Naming racism
From Sen. Susan Collins: “These comments are highly inappropriate and out of bounds and could hurt efforts for a bipartisan immigration agreement.”
Sen. Angus King: “Truly regrettable and inconsistent with my understanding of what America is all about.”
Rep. Bruce Poliquin: “The reported comments are not helpful.”
Rep. Chellie Pingree: “President Trump’s racist comments about immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador, and countries in Africa are absolutely sickening, even for him.”
Four congresspeople, only one with the courage to name racism.
Craig Kesselheim
Southwest Harbor
Support third parties
Year after year, as our elections draw closer, people complain about the limited number of choices we have. You can do something about it — right now.
Candidates and their supporters are out doing their petition drives for the 2018 primaries. Most people will never understand the incredible amount of effort and sacrifice it takes to engage in our political process as a candidate.
This process is especially difficult for independent and third party candidates. They usually don’t have the financial resources, infrastructure support and brand recognition afforded the major party candidates.
You are not obligated to vote for a particular candidate by signing a petition. You are assuring that Maine will hear a greater range of ideas, solutions to our problems and visions for our future. These petitions place the candidates on the official ballot, which is the key to gaining media access and participation in debates and other forums.
As a Maine voter, you can sign petitions for as many candidates as you’d like in each race. Of course, you can only sign once for each candidate. Why not hear as many voices as we can?
This year, in addition to the major parties and independents, both the Libertarian and Green parties are running candidates in several races. An honest competition for ideas will give us the best chance to shape Maine’s future.
Let’s hear them — all of them. Sign the petitions.
Jim Bouchard
Brunswick
Maine won’t forget Collins’ 2017 votes
Sen. Susan Collins is no longer on the hot seat. She must be breathing easier, sleeping better and enjoying the January thaw. But we have not forgotten her first year under President Donald Trump. We have not forgotten her support of racist Jeff Sessions for attorney general nor her stinging vote on the tax bill, all of which prompted the removal of her “moderate” mask.
We will not forget her shameful participation in the travesty of the first Trump year. All the easy moderate votes in the world will never scrape away the Trumpian stain on her “legacy” of working for Maine voters.
Terry Dubois
Milford
Collins spared Mainers from health cost penalty
Recently, Americans who had high health care costs faced a big tax increase just because of their medical expenses. Sen. Susan Collins was one of several leaders in Congress who fought back against the measure.
She and her colleagues helped to ensure the medical expense deduction was maintained, including restoring a 7.5 percent income threshold for two years. This allows families to deduct large expenses such as wheelchairs, prescription drugs and home care costs.
Millions of older Americans, including more than 35,000 in Maine, depend on the health tax credit to afford their health care needs. According to the IRS, 56 percent of those taking the medical expense deduction are age 65 or older. Without being able to deduct these expenses, many would struggle to afford their home care equipment and medicines and be forced to dip into their hard-earned retirement savings.
I want to thank Collins for her efforts to restore the medical expense deduction and for sparing middle-class families from being penalized simply because they have high medical costs.
Jeff Fowler
Member
AARP Maine Volunteer Advisory Council
Buxton
Support solar power
Gov. Paul LePage falsely claims that pro-solar policies are supported by out-of-state groups and highly paid lobbyists, while in fact the exact opposite is the case. I was one of many ordinary Mainers who took time out last year to testify in support of net metering. In sharp contrast, among the very few individuals testifying against the pro-solar legislation was a lobbyist who has made a career testifying against net-metering policies in numerous states and is paid to do so.
Since the Legislature’s shameful failure to override the governor’s veto of LD 1504, the situation has worsened. The Maine Public Utilities Commission’s recent “gross-metering” rule and proposals to double fees to connect solar customers to the grid hurt Mainers and our grid’s resiliency. The commission has also put foreign-owned Central Maine Power in charge of proposing alternatives to its business model of building power poles and lines, a flagrant conflict of interest. As last fall’s windstorm and massive power outages so clearly showed, it is also a failed distribution model.
The answer to massive power outages is not to double down on old-fashioned, costly grid upgrades at the expense of solar customers. Instead, we should follow the enlightened lead of Vermont’s Green Mountain Power by investing in local solar generation and microgrid systems. While Central Maine and the Public Utilities Commission keep the state’s electricity grid inefficient and obsolete, the Legislature must take the lead to bring Maine’s grid into the 21st century.
Janet Lynch
Pownal
Say no to oil drilling
What is the first thought that comes to mind when you think of Maine? I think everyone would have to agree the answer is “Wicked good Maine lobstah.” I have worked in the restaurant business since high school, and I can testify every tourist wants to know where they can get a real Maine experience.
Our communities rely on what products keep our state booming. We lost the shrimping business and still have not recovered from that. Our local lobster men already have been facing stress of the waters warming.
I highly recommend we keep up with the proposal to open the U.S. coast to oil drilling. There is a drilling hearing open to the public 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Monday at the Civic Center in Augusta. Let’s come together as a state and make our voices heard.
Amelia Libby
Wells