Legalized fireworks bad idea
A family in our neighborhood recently decided to celebrate their son’s high school graduation with a fireworks display. Many of the residents, like me, are pet owners. The fireworks that the celebrators used were the seriously loud, rocket-type fireworks similar to the kind used at public demonstrations such as on the Fourth of July. The dogs on our street that are sensitive to loud noises were truly put to the test during this celebration, and a least one dog — mine — that did not have a loud-noise phobia in the past, has one now.
If I may make a suggestion to those people who are planning to use fireworks this summer in residential areas: First, check to see if fireworks are legal in your community. Give your neighbors, especially those who are pet owners, advance notice of when you intend to use loud fireworks and how long the display will last. This gives your neighbors options — they can move their pets (and young children) to other locations while the fireworks are being used, avoiding stress and trauma.
I approve of some of the things our governor has done for our state. But I don’t believe legalizing fireworks was a good idea. Legalization may have created a few new jobs, but the use of fireworks in Maine by anyone who wants to buy them can lead to injuries – often to children – and trauma to pets. The trade-off just isn’t worth it.
Doug Rich
Hampden
No reason for automatic weapons
I believe in my right to bear arms. I am not anti-gun. My grandparents, parents, my husband, me and many other members of my family own guns and count hunting as a prized activity. None of us, however, own automatic combat weapons, nor do we wish to.
There is no rational reason for a civilian to possess automatic or semiautomatic weapons capable of firing multiple rounds from large magazines in a very short period of time. The only purpose for such guns is in military situations or, perhaps in very rare occurrences, major police actions. The AR-15 weapon used in the nightclub massacre in Orlando, Florida, this weekend is the civilian version of the M-16 military weapon.
We have got to wake up in this country and outlaw the sale of these military-style weapons, regardless of how clean the record of a prospective buyer may be. There could be and undoubtedly still will be murders committed with guns (and with other weapons), but at least they won’t occur 50 at a time, as happened in Orlando.
Penelope Lovejoy Kneeland
Burlington
Political foot shooting
News on the street this election year is that podiatry clinics across the country are adding walk-in hours as fast as they can. Make that limp-in hours.
First the Republicans shot themselves in the foot by nominating Donald Trump. Then they passed the pistol to Hillary Clinton. With a lack of voter enthusiasm, the only thing standing between her and the presidency, her supporters started gratuitously insulting Bernie Sanders and his passionate millions, who are crucial to her walk to the White House. But then Trump went and shot himself in both feet by claiming to be the victim of prejudice by Mexicans and probably Muslims, too.
There can be no better argument for gun control than what we have before us. I’m only sorry it won’t be Sanders versus Trump, so I could sell Sanders my winning slogan: “Who are you more afraid of, the Big Money Boys or the Mexicans?”
The real issues are that we have saddled our children with educational and medical debt, thereby fleecing them before they even have a chance to get on their feet, and that we have chosen to tax our workers rather than the enormous wealth this country generates abroad, thereby hamstringing our economy. Drunk on the money and power given to the few, we find ourselves, as the British say, legless.
Judson Esty-Kendall
Glenburn
I support NRCM
I recall a character in the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon, Captain Peter Wrongway Peachfuzz, who was referred to as a “Reverse Barometer.” If one needed guidance, all that was necessary was to consult Captain Peachfuzz and then do the opposite of whatever he advised.
I have just made a donation to the Natural Resources Council of Maine. If it has invoked the ire of our own “Governor Peachfuzz,” the NRCM must be doing things worthy of support.
Martin O’Connell
Bangor
Missing soccer coverage
I am absolutely stunned that the BDN does not have any coverage on the Copa America Centenario international soccer tournament. The games are so fascinating, well attended and very interesting.
The BDN carries articles on tennis, golf and other sports, but please do not forget these soccer games. The Copa America games go all through June and are carried live by various Fox Sport channels.
Ruth Dietze
Hancock
Republicans and racism
During the 2008 presidential race I saw a video of a John McCain and Sarah Palin rally where a man brought a monkey doll with a little sign attached to it reading “Obama.” It was a nakedly racist act with a very clear message. But what really drove me around the bend wasn’t this one racist idiot in the audience. After all, as many of the Republican people I have mentioned this to have stated, he was only one guy in a crowd of thousands. What really drove me crazy was the response from everyone around him.
They acted like he wasn’t even there. They weren’t cheering him on or patting him on the back, they just looked the other way and pretended like he was a hole in the crowd. There he was, in front of everyone, waving his little monkey doll around with the sign for everyone to read and they were carrying on their rally deliberately ignoring an un-American, racist act with total silence.
Eight years later, the now presumptive Republican nominee just committed a blatantly racist act and the reaction is exactly the same. Donald Trump just stated that an American judge can’t be fair and impartial because he is a “ Mexican” and polling results say that 65 percent of the Republican electorate agrees with him.
So the moral of this story isn’t that most Republicans are racist, they just don’t care if their party is.
Kevin Gardner
Bangor