Lacking more than tests
Technology has afforded us easy and widespread communication, among many other things.
With information and the means to discuss it so readily available, one would think that fruitful discussion would be simple. Unfortunately, these new mediums for exchanging thoughts and ideas provide new avenues for age-old fallacies.
This propagates the spread of misinformation and disrespect, confounding the very important battle of values just below the surface. This is especially problematic in times of crisis, such as with America’s ongoing plight against the novel coronavirus. If we can’t have meaningful discourse about our values, how can we hope to make effective progress without breeding dissent?
Albeit difficult, the solution starts with me and you. We are all trying to do our part by abiding by social distancing guidelines and taking appropriate precautions. Do your part online, too. Use the easy access to information afforded to you; educate yourself about the crisis. Offer some empathy to those on the other side of the aisle. Be patient, and challenge yourself to not ascribe nefarious motives to those you disagree with. Help cultivate a space of ideas online where we can collectively get closer to the truth.
Most of all, maintain respect for those who participate in these critical discussions, despite differences in opinion. Our public discourse has been terminally ill for far too long. By doing our part on an individual level, we can reduce the rampant inflammation that’s seemingly doing more to divide us than unite us.
Tragedy has united Americans before. Perhaps the coronavirus can foster a newfound respect for one another that has long been missing in our polluted public discourse.
Jeremy Warren
Bangor
We’re good thanks
Mainers woke up last week to the news that ex-governor Paul LePage intends to return to Maine and run against our present governor, Janet Mills. For me, that felt like starting a new Harry Potter novel and discovering that Voldemort is still alive.
Note to our ex-governor: we now know what effective, communicative and transparent leadership looks like. We’re good, thanks anyway.
Craig Kesselheim
Southwest Harbor
Getting on with our lives
I am 70 years old and have a health issue that places me at greater risk from COVID-19. I shelter at home. However, I do not expect everyone else to.
I believe that shuttering our society several weeks ago was a prudent step to keep our hospitals and health care systems from being swamped with seriously ill people. Clearly, this goal has been met.
During this sequestration, we’ve learned a lot about this virus. For one thing, it poses little harm to most people who contract it. Antibody testing has revealed that many, many times more people may have had COVID-19 than are even aware of it. I think more testing will yield nothing except more statistics, which may be misinterpreted or used to justify courses of action no longer effective.
I am told that a vaccine is probably a year away from adoption. Similarly, I recall from our recent vaccine referendum that so-called herd immunity doesn’t really kick in until about 90 percent of the population is immune. Best estimates say it will be a year as well before we reach that level.
We simply cannot remain at home for that long. It is time to reopen stores, businesses and government offices and allow Mainers to get on with their lives once again.
Geoffrey B. Gillett
Orono
Upgrading my senator
My midcoast farm’s DSL technology is about the same vintage as Sen. Susan Collins’s first term as senator. And its performance, like hers, has not improved, occasionally even disappearing during this pandemic. Where is she? A real leader reaches out to her constituents, opens lines of communication to open up solutions.
There is a stark difference in how publicly and diligently Sara Gideon has presented herself during this crisis. She holds weekly online town halls, and takes constituent questions every time. Gideon does not fear the truth. Her mission is us.
In one of those virtual town halls, Gideon discussed the appalling shortage of personal protective equipment with a family physician in Norway, Maine. Meanwhile, in a one-on-one interview with this esteemed paper, Collins was defending the incompetent amount of federal stockpile masks our state received, rather than fighting for our nurses.
While I do not have a choice for my faltering internet, I do have a choice to replace my unreliable senator. I want someone with her sleeves rolled up, actually listening to and toiling for all Mainers. Someone with real solutions and possessing an inner Margaret Chase Smith, not hollow platitudes. I plan to upgrade to Sara Gideon.
Jacqueline Bredar
Damariscotta
True patriots
The fake patriots have reappeared. Armed, violent, proudly ignorant and ill-informed, these men and women wrap themselves in American and Confederate flags to supposedly protest the legitimate medical guidelines enacted to prevent further spread of COVID-19 that has already killed more than 60,000 of our fellow citizens.
They are following the lead of an impeached president, Donald Trump, who I believe has essentially incited them to riot. Trump wants to be re-elected, and he signaled to his followers to protest in the capitals of states run by Democratic governors.
There are legitimate concerns about how to safely re-open the economy as the nation tries to heal in spite of this president’s failure to lead and tell the truth ( more than 16,000 falsehoods uttered in three years). I don’t think he has any credibility, but people believed the nonsense he spewed forth at the daily briefings.
Eric Alterman pointed out in a March 20 issue of The Nation, that the nonsense and misinformation peddled by Fox News and Trump not only makes their audience “sound stupid and self-satisfied,” but now may kill them.
These fake patriots appeared before in 2009 to protest Barack Obama’s election and the Affordable Care Act. White nationalism then and now is nothing more than racism and resentment perpetuated by white terrorists. In my mind, the only true American patriots are the scientists, doctors and front line medical staff who face death every day with dignity and compassion.
Mac Herrling
Bradley