GOP platform anti-environment
Folks who don’t like air and water pollution should think twice about voting Republican this year.
For those of us who care about the environment, the GOP’s 2016 platform is downright scary.
The platform states on page 19 that “The current Administration, and particularly its EPA, seems not to care. Its Clean Power Plan — the centerpiece of the president’s war on coal — has been stayed by the Supreme Court. We will do away with it altogether. The Democratic Party does not understand that coal is an abundant, clean, affordable, reliable domestic energy resource …The Keystone Pipeline has become a symbol of everything wrong with the current Administration’s ideological approach.”
The platform also advocates for nuclear power generation, with no mention of where the waste would go.
I could never support Donald Trump or the polluting Koch Brothers who have supported his vice presidential running mate, Mike Pence.
Patrick Eisenhart
Augusta
Hope for Alzheimer’s patients
I congratulate Maine’s representatives for coming together on a vital issue. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King and Reps. Chellie Pingree and Bruce Poliquin co-sponsored the Health Outcomes, Planning and Education (HOPE) for Alzheimer’s Act. The real hope for those suffering with Alzheimer’s disease and their families is finding a cure.
The HOPE for Alzheimer’s Act would provide Medicare coverage for care planning for those diagnosed and ensure that the diagnosis and care planning are included in one’s medical record. This is crucial after a diagnosis to improve outcomes and create a higher quality of life.
More than 5 million Americans live with Alzheimer’s, including 26,000 in Maine. Every 66 seconds, someone in the U.S. develops Alzheimer’s.
After my mom’s diagnosis, I spent many hours worrying about her care. I shed many tears for the loss of who my mom was. Could I do more? What can I say to her when she doesn’t remember me? How do I tell her that I love her when love doesn’t mean anything to her? What can I expect in the future? Where can I turn? The questions never seem to end – each day something new.
For years, I’ve been an advocate for the Alzheimer’s Association, but until the diagnosis, it was just a cause. Please join me in the Walk to End Alzheimer’s to raise awareness and funds for care, support and research providing a little more hope until we find a cure.
Susan Fritts
Durham
Clinton a better choice than Trump
My late father, Joseph H. McGillicuddy, who was active in the Republican Party and served in the Maine Legislature and as state treasurer, voted the straight party ticket, except in the presidential election of 1960, when he took his heart in his hands and marked his ballot for John F. Kennedy, a fellow Irish Catholic and also, my father thought, the better candidate.
I urge Maine Republicans to follow that example and vote not the party line but for the one candidate with the experience, skills and temperament to do the job. Even if Hillary Clinton’s perceived flaws mean Republicans must hold their noses, do not vote for the party’s impulsive, rash and inexperienced nominee nor abstain from voting.
Vote for Clinton. I hope the Bush family and other prominent Republicans who have said they won’t vote at all can bring themselves to do likewise. We have, after all, a secret ballot — and a sacred duty.
Barbara Bolton
Orient