Bring back Olmstead
“A farewell to readers from Kathyrn Olmstead.” This was the headline on Olmstead’s biweekly column on Oct. 6. Olmstead’s column has brightened my day for seven years now, and I am not prepared to say “farewell.”
Her column portrays the essence of Aroostook County: what it is like to live here, its people, its natural beauty, and aspects of life that are vanishing elsewhere.
Her stories make us laugh such as the memorable column entitled “Garden slugs prefer Budweiser over imported brands.” This topic required her to try out various brands of beer in her hope that they would drown and stop feeding in her garden. Another fun column was about a moose casually eating apples from your apple tree just outside the window. That truly happens here, even in town.
There have been serious essays of issues that concern us here in The County. They include columns about the former Loring Air Force Base, one about an Aroostook organic farmer who fought and fights against Monsanto and another on how “Fort Fairfield, Easton Amish families bring out the best in people.” These are issues not covered elsewhere in the newspaper.
Please reconsider and bring back Olmstead.
Nancy Roe
Presque Isle
No oil drilling in arctic
Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King should oppose any drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Oil reserves there would only fuel the U.S. usage for one year while damage to wildlife, the Gwich’in and Inupiaq native people and water resources would be permanent.
In the face of the unquestionable impacts of climate change we are seeing in the wildfires in Sonoma, California, and hurricanes in Puerto Rico, Houston, or changes on the coast of Maine, opening up such a preserve is beyond any acceptable intelligent use of our resources. The biodiversity alone that is represented in that preserve is likely to be a “savings bank” for future generations that is folly to spend so willfully.
Given that we are now developing resources solely to ship fossil fuels overseas, there is absolutely no reason to invade that territory with oil drilling devastation for independence. We‘ve seen the effects of lateral drilling — developed in the late 1960s and used for years in Texas and Oklahoma — due to fracking, seismic impacts and the proprietary chemical soup including benzene used to perform fracking.
Clean water is imperiled by lateral drilling technology. Water upon which all life depends. I thank our senators for previously supporting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and I ask them to continue to strongly oppose drilling of any kind in that reserve.
Becky Bartovics
North Haven
Trump attacks our health
As a proud Mainer, I’m deeply concerned that President Donald Trump is moving to “repeal and replace” the Clean Power Plan after Obamacare. First, he tried for our health care, then our clean air. Can anyone explain why the administration keeps going after our health protections?
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan set America’s first and only federal limits on carbon pollution from all existing power plants. It is currently our best tool available to combat climate change that’s making extreme weather like Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria more deadly and severe. Additionally, when the Clean Power Plan is fully in place, it is estimated to be able to prevent 34,000 premature deaths annually by reducing all sorts of pollutants.
Yet, Trump wants it gone. He wants to replace it with a pro-polluter standard that will be good for special interests, but bad for the rest of us.
Trump is putting the health of American families — all of ours — at serious risk. Are our lives really less important than polluters’ short-term profits?
We need solutions to climate change, not to make it worse. Sadly, Trump’s latest “repeal and replace” plan will mean more sick kids, more expensive hospital visits, and more intense and destructive severe weather. No thanks.
Kirsten Gonya
South Berwick
Time to consider gun control measures
I agree with Craig Olson when he writes in his Oct. 10 BDN OpEd that, “We have entered a polarized world where thought is replaced by emotion.” There is no question that there has been a rise in the prevalence of mass shootings across the country. In the wake of these mass shootings, families are forced to prematurely say goodbye to family and friends killed as a result. Those lucky enough to survive this type of horrific event often times have unseen scars.
We need to start thinking of how we can maintain the right afforded to us by the Second Amendment while preventing those who should not have guns from obtaining them. This may call for a stricter application process to possess a gun. We also need to consider the types of guns we are buying and the purpose they serve. It is a lot easier to justify purchasing a rifle that can be used for hunting versus a semi-automatic weapon that only has one purpose. While I am not anti-gun, I see more drawbacks than positives in being able to purchase assault weapons and components such as silencers.
Whether it is to help to prevent the likelihood of mass shootings or to think more rationally about gun usage, we must be willing to consider the implications involved in owning a firearm. Keeping this in mind will help our society be able to save the lives of many by investing time in the proper way to structure owning and using a gun.
Benjamin Bucklin
Searsport
Paradis for Belfast mayor
On Nov. 7, we will be voting for Samantha Paradis to be Belfast mayor.
We have worked with Paradis for a year and a half on the Aging Well in Waldo County committee she initiated and facilitates. She has led the development and distribution of a countywide survey to assess the needs of residents. After a highly successful response, she is now directing work on responding to the findings.
She has demonstrated leadership qualities: solicits input from everyone, listens well, and keeps a meeting on task and on time. These qualities, along with her energy and enthusiasm, will serve Belfast well.
Please vote for Paradis.
Happy and Cary Bradford
Belfast