Chemical free
Please decide against using pesticides and herbicides this season. Clean water, safe children and pets and healthy wildlife, including beneficial insects, will be the reward. We should use our voices and help keep the lawns of schools, medical facilities and businesses chemical free.
Holly Twining
Orono
Elderly Money Minders
Forty percent of older Mainers live alone and do not have family and friends to assist them with their monthly budgeting and bill-paying process. Many are affected with a form of dementia, one of the first symptoms of financial difficulty because of loss of abstract thinking. Others may suffer with depression, stroke, poor vision or loss of a spouse who took care of the financial affairs, and they have no idea where to begin.
Money Minders is a program that uses volunteers to prolong independent living for seniors who are at risk because of their inability to manage their finances and have no family or friends to help them.
Elders often are taken advantage of financially by those close to them. Once the money and assets are gone, it’s almost impossible to get them back. Money Minders can have an impartial, trusted volunteer to help those people manage their bills and balance their checkbooks, reducing the opportunity for exploitation.
LR 796 is proposed legislation under consideration by the Maine Legislature to help continue this program. It will provide Agencies On Aging statewide with a small amount of funding to provide financial management services to older adults in need.
We should talk to our legislators and let them know how important it is to the independence, safety and peace of mind for our seniors.
Carol Fitzherbert, Money Minders Coordinator
Brenda Barker, Director of Community Services
Aroostook Agency On Aging
Presque Isle
Important people
The fire on South Main Street in Brewer on April 14 was an amazing example of community values. Our house is next door to the one that burned down. We were evacuated during the blaze, but three of our animals were left inside. Our house is damaged but still standing.
My most vivid memory of that night isn’t the flames or the smell or the noise; it is the warm hugs and shared tears of my neighbors who gathered around us like a blanket of comfort. We had never met any of them, though we have lived in that house for a year. We see them in passing, sometimes with a wave or a nod of the head, but those people became the most important people in the world to me in that moment.
Standing on the sidewalk in barefeet, we met Shirley, who offered us her stoop to sit on and a jacket to throw around our shoulders. Robin kept us entertained with stories about her little dog. Peggy — who’s name I pray I remembered correctly — was the first to put her arms around my shoulders and the first to come check on us after it was all over.
I had never thought about those people in earnest before the fire. It’s a shame it took a tragedy to bring us together. There are people all around us whom we never slow down to notice. They will be there for you when the world falls apart. Take the time to notice them now.
Devon Crossman
Brewer
Narrow view
Michael Madore’s April 11 BDN letter, “Park is Millinocket’s business,” reflects a narrow-minded view of community. He excoriates the Bangor City Council for expressing opinions about a proposed national park in northern Maine. He contends Millinocket’s proximity to the proposed park gives Millinocket sovereign rights over whether the park should be created, then ironically lists a myriad of Bangor issues Bangor City Council would better attend to.
Millinocket may have concerns as a local community, but no part of the proposed park lies within its boundaries nor even in townships that share boundaries with Millinocket. Millinocket has no sovereign rights relating to this proposal.
Bangor is part of the larger community, a geographic region with a common sense of shared resources and interconnectedness. It could become the business and transportation nexus for three national parks — Acadia, the Appalachian National Scenic Trail and North Woods — providing economic benefits not only for Bangor but for communities throughout these areas of Maine.
Additionally, the proposed North Woods national park is a national resource intended to provide experiences and benefits beyond the local community to the broader American community. Therefore, any American’s views should be considered.
Decisions about the proposed North Woods national park encompass the future of a depressed region; the choices of economic, socio-cultural, ecological and recreational benefits; and opportunities for local, regional and all other American citizens. To focus the arguments on local control may serve to create fear but unnecessarily diverts public discourse on these important broader areas.
Kathryn Gaianguest
Lamoine
Growing health crisis
There is a growing health crisis in the U.S. Approximately 3.2 million people are infected with hepatitis C. Unfortunately, because the symptoms are not always obvious, the CDC estimates 75 percent of those infected are undiagnosed.
Hepatitis C is a liver disease spread when blood of an infected person enters another’s body. Today, most people are infected through needle sharing. However, most diagnosed cases are among baby boomers.
Even so, hepatitis C tests are not readily offered, possibly because of the associated social stigma.
Hepatitis C has become stigmatized and unfairly labeled. It is up to us to remove the social stigma and take on this looming health crisis. I am part of a group of University of Southern Maine master’s of social work students working to educate and remove the stigma. We are working to define harm-reduction measures through focus groups and education to the public and IV drug users. We are working to educate the public more positively about IV drug users and create community awareness through paintings, cartoons, drawings and murals.
It is up to us as a society to remove the social stigma attached to hepatitis C. Early detection can be the difference between life and death. Public education, word of mouth and media engagement can help to remove social stigma attached to this disease.
Testing is covered by Medicare and private insurance and adds no cost to the patient. The CDC estimates testing alone could save up to 120,000 lives.
Chris Deveau
Saco