Concealed carry wrong
I am a Boy Scout at Camp Roosevelt in Maine. Is it right for people to conceal their weapons without a permit as a new Maine law will allow?
I think people shouldn’t even be allowed to carry a weapon. Now I know people think it’s their right to carry a weapon. I know weapons are completely harmless when left alone. But when we have them with us, it’s a hundred times worse.
All in all, I truly believe this law shouldn’t have been passed.
Stowe Duston
Troop 139
Palm City, Florida
Finding middle ground
Regarding David Winslow’s July 20 BDN OpEd about carrying guns, arming all of America is wrong-headed. Most of us are not “anti-gun persons” either but want reasonable gun control measures. There is a middle ground, and reasonable people can and should make that happen.
Fred Badger
Little Deer Isle
Demeaning language
People are greater than their disabilities. An individual cannot simply be defined by one part of his or her life. A “schizophrenic” is often a term heard instead of a “person living with schizophrenia.” Although this change may not seem large, this displays they are people who happen to have schizophrenia, not that their mental illness consumes or defines their entire lives.
As a high school student, labels aren’t foreign to me, but they have no place in referring to individuals with mental illness or physical disabilities, much like referring to a person with a developmental disability as a “retard” is demeaning and referring to a person without a developmental disability with such language is meant as an insult. This implies someone is no more than the condition they live with and shows that whoever hurls the insult views them as one thing.
Changing the language surrounding mental illness and disabilities is something that can create a culture that doesn’t demean individuals in our society. Considering the fact that a quarter of adults in America have a mental illness, it’s important not to alienate people based on mental illness.
When individual-friendly language isn’t demonstrated, the incoming generation isn’t any more informed than the previous one. How can individual-friendly language be expected of adolescents when it isn’t the constant for media and adult conversation? The answer is it can’t. Words have unintended effects, so be aware of the impact.
Olivia McCormack
Orono
Get real about guns
We now know where the gun came from in the Anthony Lord shooting rampage: It looks like he got it from one of the victims after he had tied and beat him up. If that victim would not have had that gun, none of these shootings and killings would have happened.
It completely destroys the gun advocates most frequent reason why everyone should carry a gun: The good guy with a gun will protect us from the bad guys. This is nothing but delusional thinking, of course.
Every time an avid gun supporter states that guns in good hands will keep crime down, they repeat nothing but fairy tales and moonshine.
Too many guns will cause too many deaths. One is never safe from guns, and now they permeate almost every facet of our lives. Some studies have shown that increased access to guns increases the chances of shooting someone or being shot. And those chances are now increasing as the number of guns increase. The National Rifle Association done its job, well. According to the Congressional Research Service, there likely are more than 310 million of guns in the U.S.
Only a very fearful segment of our society would embrace such a policy as a gun in every hand and guns in every home. Sounds good to the fearful in theory, but in reality it will end up murdering children in greater numbers than ever. It’s a total and complete detachment from reality.
James Chasse
St. Agatha
Waiting in doctor’s office
Does anyone remember the good old days, when a health care provider’s staff would apologize if they were running late, let us know at check-in there may be a wait time and every 15 minutes or so would update us on the wait? Not anymore.
I have come to the conclusion time has become unvaluable at all levels of health care. We used to be able to cheat the system by booking first thing appointments or right after lunch to get the physician on time — that no longer is the case. The health care professions, including medical, dental and optometry, certainly have their eye on the money roll but not on the time we may be missing work to be there.
I spent 40 minutes this week waiting for my physician, only to find out that there had been training previously scheduled during that time. Why, then, would there be an appointment opening on the schedule? I checked into my eye doctor, and no one at the front desk mentioned a sick doctor and that my doctor was seeing double the patients that day. Just sit down and relax; they will get to us when they feel like it.
Jennifer Theriault
Bangor
Christie and LePage
Presidential wannabe New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s July 1 visit to Maine, during which Gov. Paul LePage endorsed his presidential bid, might be seen by many an unconvincing effort to boost public regard for Maine’s governor, who in recent months has been mired in controversy and calls for impeachment.
Christie likes to think of himself as one with a brash, no-nonsense style. He would have us believe he has energized New Jersey’s economy; is a great supporter of education, teachers and public employees; and is getting things done for the people who elected him.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Christie’s style in dealing with the public often is rude, hectoring and uncivil. New Jersey’s economy is sagging, and the people he claims he has served well gave him a 30 percent approval rating in recent a poll. Teachers at Livingston High School, his alma mater, picketed his candidacy announcement.
As with most Republicans, his policies in New Jersey have tended to favor the rich and big business, with little regard for the unemployed, poor, sick and disadvantaged.
It is hard to see how Christie’s endorsement could enhance LePage’s stature.
Gene Clifford
Mount Desert