Portland doing something right
In his column Thursday, Matthew Gagnon described Portland as “where the left goes to try out ideas and push the most outlandish policy proposals because they can accomplish them there.”
It’s also the place where most Mainers go to find a job, and it’s a cash cow for Maine revenue.
They must be doing something right down there.
Paul H. Gray
Castine
Bloodhounds aren’t unique
Regarding the Oct. 26 BDN story “NH officer, dog win award for tracking alleged killer in Maine,” I wish to extend congratulations to Officer Keith MacKenzie and his police dog Daisy Mae. However, some of MacKenzie’s statements concerning bloodhounds and their alleged “superior” sense of smell vis a vis other breeds are troubling and need to be rectified.
MacKenzie claims bloodhounds are “the only dogs that can smell human scent. Other dogs are trailing dogs, they smell crushed vegetation before they smell skin traces. Bloodhounds are tracking dogs and can actually smell skin rafts a person leaves behind.” Any dog is capable of following human odor, and any good service dog — German shepherds, Malinois, labs, etc. — follows primarily human odor and thus is able to discriminate between different human odors along the way to finding the targeted person. This is illustrated every day throughout the nation whenever these dogs successfully track a particular suspect through busy urban environments where there is little or no vegetation — only hard surfaces.
Further, despite the claims of some bloodhound fanciers, there is absolutely no scientific data attesting to the genetic olfactory superiority of bloodhounds — or any other breed. Bloodhounds as a breed are no better or worse than any number of other breeds. To say otherwise is to perpetuate a myth that leads people to call on a particular dog to track a child or suspect just because it’s a “bloodhound” instead of another dog who oftentimes is a better tracker. This can costs lives and lead investigations in the wrong direction.
George Demos
Sturbridge, Massachusetts
Raise wages to fill jobs
For the Maine employers struggling to fill thousands of jobs as reported in the Nov. 3 BDN, there is a simple answer. Raise the salaries you offer. Maine has plenty of unemployed and underemployed workers looking for work, and tens of thousands of highly trained young Mainers who left the state to find decent jobs would like to return. Raise the salaries and they will come.
Business people understand that if frost kills oranges in Florida, the price of orange juice goes up. If more lobsters are caught, the price goes down. It’s called the law of supply and demand — the basis of free enterprise.
They also claim that labor is just a commodity, like lobsters, and when there is an oversupply of labor they can, and do, hire workers for less pay as long as the oversupply lasts, as it has until recently. However, when the oversupply disappears, they seem to forget the law of supply and demand applies to labor and complain to the BDN that they can’t hire workers at the salaries they would like to pay.
If a business can’t pay the market price for its supplies and labor and still produce a competitive product, the law of free markets says it should go out of business. Mitt Romney called this “creative destruction” and a good thing. There is no Maine labor shortage. The salaries being offered are below market price.
John Alexander
Old Town
Ride the bus
I’m glad to see there’s an effort to get people to ride The Community Connector. I lost the use of my car about 1½ years ago and have been riding the bus ever since. It really works well for me as I am a senior citizen and anyone who is over 62 or disabled can ride for half the fare.
It’s especially important for people who don’t have a car and need to get to and from work. I use the bus to get to work as a direct support professional, and my clients rely on me to be there.
I’m also a member of an interfaith group, Faith Linking in Action, that is trying to improve and expand the bus system.
To bring attention to the Community Connector, there is a November “Ride the Bus!” initiative we are all working on. Anyone who wants to learn how to use the system can get help from a “Bus Ambassador” like me who will show you how to get around. You just need to call Food and Medicine at 989-5850 to schedule a time.
Ted Rippy
Bangor