Lack of diversity
I have over the years seen a lot published about the lack of diversity in various areas. To me this is a bogus argument. It is generally based on the number of women, people of color, etc., included in political groups, professional organizations, private clubs and companies.
This is all nonsense. It makes no difference how many people of what group are included in an organization. What is important is how the people think.
The biggest shouters about the lack of diversity problem are in higher education and the media.They are missing the point that the most important measure of diversity is the diversity of thought. It makes no difference how many people of what group are in an organization if they all think alike.
This is what the media and higher education gets wrong. They want all kinds of different people, however a very large majority all basically think alike. There is very little diversity of thought in the organizations that we can depend upon to holler the loudest about diversity.
When this issue is resolved and diversity of thought becomes the bellwether, then things will change and more progress will be made toward a stronger society. Until that time, we are doomed to a system where superficial diversity is lauded, real diversity is ignored and real progress is absent.
Bob Mercer
Bucksport
Increase Castine board
The Castine Main Street Association seeks fairness through legal means because the selectmen refuse to consider two citizen petitions regarding Main Street design. Based on earlier actions, ignoring the petitions is incomprehensible.
Article 3 on the Nov. 3, 2009, ballot read: “Shall the Town increase the size of the Board of Selectmen/Assessors and Overseers of the Poor from three members to five members?” The question passed 293 to 224.
At town meeting on March 27, 2010, warrant No. 54 read: “To see if the town will vote to reduce the size of the Board of Selectmen from five members to three members, revoking the Nov. 3, 2009, decision.” It was adopted 65 to 55.
Five months after 293 residents voted to increase the board, 65 people revoked that decision.
Regarding Main Street design, the selectmen have said the town’s attorney advised them not to acknowledge the petitions because the issue had been decided. Many of us do not accept that interpretation. But let’s assume for a moment there had been a vote on the Main Street design. If the same selectmen followed the precedent they established in March 2010, the petition(s) would have been considered.
I can only conclude if a citizens’ petition serves their purposes the selectmen consider it. If they disagree with the premise, they reject it. I believe Castine deserves better from its selectmen. Perhaps it is time to reconsider increasing the board.
Delacroix Davis III
Trustee
Castine Main Street Association
Castine
Dandelion wine
Before Wyman’s president Ed Flanagan disseminates more propaganda about the necessity for honeybees to pollinate wild blueberries ( BDN, Aug. 14), he should look at the “List of Crops That Don’t Need Honeybees” posted on Facebook. Flanagan (and the BDN) both conveniently ignore the fact that honeybees aren’t native to this country in the first place. So it makes one wonder how blueberries ever developed and survived here without honey bees imported from the old world.
I can accept the idea of letting our lawns revert to fields of wildflowers, but not because it would benefit honeybees or save water. It would benefit us more directly by producing those pretty yellow flowers, which can be made into wine, and the succulent leaves that we can eat as greens. The disappearance of noisy gasoline-powered lawnmowers would also reduce atmospheric pollution and let us sleep on quiet Sunday mornings; but I’ll bet some neighbors would insist that letting our lawns revert to nature would be unthinkable.
That would be just as ridiculous as the idea that a flower garden next to the Wyman’s business offices in Milbridge could be the salvation of its blueberry fields.
Carroll B. Knox
Caribou