Support Maine caregivers
I recently participated in a tele-town hall hosted by AARP Maine on behalf of family caregivers across the state. Nearly, 1,200 Maine residents participated during the hourlong discussion. Our goal? To raise awareness about the needs of caregivers and to start to examine the supports and services Maine caregivers need in their communities.
With 178,000 family caregivers in the state taking care of a loved one every day, we know these issues are of paramount importance. For a caregiver, trying to balance work and other home and family responsibilities can feel overwhelming. The truth is that caregiving can take a toll on a caregiver’s family and career. I was a caregiver for my mom for over a decade. I know how hard it can be.
That’s why AARP Maine is dedicated to working with family caregivers to ensure the supports needed to care for their loved one and for themselves are in place. As we head into a new year and the next legislative session, we hope to work toward meaningful solutions to effectively address these issues.
Lee Ann Stearns
Volunteer
AARP Maine
Westbrook
Native Americans can teach us ‘greatness’
For some, Thanksgiving is a time for European-Americans to appreciate how Native Americans shared food and farming tips to help refugees from religious, political and economic conditions survive in the New World.
Some may forget that a country colonized by those seeking religious freedom and economic opportunities could turn violent against their native hosts and impose their cultural, religious, political and economic systems. Some may ignore how descendants of these early refugees and opportunists forgot the hospitality they received.
So they discriminated against wave after wave of others following in their footsteps or groups who were imported to labor in farming, building railroads and infrastructure and providing services, such as African-Americans, Asian-Americans and Latin-Americans. Some may miss responsibility for how many current refugees and asylum-seekers result from U.S. economic, political and military policies from which many Americans hope to benefit.
As we face the challenge to make America great again, perhaps the first example of “greatness” was taught by Native-Americans to European-Americans: We are all in this together and can honor, celebrate and revitalize how neighbors and families help each other and those from away to survive, find peace and responsibly pursue happiness.
Mark Rains
Vienna
Trump could win popular vote — if he wanted
Supporters of Hillary Clinton continue to remind us that while she lost in the Electoral College she was the winner of the popular vote. They view her as being a victim of an unfair method by which we elect our presidents. But that’s a completely inconsequential argument.
New York, Illinois and California, for example, voted overwhelmingly for Clinton. There was no chance that Donald Trump would win those electoral votes, so he didn’t spend as much time campaigning in those states despite the millions of votes they represented.
If the rules said that the popular vote is what mattered to win the contest, he might have spent the majority of his campaign efforts trying to pick up votes in those states. In that scenario, he might have won the popular vote as easily as he won in the Electoral College on Nov. 8.
Tom Metzger
Levant
Stop Trump-inspired hate crimes
The FBI reports that hate crimes against Muslims, Latinos, blacks, women, gays and others surged last year, and those crimes have reportedly been on the rise since the election. When told of this during his “60 Minutes” interview on Nov. 13 , President-elect Donald Trump seemed genuinely surprised. Asked if he wanted to say anything to the people carrying out these attacks, he turned to the camera and said “ Stop it.”
The time to have stopped it was when Trump first opened his mouth to start his campaign. Saying “stop it” now is like bringing a garden hose to the house fire that he set and fed with the oily rags of incitement. Trump must stop it now, if he can. It threatens us all.
Alan Brooks
Lubec