Poliquin’s misplaced priorities
Whenever Rep. Bruce Poliquin’s name appears in the news, I wonder how we have found ourselves with such a bland and insubstantial representative. To be honest, I’ve wondered what I might be missing; surely there must be more to one who has gotten himself elected. His latest proposition suggests there is simply not much to miss.
Poliquin is wasting Congress’ time, proposing that food assistance be blocked for those convicted of terrorism. Poliquin concedes he cannot cite an instance in which a convicted terrorist has received SNAP benefits. Poliquin’s office counts 49 convicted terrorists in U.S. prisons who may be released by 2041. The national average monthly benefit for those receiving food assistance was about $125 in 2015. Simple arithmetic demonstrates that if all convicted terrorists received the full benefit, the cost would be infinitesimal compared to our $3.8 trillion budget, on the order of 0.000002 percent, costing me about one-ten-thousandth of 1 cent on my 2014 federal taxes.
Poliquin’s meaningless grandstanding is a rather transparent strategy. He gets his name in the news, suggests he is actually doing something for Mainers and invokes terrorism to perpetuate fear in the voting public.
Martin O’Connell
Bangor
Bangor bus connects communities
Like many readers, I was struck by the commitment shown by two Community Connector drivers who made phone calls and knocked on doors to check on the welfare of a regular passenger who failed to show up for several days in a row, as the BDN reported Jan. 29.
As a regular bus rider, I was not surprised. Our drivers have a difficult job. But when you ride regularly, they take the time to learn your name, stop and regular schedule. When you ride the bus, you’re never just a fare.
This kindness and inclusivity characterizes fellow passengers, who without prompting will help you on or off the bus with strollers, walkers, or shopping bags. They’ll share a smile, make a joke, give a compliment and commiserate about the weather. Like many regular riders, I have a diverse circle of “bus friends” — people who enrich my commute, brighten my day and who I might never have met otherwise.
In so many ways, the bus is our Community Connector.
So if you’re tired of battling bad weather, crazy drivers and tight parking, ride the bus. You’ll find your commute gives you a chance to prepare for a busy day or unwind from a stressful one. You can read, knit, listen to music, meditate and even nap. (Once you’re a regular, someone will wake you when your stop approaches.)
The bus is affordable, reliable and — for all but the terminally impulsive — surprisingly convenient.
Why not give it a try?
Lisa Feldman
Orono
Corporations will use TPP to bypass courts
TransCanada Corp. on Jan. 6 said it would seek $15 billion in damages over the U.S. government’s rejection of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. TransCanada is suing the U.S. through the investor state settlement dispute arbitration system set up under the North American Free Trade Agreement. If the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact — which has been described as NAFTA on steroids — is approved, these cases could become more common.
The investor state dispute settlement system lies at the heart of this trade agreement, which will be fast tracked through Congress with no amendments whatsoever. The implications of this private legal system just for corporations is frightening because through these tribunals corporations could bypass our judicial system.
Is endless litigation and fear of litigation the best vision we have of the future? That $15 billion in damages TransCanada is seeking will be just the start of our tax money funneled into that corporate pipeline that doesn’t like anyone telling them what they can’t extract.
John Gornall
Garland
DEW no haven for animals
I am writing regarding George Smith’s Jan. 27 BDN column on the DEW zoo. DEW Animal Haven is no haven for animals at all; it is an inadequately regulated roadside zoo.
“ Yankee Jungle,” Smith and Maine’s press corps should stop whitewashing this sad facility and misleading the public. DEW contributes to the crisis of exotic animal proliferation and abuse across the U.S.
In 2014, DEW charged $50 per person to pet three baby tiger cubs, one of whom died from a congenital neurological condition. White tigers are the result of constant in-breeding, so this outcome is common.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture license that roadside zoos, such as DEW, hold does not mean the facilities meet professional standards or adequately protect public safety and animal welfare.
There is an urgent need for new regulations and legislation that prohibit the private possession of exotic animals and bring an end to the breeding, selling and display of exotic animals at depressing roadside zoos, which can’t begin to provide the wild animals they cage with the space or quality of life they deserve.
Karen Coker
Cape Elizabeth
Racial profiling, not police work
The situation Toussaint St. Negritude, poet laureate of Belfast, found himself in while walking home from the Liberty Library on Jan. 7 and confronted by a Maine State Police trooper can only be called “walking while black.” That the trooper asked Negritude where he was coming from, where he was going, how long he had lived in Maine, if he was living with friends and repeatedly whether he had “knives or weapons or anything like that,” all the while with her hand on her service pistol, does not support the Maine Department of Public Safety’s position that the trooper stopped Negritude “out of concern for his safety.”
One can only imagine what went through Negritude’s mind, as a black man living in the whitest state in America, given the backdrop of false arrests, overrepresentation of black men in our criminal justice system and the police shootings of unarmed black men, teenagers and even a child. While there may be some dispute as to how long this incident lasted, no law enforcement dashboard camera can capture the fear of someone in Negritude’s position that night.
The Maine Department of Public Safety would do well to provide diversity training for its troopers. No doubt law enforcement is a high-risk profession. Living in America is high risk for black men. Black lives matter.
Kendall Merriam
Inaugural poet laureate
Rockland