Victory against fluoride

The referendum to stop adding fluoride to the Kennebunk, Kennnebunkport, and Wells Water District water supply has succeeded. I waited a couple of weeks for the hydrofluosilicic acid to flush out of the system before I actually drank some Kennebunkport tap water. It was the day after Thanksgiving. I gave thanks. It was good.

Vacationers can come to Maine, stop at the Kennebunk service plaza on the northbound side of the Maine Turnpike and drink pure Maine water before they go north. Almost all public water in Maine, except the tap water in Mount Desert, is fluoridated with hydrofluorosilicic acid.

Come to Kennebunk, Kennebunkport, Wells, Ogunquit, Arundel, Biddeford, and drink our water. We have pure Maine water.

Alec Ferguson

Kennebunkport

Don’t let welfare erode Yankee spirit

For the last 50 years my base home has been in Miami, in the center of Little Havana. I know of only three other Anglo-American families living in the area. My closest and most trusted friend is American born of Cuban parents.

I recall when I was undergoing major heart surgery in Westchester, New York, and watching on TV reports about Elian Gonzalez being taken away by federal agents under the orders of Attorney General Janet Reno. The medical staff knowing I was from Miami, where my home was six blocks from the scene, asked me, “Don’t any of those Cubans ever work?” As they seemed to clock in a 24-hour vigil.

“Hard work” is the middle name of most Cubans, I know. But there was a problem with Gonzalez’s father, who traveled from Cuba to claim his son.

He was given the opportunity to remain in America and many jobs openings were offered to him. He refused to earn a living. (Perhaps back in Cuba his family members were being held at gunpoint so that he would return.) This welfare father in Cuba apparently never worked a day in his life.

Never allow the welfare system (America having the richest poor people on planet earth) to destroy the human entity of work ethics that used to be ingrained in the spirit of the American Yankee spirit. Folks in Maine take notice.

Robert Fournier

Bangor

Energy future needs strong RGGI

The BDN in its Nov. 30 editorial called on President-elect Donald Trump to “look beyond the past” when it comes to energy — and Maine has an opportunity to do the same. In New England, we already have policies in place that are pushing us toward the energy sources of the future, but they need to be strengthened if Maine wants to become a leader in innovation, powered by secure, clean and affordable energy.

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, of which Maine is a member, has increased investment in cost-saving advanced energy technologies and services like energy efficiency and renewable energy, bringing in $2.7 billion in net economic benefits to date. By supporting a strengthened RGGI program, Maine can build upon this success and grow its share of the advanced energy industry, which brings in $200 billion annually in the U.S. and employs nearly 2.7 million people nationally.

Maria Robinson

Associate director, energy policy and analysis

Advanced Energy Economy

Boston