Ranked-choice is law
The election of a member of Congress from Maine’s 2nd Congressional District is in the ranked-choice voting process. Our current congressman, Bruce Poliquin, says he has “ concerns” about the process and that he would have already won if it weren’t for ranked-choice voting.
Poliquin is wrong on many levels. Ranked-choice voting is the law in Maine, and the second or third choices count. As a result, Jared Golden will be the winner upon completion of the ranked-choice process.
If Poliquin doesn’t like the process, where is his quarrel? With Maine’s law? If so, he doesn’t need to represent Maine. Or does he think he can appeal to a higher authority? In the case of a dispute, the U. S. Constitution, Article 1, Section 5, clearly provides that the matter will be decided by the House of Representatives itself.
Golden will be the next member of Congress from Maine’s 2nd District.
Alfred Judd
Surry
Shooting statistics
With sadness and a bit of anger, we see another mass shooting in the USA today. According to the Washington Post, this was the 354th or the 40th, depending on the definition used. So the killing in the house of worship in Pittsburgh qualifies? However, the killing of two in a grocery store the day before doesn’t? Yet all of the victims are dead.
I would make one simple observation about the mass shootings by whatever definition you would use. The overwhelming majority, if not all of them, were perpetrated by white American-born males. Regardless of Donald Trump’s rhetoric, who should I be afraid of?
Andrew Sarto
Bangor
Lessons of Kristallnacht
Nov. 9 was the 80th anniversary on Kristallnacht (Night of the broken glass) when Jewish synagogues and businesses throughout Germany were destroyed by Nazi mobs. It marked the date when anti-Semitism jumped out of the pages of Nazis propaganda and onto the streets. The children and grandchildren of the majority of Germans who were not anti-Semites or part of the mob look back to that night and ask if World War II and the destruction of their country could have been avoided if their relatives in 1938 took action to repudiate the actions of the Nazis 80 years ago.
On June 17, 2015, a 21-year-old white nationalist went into an African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina, and killed nine people attending a bible study. On Oct. 27, a 46-year-old white supremacist entered a synagogue in Pittsburgh and shot and killed 11 Jews, many of them elderly, during a service.
Most Americans are not racists and are appalled by the senseless slaughter of innocent victims by deranged racists. Will sending our thoughts and prayers to the victims’ family and flying our flags at half mast be enough? Hopefully, 80 years from now our children and grandchildren will not be asking why their relatives did nothing when Ronald Reagan’s America — “a shining city upon a hill whose beacon light guides freedom-loving people everywhere” — was destroyed.
We must make it clear that racism and anti-Semitism is unacceptable, especially when it is promoted for personal or political gain.
Jeffrey Lovit
Addison
Keep adjacency law
Maine’s North Woods is the largest undeveloped forest in the eastern US, and it is being threatened by a proposal put forth by the Land Use Planning Commission, which seeks to eliminate the adjacency principle’s one-mile rule. This rule has protected Maine’s forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife habitat from sprawling development for the past 45 years, by requiring any new development in the LUPC’s 10.5 million-acre jurisdiction to be within one road mile of existing, compatible development.
The proposal would allow new development to extend 10 miles from “rural hub communities” and 2 miles from public roads. According to the Natural Resources Council of Maine: “Close to 2 million acres of land could become vulnerable to residential, commercial, and industrial development. We are concerned that this proposal could fragment wildlife habitat, allow sprawling strip development, damage forests, undermine Maine’s outdoor recreation tourism industry, and permanently change the character of the North Woods.”
Eliminating the one-mile rule would be devastating not only for the people who love this untarnished wilderness for its beauty and recreational opportunities, but also for the countless species who call it home. Wild, unadulterated places that are safe from human activity are few and far between, and having such a place in Maine is a gift we should cherish. What a tremendous loss it would be if we shortsightedly sacrificed one of the last great unspoiled wildernesses in this country just to make a buck.
Rebecca Tripp
Searsport
One person, one vote
Bruce Poliquin received more votes in the 2nd Congressional District election than any of his challengers.
The rules we Americans live by are under assault. Antifa and progressive mobs are trying to trash the rule of law, and Senate Democrats tried to trash the presumption of innocence and almost succeeded.
Now ranked-choice voting looks to do away with one person, one vote. Progressives, smarting after the election of Paul LePage as Maine’s governor, came up with ranked-choice voting as a way to ensure their candidates would win in the future. Under this new rule, people would be able to vote two or more times for different candidates in the same election. That is not one person, one vote.
There is an axiom in our law that states that you get only one bite at the apple. Ranked-choice would allow voters to take two, three, or more bites of the same apple. Voters approved it, but this is a classic case of the tyranny of the majority. This has yet to be tested in the federal courts and, when it is, I hope the court will adhere to one person, one vote.
Douglas M. Flagg
Orono
Road improvements
On Aug. 3, 2015, the BDN published my letter praising Gov. Paul LePage for improving the roadway from Bangor to Ellsworth with rumble strips. The Department of Transportation has followed suit with rumble trips throughout the state. Many lives have been saved with this safety program.
Now I am requesting that LePage spend funds to replace speed zone signs with LED flashing speed signs on all state roads whenever a reduction in the speed is in order. This could make Maine one of the most safety-conscious roadway systems in the nation.
Robert Fournier
Bangor