Death of a dog
Emily Morrison’s Sept. 2 BDN article about her dog’s death brought back the bitter-sweet memory of our dog Pele’s demise. Pele, who was named for the goddess of the Hawaiian volcano, was much beloved by my husband, me and our three kids.
Our delightful life with her came to a tragic ending when, one day, she was hit by a car and died. I couldn’t stop crying. Unfortunately, I had to do something important at work that afternoon and, through my tears, started driving to my place of employment.
I had gotten only a few yards down our road when I spotted my son Steve walking toward home. I rolled down my window and, through my tears, said “The dog died.” He thought I said ”Dad died” and rushed home.
The next day at work, my boss noted my swollen face and asked what was the matter. His words started me crying again, and I tried to tell him that my dog had died. He misinterpreted my attempt to answer him and thought I said my daughter had died. He even asked me if I wanted the day off.
I knew I had to tell my parents about Pele because they, too, loved her very much. My father opened the letter with the bad news and read it to my mother. He didn’t have his glasses on and misread “Pele” to be Pete. Peter was one of our sons.
Marjorie Dole
Bar Harbor
Time to talk climate change
Whenever there is a crisis such as a school shooting, concerned people want to discuss universal background checks or sensible gun control legislation. The response is always “now is not the time to bring up politics on this issue.” To which they ask, “then when should we bring it up?”
Now that the U.S. has been hit by back-to-back strong hurricanes (Harvey and Irma), I would like to ask our elected officials, “Now can we talk about climate change and sea level rise?” Scott Pruitt, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, said after Irma, “The time to talk climate change isn’t now.” Really?
Climate change is accepted science by the majority of climate scientists. And these same climate scientists agree that humans are having a significant impact on the changing climate. They predicted that hurricanes would be stronger, and more damaging. According to recent articles in this paper, the warming oceans are negatively affecting the fishing industry (a major part of Maine’s economy) and creating stronger storms along the coast. We need to address this issue now.
The president has called climate change a Chinese hoax and has said the United States will withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, to the dismay of many state, local and business leaders. As concerned citizens, we need to educate ourselves, and we need to insist that our elected representatives address climate change in an open, honest and practical way. We shouldn’t wait for the next major storm. It may be too late by then.
Jenni Casale
Surry
Investigate DHHS negligence
The recent audit from the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services of Maine’s medical records and incident reports from January 2013 to June 2015 for 2,640 adult Medicaid beneficiaries with mental disabilities revealed that the Maine Department of Health and Human Services failed to investigate the deaths of 133 Mainers in the care of community-based providers. These auditors also discovered that nine of these deaths were unexplained, suspicious, or untimely, but not enough information about the other deaths to determine the category they fit into.
Gov. Paul LePage and then-DHHS Commissioner Mary Mayhew have stated time and time again that they look out for Maine’s most vulnerable residents. Obviously, this is not true. As we all know, they always pass the buck, which in this case they passed to former Govs. John Baldacci and Angus King. But Mayhew was the DHHS commissioner and LePage was her boss during this period of time, so they are totally responsible for everything in the August audit.
Our Legislature should require an official investigation of all 133 deaths because someone needs to look out for Maine’s most vulnerable residents. No one in the LePage administration has done anything except make excuses and cut funding, and these people and their families deserve answers to their questions.
David H. Crockett
Augusta