We need reporters
The BDN had a great Washington Post article on newsroom cutbacks. One element not mentioned is the watchdog role of reporters, keeping tabs on the workings of government. Maybe it’s a three-hour meeting or a round of visits to various offices in town hall. Or it’s having coffee in a local diner to get tips on a potential story. Often it’s a matter of connecting the dots, paying attention to a variety of sources, knowing where to look, who to call. The presence of a reporter provides the eyes and ears that a broadcast of that boring meeting will never match.
Larz Neilson
East Boothbay
Food aid for Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico suffered two devastating hurricanes in 2017, from which it is still in basic recovery mode. Due to Trump administration antagonism toward Puerto Rico, food aid will soon run out. I understand that billions in community development appropriations, which were approved by Congress to assist in the hurricane recovery, have not been provided — more than a year after the hurricanes hit the island.
These are U.S. citizens. They receive less in food aid benefits than their U.S. Virgin Islands neighbors and other U.S. citizens, due to Reagan era budget cuts when the food stamp program was under assault and Puerto Rico became an easy target. Specifically, in 1982 the food stamp program, now known as SNAP, was replaced with a cheaper block grant program.
Letting this decreased level of funding run out at this point in the ongoing recovery is amoral, and I would like to know what you intend to do about it.
Don Holmes
Sedgwick
The real “job creators”
I’m certain Michael Dell, CEO of Dell, understands that the 70 percent top marginal tax rate idea being floated by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Brooklyn’s new congresswoman, only applies to income over $10 million. The notion that this will discourage earning money and will wreck our economy is laughable.
We are decades behind in investments in infrastructure, education, workforce development, etc. Add climate change adaptations to that list and you begin to get a picture of the challenges we face. Do we really expect the middle class, which has watched its purchasing power be eroded for decades, to pay for all of this?
We’ve witnessed through the government shutdown that many Americans are one paycheck away from the food pantry or homelessness.
Dell and other CEOs owe some of their success to the fact that they live in this country, where we’ve paid collectively for much that makes commerce possible. We’re asked to believe that folks like Dell are the “job creators.” In an economy that relies on consumer spending for 70 percent of its activity, I’d say the middle class is the real “job creator.”
Maryann Larson
Portland
Convergence for climate action
With all the floods, forest fires, hurricanes, typhoons and droughts of unprecedented magnitude, isn’t it time to try science-based climate policy?
For those who accept the consensus of the climate science community, such as presented in the recent report by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the U.S. National Climate Assessment, is it sufficient to simply witness the effects of our current climate policy? For those who understand that the public debate about climate change is existential and not political, is it valid not to make known your concerns to others and help to change the public climate narrative?
There are plans in the works to convene the Climate Convergence Conference at George Stevens Academy in Blue Hill next summer, which will bring together organizations and individuals who are willing to identify themselves as advocates for science-based climate policy. Convergence is the key to the event: the convergence of the different generations, the convergence between the physical and social sciences, and the convergence among organizations willing to champion science and acknowledge that life on earth is in jeopardy.
Together, we can change the nature of the public discourse regarding climate change, empower each other, and encourage action. There is no way forward without convergence.
So don’t be surprised (or be pleasantly surprised) if your organization receives an invitation to participate in the conference via email, or if someone comes to ask if you would be willing to identify your organization as an advocate for science-based climate policy.
Tony Ferrara
Brooksville