Janet Mills’ experience
The July 11 BDN article about Maine Attorney General Janet Mills’ decision to run for governor in 2018 contained a quote from Maine Republican Party Chairwoman Demi Kouzounas, who characterized Mills as “another career politician running for higher office with no experience or understanding of the issues Maine people or small businesses face.”
Whether you agree with Mills’ politics, how can anyone deny her levels of experience in government and law? On July 12, the BDN quoted Gov. Paul LePage as saying ” she is a Democrat first before she’s an attorney.” I guess that makes him a Republican first before he’s a discount store executive. How can anyone pay attention to or heed this claptrap rhetoric as the race for the next governor gets underway?
In another vein, an item appearing in the Today in History section in the July 11 edition noted the occasion of Aaron Burr killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel on this date in 1804. Burr remained immune from prosecution to complete his term as vice president. This triggered a thought that our current president, an admirer of Andrew Jackson, might have declared Burr to be a stand-up guy who knew how to effectively resolve problems with critics and political enemies.
G. Lansing Blackshaw
Belfast
Time for single-payer health care
Gary Abernathy is publisher and editor of the (Hillsboro, Ohio) Times-Gazette. His July 11 BDN OpEd describes his readers’ objections to Obamacare and their support of Donald Trump. His last paragraphs for me are absurd.
“What [Washington Democrats and the media] fail to grasp is that Trump’s supporters, by and large, are more dedicated to the principle of freedom from government mandates than they are worried about the loss of government subsidies or programs that social activists in Washington think they need.
“Until Democrats can figure that out, their efforts to pry Trump’s supporters away from him — on health care or any other subject — will continue to to be an endless source of frustration,” he writes.
As a general surgeon who was up at all hours caring for sick, injured and dying patients for 40 years, I never met one person who said, “Please let me die because I cannot afford your care.” And I doubt any Ohio Republican would say that either.
Perhaps Abernathy should talk with Randy Lamartz, a local hospital administrator, who should know full well how that goes — games played by hospitals and private insurers. The death spiral has been going on long before Obamacare. Have you ever wondered why the costs of bandages and CT scans have varied so much between hospitals in the same city?
Now that the GOP has tried to destabilize the private insurance market and sabotage Obamacare, it is no wonder that insurance companies are leaving the Obamacare exchanges. The only reasonable answer is a single-payer system.
William Babson Jr.
Sinclair
Women excel at sailing
I read, with interest, Meg Haskell’s July 8-9 BDN article, “Women master the craft of sailing.” The premise was that some women are inexperienced sailors and want to be trained from A to Z, while others have had intimidating experiences as crew, often from male captains. As a result, many women lack self-confidence in their abilities. I would like to point out that sailing and yacht racing are far from new to women.
In 1949, the New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association was formed. The intercollegiate association is focused on pleasure sailing and racing for men and women.
In intercollegiate association events, two members manage a boat and boats are often co-ed, where either gender will serve as “captain.” Keep in mind that sailing, unlike football, for example, is a sport which requires average physical ability. But more important in sailing is the ability and intelligence for boat handling under sometimes rapidly changing weather and sea conditions while formulating tactics in competition. Clearly women, as well as men, have demonstrated they can excel at both.
In the late 1940s, as an undergrad at Tufts University, I earned a varsity letter in sailing. I sailed as captain and as crew under female captains. Later in life, many Tufts women went on to win local, regional and national regattas. Tufts’ female sailors captained and competed in every size boat from 12-foot dinghies to 50-foot Hinckley yawls at the U.S. Naval Academy. It is worth noting that the basic principles of boat handling and racing tactics are the same for all boats, regardless of size.
Harold W. Borns Jr.
Orono