Veterans jobs article skewed
I’m really impressed with the BDN’s lack of impartiality in the Dec. 14 jobs for veterans article.
The Maine Department of Labor and Gov. Paul LePage worked very hard to support and find jobs for veterans over the past three months, while Mike Michaud and his staff traveled up from Washington for the event.
And this paper has the nerve to say the two find something to agree on.
It was Michaud’s picture the BDN ran in the paper. Where are the pictures of the people who really did the work or the employers who stepped forward?
Neil Ashton
Brewer
Do not fear the refugees
As the first-generation offspring of a refugee mother and an immigrant father, our society’s response to the international refugee crisis disturbs me.
In elementary school, we were taught to understand the symbolism of the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
My mother and her parents walked across Europe fleeing the Soviets, desperate to reach the U.S. My grandfather understood America to be the very best alternative, a country of democracy and opportunity founded by refugees and immigrants. Before they made it to Ellis Island, they spent five years in a displaced persons camp, learning English and preparing to start their lives over.
My father spent World War II in Japan, too young to be conscripted. My parents met while studying for their graduate degrees in New York City.
Please trust the stringent vetting process in which first the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and then the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, among other federal agencies, researches and evaluates the background and references of the few refugees who are eventually granted an entry visa.
Have courage and trust. Try not to succumb to the fear those who terrorize seek to instill. Do not abandon the values this country was built upon. Have at least as much courage and decency as do our neighbors to the north.
This is land of the free and the home of the brave. And, perhaps, the home of the fearful not so much.
Jan Semba
Rangeley
Let Mainers play ball
I am a University of Maine sports fan and graduate of UMaine. I understand the rich history Maine has had in its basketball history using homegrown Maine players and having success.
Unfortunately, that is not the case now, as Bob Cimbollek wrote in his Dec. 14 column. (Bentley University versus UMaine would be an intriguing matchup, by the way.) It is just as glaring on the women’s basketball team, if not worse, with no Maine players playing more than a few token minutes.
This is a problem I see with the university and its hiring of coaches who don’t understand our tradition. I would much rather see a mix of players from the state who can compete, and history shows they can.
Have we won anything with the players who are mostly from out of state? I think not. The university should do a better job recruiting these players who are leaving the state. Let’s see Mainers get the chance to play.
Jay Edgecomb
Fort Fairfield
Abortion violence against women
Karen Saum wrote in her Dec. 4 BDN letter to the editor that she never volunteered again at an abortion clinic because she detected “that abortion was being used by men as a preferred method of birth control.”
The early feminist leaders understood that legalized abortion would not advance the cause of women’s equality but would be a safety net for sexually predatory and irresponsible males.
Alice Paul, author of the original Equal Rights Amendment, referred to abortion as “ the ultimate exploitation of women.” Susan B. Anthony, Mattie Brinkerhoff, Sarah Norton, Emma Goldman and Elizabeth Cady Stanton strongly argued that legalizing abortion would be profoundly harmful to women.
What’s far less known is the extent to which women who refuse to undergo abortions are subjected to violence. Mark Crutcher, president of Life Dynamics, compiled in 2012 a list based on media reports of 80 women murdered by pro-abortion boyfriends or killers hired by them.
These killings are only the tip of the iceberg, because it does not include any cases of the women who have been badly beaten.
Ron Stauble Sr.
Unity