Hopeful now that Obama’s leaving
In an interview on Monday with Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama said, regarding her husband who is soon out of office, that “we’re feeling what not having hope feels like.” Here is the outgoing first lady telling the people of America there is no hope. How encouraging.
And remember she told us eight years ago after the Wisconsin primary that “for the first time in my adult life I am really proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback”? Have the last eight years made everything better? If Obama had faith, she would have hope. She would see that in the last few weeks the stock market is soaring, the consumer index has grown, people in Indiana at the Carrier plant have jobs this Christmas, our global allies have renewed hope and our enemies are holding their breath.
There is a verse from the Book of Hebrews I was taught as a child: “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”
I know there are thousands and thousands of people who finally do have faith and hope because the moving van is out in front of the White House. Let’s take renewed confidence in those we have had the freedom to elect into office. And let’s stay true to our conviction that we love our country and democracy and want all of our citizens to flourish in the years to come.
Elizabeth Printy
Damariscotta
Trump a danger to America
Why are the Bangor Daily News’ headlines about a man with goat horns and not about the dangers to America concerning Donald Trump’s friendship with Vladimir Putin, choosing a secretary of state who is a friend of Putin, Trump’s potential conflict of interest between his businesses and the presidency and the fact he has chosen unqualified billionaires for his Cabinet who want to eliminate the very policies that protect the people that elected him?
I’m a fan of the BDN, I feel the paper must step up its role as the provider of real news concerning the dangers Trump poses to this country.
Greg Williams
Farmington
Video visitation amoral
As the mom of an inmate, my most poignant experiences have occurred in the visiting rooms of correctional facilities. I’m usually at the entry gate early so I have the opportunity to watch the faces of the children when they come through the visiting room door and run to their dads with smiles on their faces. The passion of that human experience is not definable.
The emotional pain these children and families experience when a dad, mother, son, daughter is put behind bars is a punishment on them as well as the offender. One cannot, with humanity, use as an excuse for replacing in-person visits with video visitation, “tough, the offender shouldn’t have offended.” In any realm, it is amoral, but that amorality in the realm of the public administrator is beneath the dignity of the office. It is the duty of public administration to treat the public with respect.
Allowing a private corporation to enter the public domain to interfere with family connectedness is unconscionable not only to the family but to the offender whose recovery is at stake. That offender needs to be emotionally healthy when released back into the community. I urge the public to disallow corporations to be entrenched into our system of governance in such sensitive circumstances. County commissioners need to hear protests from people or the loss of in-person visits will spread to county jails across the state to where they do not already have it.
Mary-Ellen Pecci
Bath