Accept Syrian refugees
It is disheartening to see so many people opposed to accepting Syrian refugees. These are people who face a Paris-like tragedy regularly. These are people who experience bombings, shootings and chemical warfare; who have seen hundreds of thousands of their fellow Syrians brutally slaughtered. While security concerns are valid and deserve serious consideration, the United States has an extensive vetting process. President Barack Obama was not wrong when he said that to reject Syrian refugees was both “shameful” and “not American.”
France announced it would continue to accept refugees in light of the Paris attacks. French President Francois Hollande understands that we are free nations, and we must continue our humanitarian efforts. Our world should be united as one of compassion towards all. One where we aid those who have been displaced. One where we collaboratively combat hatred and terrorism.
It is a disgrace to American values that Gov. Paul LePage and his Republican colleagues refuse to accept refugees. They are using their power to stand in the way of freedom. The refugees are not terrorists. They are brave people yearning to be free from the horrors of war.
Outside New York City stands a symbol of acceptance, hope and liberty. There is a poem by Emma Lazarus that reads:
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”
We can do better. We must do better.
Jared Mummert
Unity
No need for national park
In all the back and forth between proponents and opponents of the proposed national park there is one issue that has not been addressed adequately and it is this: What will the national park have to offer that Baxter State Park does not?
Granted there will be more park acreage, but will there indeed be a significant increase in park visitors, or will the national park drain visitors and revenue from Baxter?
Between Baxter and all the other accessible woodlands already available to hikers, campers and recreators, where are the studies to definitively prove the demand is not already being met? There already exists plenty of land and waterways for such activities.
The last thing we Mainers need is the heavy hand of the federal government involved in our forestry and woodlands affairs any more than it already is.
Michael Robinson
Lincoln
Shameful history of bigotry
I believe it is truly unfortunate that our governor has decided to echo the bigotry and ethnocentrism of his fellow Republican, and some Democratic, governors. There is a long and shameful history of American attitudes and treatment of immigrants: Catholics, Jews, Irish, African-Americans, Italians, Chinese and Japanese, to name just a few. Our governor is now part of that history.
I would encourage the governor, and anyone else who thinks like him, to visit the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Perhaps then, he will reconsider his position about those men, women and children trying to escape the terrible conditions in the Middle East.
Jim Owen
Belfast
Iraq and the rise of ISIS
Patrick Calder flies in the face of the obvious in his Nov. 18 BDN OpEd, “The consequences of ignoring reality,” when he attributes the conditions that have allowed the rise of ISIS to President Barack Obama’s policies. You may or may not approve of Obama’s handling of the mess that he inherited in Iraq, but the plain fact is that the mess was made in the first place by President George W. Bush with the war that he started, on false pretences, in 2003.
Calder may recall that the French told us that it was a mistake at the time.
Arch Davis
Belfast