Guns are answer to safety
Alex Steed’s Dec. 4 column blaming the National Rifle Association for mass shootings was a blatant case of shoot the messenger. He needs to understand some basic facts.
First, laws have not and will not stop deadly crime, so the only way to stop criminals is with deadly force.
Second, America’s greatness is a direct result of individual initiative. Because police on all levels now admit they cannot protect everyone, the only logical solution to mass shootings is more individuals arming themselves and to concealed carry. If mass killers knew that every group, even church meetings and schools, had armed people present, how many mass shootings do you think we would see? Very few.
Third, all of our cyber gadgets haven’t changed America. It’s still the Wild West. To blame the NRA for reminding us of this fact is ridiculous. I don’t see anyone trying to haul automakers into court because their vehicles kill thousands of people annually. The NRA is one of the few organizations defending Americans’ right to keep and bear arms.
Steed laments that his daughter isn’t safe in her school. How about getting a drive together to install armed guards? After the Sandy Hook massacre, how could any parent allow their kids to attend a school without armed guards? Wake up, dude. It’s time for him to unpack his guns and his backbone.
Peter W. Earl
Fort Fairfield
Climate change routine
Why is Greenland called Greenland? Because sometime in the past, it was lush with green vegetation, trees, shrubs, grass and other plants, not the ice cube it is today. It had a human population that lived and grew crops; mostly fishermen and maybe Vikings and Norsemen. It wasn’t always the ice cube it is today.
Christopher Columbus came to America looking for a way to India and China. Samuel de Champlain, Jacques Cartier, Henry Hudson and other explorers from Europe came to North America looking for the rumored Northwest Passage that in the past may have been open to navigation and not the sheet of ice that confronted them.
So what is unusual for the melting of the ice in the arctic? Nothing. Ice ages have come and gone. Global warming and cooling has been going on forever. The only thing different is its inconvenience to humans. I guess Mother Nature doesn’t care.
Frederick Ashmore
Hancock
DHHS disrespects oversight
It is apparent that Maine Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Mary Mayhew, an early appointee of Gov. Paul LePage, was named to the position in order to defund, dismantle and obstruct the work of the department she heads.
Her statement, repeated in the Dec. 8 Bangor Daily News editorial about the problems at Riverview, in which she calls the idea that commissioners should expect to be at the “beck and call” of the Legislature’s Government Oversight Committee “ludicrous” is one example of her arrogance and disdain for the legislative process and the importance of the balance of power. Both she and the governor have lost sight of the fact that “we the people” are their bosses and that the legislative committee has a duty to be informed to protect our interests.
This bureaucrat is unresponsive to all but the governor’s wishes, and LePage is unresponsive to the wishes of the people of Maine. I refer not just to those who voted for him but also to the majority of those of us who didn’t. To hold hostage bonds authorized by a large majority of Maine voters until the Legislature approves his pet projects is blackmail. To exert political pressure that causes individuals to lose positions, as he has done in several instances ( Good Will-Hinckley and the community college system, for example), raises the act of bullying to a fine art.
This sort of disrespect for the residents of Maine and their representatives should not stand.
Shirley Jarvella
Northport