Eves a poor choice for Good Will-Hinckley
For the last six months, I have observed from a distance the controversy around Gov. Paul LePage’s decision to withhold funds intended for Good Will-Hinckley’s charter school that serves at-risk children. If Maine’s Speaker of the House Mark Eves has a history of anti-charter school bias, shouldn’t that be a valid reason to object to Eves’ appointment as head of the school? I am a graduate and former board member of Good Will-Hinckley and a strong advocate of school choice.
The board of directors should have selected someone totally familiar with the history and mission of Good Will-Hinckley. In 1984, I chaired the search committee that chose Dr. James Hennigar to be the executive director, leading to the eventual revival of the school. Hennigar had read every book written by the founder and clearly understood the challenges ahead of him. I connected him with a friend who served on the board of the Harold Alfond Foundation. That relationship lasted many years and contributed greatly to the renewal of a struggling school during his tenure.
I admit that the relationship between the governor and the speaker is rocky at best. When the media and LePage haters take a moment and go back to the reason why Eves’ appointment may have been a mistake, perhaps civility may return to Maine politics.
Dan Hillard
Wilder, Vermont
Paper industry is gone
Great Northern Paper was sold to a multinational company. It was downhill from there. A few years later, the workers were in the midst of their first labor strike in their mills. The woods workers union had already been defeated. This is more than 40 years of multinationals ruining the economy around Katahdin.
Yet, the few that have survived economically still want to act as if the forest industry is going to continue to support the towns around Katahdin. The paper industry is gone.
Does anybody remember what the economy of this area was like before the paper industry? Do we really have to go that far back before we allow change? Residents of the region really should ask themselves how is this working for them? That is the question Dr. Phil asks when he wants people to realize what is going on around them.
Charlie Cirame
Millinocket
Tailgating morons
I agree wholeheartedly with Emmet Meara’s Nov. 9 Bangor Daily News column about the number of tailgating morons on the road these days. I’ll also add the morons who pass and pull back in a car length or two ahead of you, even though there are no other cars in the lane. Unfortunately, these morons probably don’t read letters to the editor.
Jo Ann Higgins
Bangor
Eves a model of civility
I want to thank legislators Joan Welsh, Peggy Rotundo, Chuck Kruger and Drew Gattine for their Nov. 10 BDN OpEd in support of House Speaker Mark Eves. I very much support the way Eves has dealt with Gov. Paul LePage. Anyone who has been a parent knows that arguing with a 3-year-old who is having a tantrum will get nowhere.
I am not surprised that Rep. John Martin criticized Eves in a Nov. 7 BDN article for not telling LePage one on one “exactly what he thought of him.” Martin is the sole reason I voted for term limits. I am looking forward to the day our state government moves forward on important issues in a civil way, as modeled by Eves.
Beth Dilley
Southwest Harbor
A veteran to honor
My younger brother George, who lives in Old Town, served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. When he was 4 years old, he lost two fingers of his left hand and then lost the sight in one of his eyes at about the same age. We lived on a farm in Hersey at the time. There were eight of us children.
He went on to own a business called George Bates and Sons in Lewiston that sold and rented TVs. After, he went to Shin Pond, near Patten, and became a bush pilot until he was badly burned in a crash.
Now there is a veteran to be honored.
Hollis Bates
Lewiston