Kenduskeag sculpture
You have got to be kidding. Bangor gave Anna Hepler $1,000 for that ridiculous thing floating in Kenduskeag Stream. It is not even done nicely. A 10-year-old could do a better job. Cut it loose.
Marcelle Whitney
Bangor
Death with dignity
Some form of a “death with dignity” law exists in five states, with another 30 seeking the same. Maine’s LD 1270 is a good combination of these end-of-life legal choices. In the years and states in which this law has been in effect, only a handful have taken advantage of a legal right to end their indescribable suffering given but a few months or days of verifiably diagnosed life left.
Yet, the religion-driven fear-mongering opposition scream “suicide contagion.” “A single suicide leads to an avalanche of other suicides.” These are the same voices that promised the step after legalizing gay marriage would be marriage between people and animals.
It is not OK for our elected representatives to impose their personal religion on those they represent who practice a number of religions. It is equally irresponsible, dangerous and abhorrent to pay more attention to a strident hysterical minority instead of the majority who understands why our founders carefully separated church from state. This is one reason America’s beautiful patchwork of faith and culture has worked.
We beg Maine lawmakers to listen to reason and righteousness instead of zealot-driven hysteria. To think about someone they know and love who may need this law.
Carol and Bill Selsberg
Eliot
School budget
As a retired teacher, the recent vote on Bangor’s school budget provided me a few smiles. First, it was the cheerful pink pigs. Then it was the signs that read “Support our kid’s teachers.”
I wondered which Bangor student and who the teachers might be? Funnier still was the fact this punctuation error was made on behalf of teachers. Another year signmakers may try “our kids’ teachers.”
Barbara True
Bangor
Immigrant aid
The June 11 BDN article about the state budget and immigrant aid referred to the amount as being a “tiny sliver.” Is it really? If the budget were a standard 8-inch diameter pie, the slice would be 0.005-inches thick, or 127 micrometers. This is the thickness of a human hair, a piece of paper or a coat of paint. I’m thinking it is so small that it isn’t even a sliver.
Tamara Risser
Portland
Christian values
David Treadwell’s attack on Christianity continues the progressive liberal agenda pervasive in this country today. His cute but trite attempt to pervert Benjamin Franklin is a weak attempt to make an argument. His June 9 BDN OpEd has several false assumptions, and its assertions are quite insulting to anyone who can think critically.
Those who take advantage of their position in the Christian faith are apparent to many, but to condemn a few and equate it to all believers is a failure of logic. It is the foundation of our government and culture, however, that is based in Christian morality and belief. It is the pure and ideal goal that humanity in America has excelled in implementing its values with Christ as a model of behavior.
No other nation in the history of the world has had the positive effect upon the world as the U.S. founded upon Christian ideals and beliefs. History is replete with examples of this and is readily available to those who wish to read it.
Treadwell’s foul penned attack ends with a political diatribe filled with dirty innuendo of the progressive liberal mindset. It seeks to quell the intellectual debate that is not only guaranteed, but encouraged by our national interests. To condemn without specifics is intellectually contemptible.
It pains me to see the perversion of the Bible as Treadwell sets forth in his OpEd. He is worse than any of the individuals that he attempts to condemn. Treadwell is clearly an anti-Christian, progressive liberal in his views.
Davie Smith
Rangeley Plantation