Festival women missing
Another wonderful American Folk Festival was enjoyed by many in Bangor. Great music, dancing, performers, crafts and food. Only one thing was missing: female artists. Many visitors commented on this. The few artists who were there were outstanding and greatly appreciated. Surely the dearth of female performers does not come from a lack of talent.
Imagine a festival with only three or four males and many female artists — equally shocking. The time of tokenism is over.
Let’s make the 2016 American Folk Festival one we can all be proud of — one that will welcome and inspire all who participate.
Jane Donelon
Brunswick
Strimling for mayor
I’ve never understood why the Bangor Daily News chooses to run a column by Chris Busby, who writes almost exclusively about the goings on in the West End of Portland. Why would we in the BDN readership area care anything about the politics or goings on of Portland’s West End?
However, the Aug. 27 column caught my eye, as it was yet another snarky commentary concerning the Portland mayoral race.
I should say I don’t know Mayor Mike Brennen at all. I do, however, know Ethan Strimling, probably much better and certainly for much longer than Busby. We go way back to him as a pre-teenager and through my children, who were friends and sometimes college roommates with Ethan and Ethan’s and my theater work. We have kept in touch over the years.
In all that time his core beliefs have never changed. He was brought up by an activist family, and those attitudes did not pass with the “hippie era” — they just matured. Those attitudes are ones of compassion, self sacrifice, hard work, kindness and action.
To read Busby’s column regarding him as “arrogant” (does he mean confident?) and “slick” (does he mean well-spoken and gracious?) and “telegenic” (does he mean handsome?) is to read the sulky petulance of a seventh-grader. Yes, Ethan is all those things. That seems to me like a good candidate for public office and a good citizen
Busby’s words sound like a case of sour grapes, and sour grapes make for an unpleasant whine.
Aynne Ames
Belfast
At the car wash
An automatic car wash is coming to Dover-Foxcroft. That may be good news for those who don’t want to use the hand-spray car wash in the same town, but for me and my family it is a nightmare come true.
We bought a distressed home two years ago. It has been the most stressful happening in our lives. I just wanted my daughter to have her wish of going to Foxcroft Academy. She is a high honors student there. She won six awards her first year and last year won the bronze medal in the Spanish exams. But that may all change.
The car wash was approved to go in front of our house. A car wash with the exit blowers and vacuums facing our home, a beautiful 30- to 40-foot treeline to be hacked up to put the water and sewer line in. Even though the ordinance states a natural landscape and buffer should be preserved, our protests went unheard. Now we face the appeals board. Even though the car wash could be moved toward the Route 15 side of the lot, the project manager will not concede because of cost.
Our neighborhood will be negatively affected. An exit will go down our narrow one-way street. Pedestrians will be faced with extra traffic on a collapsing eroding road, which no one has or will address. I can’t live with this in my face. It will ruin our lives and any value we hoped to have in bringing a distressed home and street back to life. I will be forced to sell and leave.
The appeals board meeting is at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 16, at the Dover-Foxcroft Town Hall. Perhaps if there are others to witness this appeal it won’t be so easy to pass this time around.
Nikki Page
Dover Foxcroft