Israel’s dishonest campaign
There is growing evidence Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has overplayed Iran’s nuclear capacity and ability to develop nuclear weapons. Still, the Israeli leader addressed the United Nations Security Council famously using an hourglass with a red line to illustrate how little time remained before Iran had nuclear capability. After the prime minister’s address to the U.N., the head of Israel’s internal security warned Netanyahu he and his defense minister were misleading the Israeli people regarding Iran’s nuclear plans. Yosi Alpher, a former Mossad agent and co-founder of Bitter Lemons, an organization seeking a peaceful resolution of the long tragic conflict between Jews and Arabs, speaking before the Mid Coast Forum in Northport, stated many high-ranking Israeli military and intelligence officers also voiced concern over Netanyahu’s belligerent statements.
In his recent address to the U.S. Congress, Netanyahu again reiterated his warning about Iran’s plans to construct nuclear weapons. He has been making the same claim since the 1990s.
Republican congressional leaders sought to use the Israeli prime minister to support their opposition to the administration’s efforts to seek a peaceful accord with Iran instead of risk yet another war.
The United States has provided more than $120 billion to Israel, the bulk of which has been in the form of military material. We have been a good friend and ally. The least we can expect in return is an honest assessment of an issue that could lead to a nuclear holocaust.
Ron Jarvella
Northport
Vaccination fears
Even though there have not been any outbreaks of measles in Maine, television ads have cropped up strongly urging people to get their measles shot. Why are people trying to capitalize on people’s fears and lack of knowledge to induce public opinion for the vaccine?
Alternative information is available, however, for those who don’t want to be stampeded into making a quick decision. According to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention records, while no one has died of measles in the last 12 years, many have died in that same 12-year time period from adverse reactions to the MMR vaccine.
The risks and benefits of vaccines must be weighed by parents. They should not be cowed by pressure from the state through proposed legislation, nor should they be unduly influenced by self-serving pharmaceutical companies that make money from the production of vaccines.
Pat Truman
Hallowell
Stud Mill wave
I have lived in Greater Bangor for more than 12 years, and there is one part of the area I love most of all: the Stud Mill Road. It’s a place where someone can get away and enjoy the outdoors, free of distractions and parking lots.
There are many things to love about this highway of solitude, but one thing stands out above all else — the Stud Mill wave. It’s the wave of a random stranger heading the other direction. My first time on the Stud Mill Road, I passed an elderly man in a red pickup. He gave me two raised fingers as he passed by. That memory is forever etched in my mind. I remember this wave so vividly because of my time in Allagash.
Allagash gets quite a few visitors, but not many people live there. I have been going up to Allagash every year since I was 5 years old. There is a unique behavior in Allagash that makes it home. It’s a wave.
I don’t know the lady who drives the blue Buick or the elderly gentleman in the black Ford pickup, and I don’t have to. They are neighbors, and they prove it with a wave.
Sometime after St. Francis on the way to Allagash, it begins. There is no sign that says to start waving, no town ordinance — it’s just Allagash. Every car you pass contains a waving driver. The simple gesture gives a sense of joy, fellowship and, most of all, home.
That is exactly what the wave did on the Stud Mill Road; it brought me home.
Ty McBreairty
Bangor
Cellphone warning labels
May is brain tumor awareness month. Brain cancer registries around the world are starting to see a recent uptick in brain cancer rates.
In May 2011, the World Health Organization made an announcement that the type of radiation emitted from cellphones is a class 2B possible carcinogen. Just this month, more than 190 international scientists from more than three dozen countries have issued a letter calling for the United Nations, World Health Organization and governments around the world to tighten regulations around electromagnetic field exposure coming from these handheld devices.
This month, the city of Berkeley, California, became the first city to inform its citizens of this potential danger. Terence Young, a Canadian lawmaker, also is working on a bill to label all devices that emit this form of wireless radiation, including iPads and Wi-Fi.
The Maine Legislature also is deciding whether warning labels should be placed on cellphones. I never would have come across this information had my husband not suffered with his own battle with a brain tumor.
I would like to thank former Maine state Rep. Andrea Boland for her efforts in 2009, when she introduced the very first cellphone warning label bill in the U.S., and her continued work today on trying to help educate the citizens of Maine on this emerging public health risk.
Kristen Cobb
Portland
Ban knapsacks
Knapsacks are everywhere, nowadays. When we were young and going to school, we never had knapsacks. We had just as many books and items, but we used a belt or rope, tied them together and carried them that way.
Knapsacks should never be allowed in any schools or in any public places. You never know what can be hiding in it — guns, knives or any kind of object that can do harm. No one should be allowed to have a knapsack unless they are going camping or hiking.
You don’t have to look too far to see what I mean. At the bombing at the Boston Marathon, the crowd was full of knapsacks, and the bombers used knapsacks to hide their explosives. This is what is happening in our schools and public places.
If you have anything to carry then carry it out in the open. Don’t hide it in a knapsack.
Eugene Bowden
Bucksport