Spear for Legislature
John Spear, a Democrat, has all the qualities one could ask of a representative to the State House. He has spent his career in public service in municipal and school administration after receiving his degree in political science. Additionally, he has the cheerful demeanor, the positive outlook and the diplomatic temperament to be a highly effective legislator.
I have had the pleasure and privilege to have worked with Spear for many years during his service to South Thomaston. When asked to serve, Spear always stepped forward. If there was a job to be done, he happily accepted the responsibility.
Spear impressed me with his good-natured ability to produce constructive dialogue out of groups of diverse people with varied opinions, many strongly held. He acted as a mentor to me and many others on staff and committees in the town. He was consistently liked, respected and trusted.
His employment history is impressive, having worked for 36 years as town manager or administrator for four different towns and as business manager for MSAD 50. In addition, Spear served on just about every committee or board he was asked to, including Select Board, Planning Board, Solid Waste Board and the Comprehensive Planning Committee.
Beyond Spear’s stellar resume, he has the personal qualities we wish for in a representative. He has proven over and over again that he has the temperament for the job and the ability to draw people together.
It is hard to imagine a more qualified candidate to represent the towns of District 92, Thomaston, Saint George, Cushing, South Thomaston and Matinicus. I will cast my vote with pride and pleasure for Spear for our representative to the state House.
Dorothy Meriwether
South Thomaston
Maine needs leadership on national monument
I’ve always thought of Sen. Angus King as a thoughtful man. But after seeing what happened at the Orono public meeting about the proposed national monument in the Katahdin region, I wonder what’s left for him to possibly think about.
I was there at the Collins Center for the Arts back in May and saw for myself the same thing he and National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis saw — easily more than 1,000 people from all walks of life and all parts of Maine there in support of this generous gift of unblemished wilderness and an endowment for its maintenance.
The nature of the gift itself is enough to justify every member of our congressional delegation expressing support and thankfully accepting it. But when you add in what happened in Orono, what happened a month later, when residents in the Katahdin region spoke 4-to-1 in support at a congressional field hearing, thousands of petition signatures and the results from statewide polls, it becomes very hard to fathom why our delegation isn’t making this monument happen on behalf of the overwhelming majority of their constituents who’ve asked them clearly and repeatedly to do so.
I was excited when King and Jarvis had a meeting at the University of Maine. But that was two months ago. The 100th anniversary of our national parks is Aug. 25. Maybe King is waiting until then to make a more dramatic statement. I certainly hope not. His constituents, particularly in the Katahdin region, need leadership now, not more waiting.
Royce Sposato
Pittsfield
Background checks for safer society
I was dismayed to read Rep. Jeff McCabe’s Aug. 1 BDN OpEd about the universal background checks ballot initiative on the November ballot because I’ve witnessed the good work he’s done in the Legislature.
This isn’t a Second Amendment issue. Gun violence in this country is a public health issue, and universal background checks can help stem the increase in gun deaths. Since 1998, background checks in Maine have prevented more than 5,500 dangerous people from getting a gun.
A loophole in the Maine law, however, makes it easy for criminals to anonymously buy guns from unlicensed dealers online, at a gun show or through a classified ad, with no questions asked. We take the time to renew our driver’s licenses, register our cars and license our dogs, which is all part of being responsible citizens. I don’t claim that someone is trying to take something from me if I follow these laws.
In states that already have instituted universal background checks for all handgun sales, fewer women have been shot to death by their partners and fewer law enforcement officers have been killed. That’s why this ballot initiative is supported by the Maine Chiefs of Police Association.
McCabe criticized Michael Bloomberg’s financial support for this initiative. What’s wrong with him using his personal wealth to improve public health? Probably why Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Maryland carries his name. There’s no personal gain in this for Bloomberg other than a safer society.
Maryann Larson
Portland
A rough election season ahead
From Aug. 1 through Nov. 8, there are exactly 100 days. By the time we get to Election Day, it may well feel like 100 years or, more to the point, like a re-enactment of the 100 Years War. Historians tell us that war actually lasted 116 years, but after enough time has passed and enough atrocities are endured, who bothers counting?
We all know what’s coming. We’ve been told to expect the most negative presidential campaign of our lifetimes. Based on the rhetoric from Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, the mean-spirited messaging is just warming up.
In past campaigns, we often could dust ourselves off after listening to one side or the other blast the opposition, finding some comfort in the notion that mudslinging was a small price to pay to find out who stands where. Not so, it seems, this time around. Dust and mud have become sum and substance. From whence it came, thence shall it return.
Maybe we should just call it all off, hand the election over to an eight-vote U.S. Supreme Court and give them the 100 days to decide it, with the sincere hope that no more justices die and return to dust during the deliberations. Let an even number determine the outcome of this, the oddest of all elections.
Charles Anderson
Stockholm