetes to cancer.
Essentially, quality care leads to substantial health care cost reduction, which benefits all of Maine.
Improving quality of life for our family, friends and neighbors who are suffering and struggling should be at the top of our priorities. I encourage you to reach out to your representative or senator today and urge them to support LD 782.
Alaina Crowley
MSW student
University of Maine
Orono
Republican 10 Commandments
It would be a tragedy for the world if a nuclear deal with Iran had been derailed by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s crude attempts to control American foreign policy, cheered on by the Republican war-hawks in the House of Representatives.
This is another example of the wrong-headed Republican approach to a multitude of issues, which might be largely epitomized as the “The Republican 10 Commandments”:
1. Global warming is a hoax.
2. Same-sex marriage and abortion are unacceptable.
3. The rich should be taxed as little as possible.
4. Torture by the government is OK.
5. Subsidize the fossil fuel industry as opposed to the development of renewable energy sources.
6. Demonize and eliminate labor unions and collective bargaining.
7. Oppose gun control laws.
8. Always oppose Democrats’ initiatives and policies.
9. Spending for war and armaments need no controls.
10. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are socialistic and should be dismantled or privatized.
God help us if such thinking is embraced by the majority of Americans.
Gene Clifford
Mount Desert
Classes before open carry
I believe in and support Second Amendment rights. I carry openly and concealed, with a permit. I was trained in the military on how to use a weapon while working in law enforcement. I have taken several classes on the tactical use of a handgun in civilian life. I shoot on the average of once per week in a safe environment to keep my skills up. I also carry a stun gun and a mace gun, hoping I’ll never have to draw my 9mm. I left myself options, including walking away.
I’m all for open carry but with the caveat that everyone who does take and pass a course that involves “shoot and or don’t shoot” scenarios. Doing less than that is just not smart law. Background checks also are good but are not a predictor of future behavior.
Do you know what to do if the bullet jams in the receiver? Do you know a semi-automatic’s slide can rip your skin off if you don’t hold the weapon properly? Do you know how to engage a person who comes up to you in public and starts giving you a hard time because you have a pistol on your hip? (Tip: You don’t). Gun classes teach you all of this and more.
We don’t let people drive cars without taking a test and passing. In Colonial Days, fathers did not just let their sons take a firearm out
David Winslow
Brewer
Short pints a real problem
The beer pint debate is a classic example of a lobby cleverly morphing a discussion from fraudulent pints to government overreach.
Two common practices in Maine defraud the consumer. One is shorting pints of beer when 16 ounces is advertised. The second is weighing live lobsters immediately out of the tank in order to weigh water as well. In both cases the business establishment increases profit by charging for something that never was delivered.
Multiply 1 ounce of phantom beer times millions and big money is generated. Pure greed.
Here’s a suggestion: Fellow beer drinkers, go online and purchase a “crown line” beer glass, the only glass legal in the United Kingdom. They are rugged and reasonable and hold a pint plus. Filled to the line, they hold 1 pint. Lug it with you to your pub. If they won’t fill it, leave and go next door.
Jake Morrel
Sangerville