Subverting the voters
I think — hope — we, as Maine voters, have learned that our elected representatives, along with our obstructionist governor, may subvert through arcane legislative machinations the clear results of referendums. So, it’s obviously not enough to simply vote.
Once the tallies are counted, it is our responsibility to ensure that the will of the people is not subverted. We must, using any means necessary, regardless of our position, support the will of the voters.
It is an insult to the democratic foundations of our country when those entrusted to enact the decisions of the majority ignore those decisions.
Peter Froehlich
Whitefield
Public transportation a vital service
I was surprised and encouraged by the enthusiastic response that we received at the Transportation for All table at the Bangor polls on Election Day regarding the Community Connector.
First of all, many voters stopped and signed in support of extending the bus hours, especially into the evening and Sundays. Some took the time to answer a survey about riding the bus. Most everyone was familiar with the issue and either rode the bus themselves or knew someone who used the bus as their primary means of getting around.
There was not a single person with whom I spoke who questioned the importance of expanding bus hours. People need to get to work and appointments and also to attend events in the evenings that they are currently not able to get to.
It looks like Bangor residents know that the Community Connector is a vital service and are on board with making it better.
Suzanne Kelly
Bangor
Grateful for our privilege
Around 7:38 p.m. on Sunday, our lights flickered back on after almost six days of darkness. A flood of miracles followed: light streamed cheerfully from as many rooms as we wanted, the fridge groaned into wakefulness and started chilling our food to the perfect temperature for safe eating, cool clear drinking water came streaming out of the faucet, and the toilet cistern filled itself.
We did little dances of delight, and then a second wave of miracles followed: our internet figured its way back to us somehow through whatever mysterious systems it follows, and the TV booted up and offered my husband his beloved Sunday night football, suddenly animating the living room with grunts, whistles and brilliant colors.
How could we feel anything but deep appreciation and gratitude? Deep gratitude for those crews from Florida and other states who came in their hundreds to help us in our darkness. Who figured out how to even approach the three crazy tangles of trees and wires on our road, and who worked high in the trees with their flashlights, late into the night. Who came to our aid, solving one problem at a time, so that we might go back to the miracle life we normally take for granted.
I think about Americans in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands who still don’t have power or water after so many weeks, and I wish these wonderful line crews could just keep going and help them, too. I’m so aware of how privileged I am.
Sue Allen
Newcastle
War is illegal
Veterans Day, celebrated on Nov. 11, was originally called Armistice Day to mark the armistice signed between the allies of World War I and Germany at Compiegne, France, for the cessation of hostilities on the western front.
The holiday began in 1918, celebrating the end of World War I and the idea of ending all war. A 10-year campaign launched that year, by people in the United States and around the world, resulted in the ratification of the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which legally banned all war making. That treaty, outlawing war, is still on the books.
The Kellogg-Briand Pact reads:
“The High Contracting Parties solemnly declare in the names of their respective peoples that they condemn recourse to war for the solution of international controversies, and renounce it, as an instrument of national policy in their relations with one another.
“The High Contracting Parties agree that the settlement or solution of all disputes or conflicts of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be, which may arise among them, shall never be sought except by pacific means.”
Natasha Mayers
Whitefield