America needs unifying leaders
Our politicians and candidates for public office should embrace the values of caring, honesty, respect and responsibility. Donald Trump hurls insults at his opponents but offers no thought-out policies for voters to consider. We are not that dumb and need to demand more.
Fortunately, we are a nation of law. Our Constitution tells us how to function as a country, provides checks and balances and enshrines our rights. It gives us the tools to work together as a diverse nation.
We need leaders who can help us work together in a complex world. If we do not vote for that kind of governance, then we are frightened, lazy or, as Trump says, stupid.
Jan Owen
Belfast
Telemedicine abortion unsafe
Maine Family Planning plans to sell a medication, RU486, to perform chemical abortions via webcam, making Maine the third state to allow this dangerous procedure. There have been at least 2,207 adverse events to the use of this medication, including 14 deaths, 612 hospitalizations, 58 ectopic pregnancies, 339 blood transfusions and 256 cases of infections, according to a 2011 report from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
A Feb. 29 BDN article reported that the procedure is limited to no more than 70 days from the first day of the last menstrual period, but the FDA recommends 49 days. They also recommend that women see an abortion doctor in person prior to having a chemical abortion. Medical supervision, which will be lacking with the new Maine webcam abortion, could prevent deaths like these.
This perversion of good telemedicine technology is putting women in danger and must stop. Maine must join the 18 other states that have laws on the books that say abortion providers must be in the same room as pregnant women. We must protect the lives and health of Maine women, not the bottom line of Maine Family Planning.
Ron Stauble Sr.
Unity
Sanders will revive America
I support Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign because I want to bring back the America I grew up in.
In 1971, my father got a unionized manufacturing job with the Kroger Corp. Thanks to that good-paying job, he earned the down payment for the house we moved into five years later. Our new home was part of a housing development, which continued growing until the early 1980s.
Plenty has changed since 1976. American businesses have divided and broken unions while keeping American workers scared and hungry by shipping jobs overseas and hiring them to work in part-time and temporary jobs. The prosperity that was shared during the 1970s lands in far fewer hands today, and although our workers’ productivity soars, their paychecks don’t keep pace with rising prices.
Millions of modest houses have been abandoned and foreclosed on. In some cities, blighted neighborhoods have been bulldozed to keep property values from plummeting beyond recovery. The destruction of these houses supplies the best indicator available of how far American workers’ fortunes have declined in the last 40 years.
I want us to get the jobs and houses back. I want to live in an America in which prosperity is widely shared and irresponsible, bottomless greed is replaced by sound economics and pragmatic altruism.
Say that I’m unrealistic in wanting all this, but I won’t believe it. And neither would Sanders.
Clinton Grubbs
Bangor
GOP lost its way
The Republican Party has lost its way. It is not a wonder that Donald Trump leads in all the polls. The American people are speaking, and it might be a good idea for the Republican Party puppeteers who hide in the shadows to listen.
For Mitt Romney to go on national television only to criticize a presidential candidate was bad enough. But for the Republican Party to encourage it is unconscionable. For Romney to have the audacity to imply that the American people who voted for Trump are feeble-minded is an insult to democracy.
Ted Cruz, born in Canada, may not even be eligible to run for president. Claiming to be a scholar of the Constitution, he justifies his run by quoting an ambiguous passage from the Constitution and pointing out that John McCain, born in the Panama Canal Zone, was allowed to run.
Article II of the Constitution clearly states that you must be a natural-born citizen of the United States to be eligible for the presidency. In other words, you must be born on U.S. soil to be able to serve as president.
Marco Rubio in the last year has missed 41 percent of votes in the U.S. Senate, worse than any other sitting senator. Rubio excuses his dereliction of duty by stating other people do not show up either.
Nothing is beneath the Republican Party. It is a disgrace.
Catherine Ferrell
Greene
High school tourney coverage
While I was thrilled to read in a March 1 BDN article that the attendance at the recent high school basketball tournament games is up some 6,000 fans this year, I’m a little disgruntled, too. I don’t know the reason Maine Public Broadcasting Network didn’t broadcast the semifinals and regional finals as they have in past years, but I missed its wonderful coverage.
I enjoyed games via live streaming, but the streams weren’t without their fair share of issues. There were no replays, no half-time interviews or commentator talks about the games, and sometimes the buffering was annoying.
I’d heard that having five classes now and needing another venue made it nearly impossible to telecast, but is there another reason? It must be costly to broadcast from so many sites. I know the Maine Principals’ Association has two years left on its contract, with an option for a five-year extension, with the National Federation of State High School Associations Network to livestream tourney games, and while that’s great for tourney fans, what about the elderly or the shut-ins who don’t have Internet? I’d really like to see these games broadcast again on MPBN.
In spite of these issues, I’m glad attendance was up and that the weather was mostly good for traveling. There is nothing more entertaining on a cold February day than sitting at the Cross Insurance Center to watch great high school basketball.
Glenda Crosby
Passadumkeag