Social Security wage
If the minimum wage in Portland increases to $10.10 next January and to $10.68 the January after that, as Portland City Council proposes to do, how does that help someone on a fixed income such as Social Security or Social Security Disability Insurance?
Bearing in mind that those payments are based on a person’s earnings throughout that person’s life, some people’s — such as my husband’s — monthly payment only amounts to $6.15 per hour, as he was disabled in 1986 and the government gives yearly raises by cents only.
So people living on fixed amounts, such as SS or SSDI, need to have their amounts brought up to date to match the minimum wage at least.
Joan Newport
Ellsworth
Blame Mark Eves
All this hand-wringing opposition to Gov. Paul LePage’s promise not to allocate money to Good Will-Hinckley, which operates a charter school, if it hired one of the Maine Legislature’s most vocal opponents of charter schools is greatly misplaced. Our outrage should be directed toward Mark Eves.
What gall! What chutzpah! A legislator who consistently has voted against and verbally opposed charter schools abandons his principles to take a job leading an organization that oversees a charter school just because it would pay him a nice salary? Classic political expediency is what it is — a term-limited legislator looking for any job he can find that would pay him big bucks.
Then Eves expects our governor, a strong proponent of charter schools and someone who remembers Eves’ strong opposition, just to roll over and play nice? Has he learned nothing while serving in the Legislature?
Good Will-Hinckley’s decision to offer Eves the job at this time was pretty silly, as well. How could they even think it would be a smart move to turn over their leadership to a demonstrated opponent of their very existence? The school first should require Eves to demonstrate his support for charter schools for several years. Then, but not before, if he is otherwise qualified, the school can offer him the job.
So let’s stop all the moaning over our governor’s outrage at this outrageous nonsense. He is right to be outraged. Eves’ actions caused this outrage. If people don’t like this problem, then channel that anger to the source: Eves himself.
Michael V. McCabe
Whiting
Toxic chemicals protection
The U.S. Senate is considering a bill, S.697, that would amend the Toxic Substance Control Act. The Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 has allowed nearly 80,000 chemicals in commerce to enter the market without any safety review. Some of these chemicals are in household products and have been linked to cancers, learning disabilities and reproductive harm. It is time for reform that truly protects our health from these chemicals.
Unfortunately, under the proposed reforms, it would take the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency at least eight years to review only 25 chemicals. The bill also prevents states from taking action on chemicals while the federal government reviews them. Here in Maine, we have the Kids Safe Product Act, which passed in 2008 with bipartisan support. It allows our state to keep families safe from the worst of the worst chemicals. We shouldn’t limit Maine’s authority to act and protect our residents.
A better bill, HR 2576, just passed the U.S. House almost unanimously. While not perfect, it preserves state authority to take action on toxic chemicals and would allow state and federal authorities to review a greater number of chemicals for safety in a shorter timeframe than the Senate bill.
Congress should use the House reform bill and add the stronger elements of the Senate bill to it. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King will be key to ensuring the passage of real reform. Now is our opportunity for real reform that would result in a healthier future for our children.
Anna Libby
Mount Vernon
Take down the flag
A Confederate flag sprouts from a pile of neatly stacked yellow lobster traps in Winter Harbor near the town line, where South Gouldsboro Road becomes Newman Road.
The flag caught me unprepared when I drove by to celebrate a beautiful Independence Day morning walk on the majestic Schoodic shore. Instead, I was again jarred into the sad depression of my reaction to the brutal murder of nine black innocents in Charleston, South Carolina, by a white supremacist. This flag didn’t stimulate thoughts of states rights; it wrenched at my love for constitutional rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, rights I swore to uphold nearly 40 years ago when I pledged my allegiance to the nation I love.
Down East, far from the Mason-Dixon Line, a lobster trap signifies fierce, rugged Yankee individuality and rights. But the “red, white and blue” I celebrate and hold dear morphed into the ugly “X,” which taunts the brave men and women of our armed forces who daily lay down their lives in far away and dangerous places to protect my way of life and the flag for which it stands.
Vivodh Anand
Milbridge
Governor incapable
Maine voters should have a way to impeach governors who show they are unfit for the office. Our current governor clearly is incapable of fulfilling these duties.
Being governor does not ensure automatic approval of every thing you want. Voters elect governors, not dictators, which is why we have a two-party system. This governor has neither the ability nor the willingness to negotiate and, therefore, is incapable of doing his job. The only ability he has shown us is how to bully people, use blackmail, have temper tantrums and call legislators names. While this is my performance evaluation of his job to date, I am confident the majority of voters would agree with this evaluation.
This is the first governor in my lifetime to prove beyond a doubt that Maine voters need a process for removing a governor from office. He not only has tainted Maine’s reputation but is setting a bad example for the younger generation by his actions since being elected governor.
The time has come for us to do whatever is required for changing Maine law to allow the removal of a truly incompetent elected official.
David H. Crockett
Augusta