Make the world more beautiful
The Bangor Daily News’ recent front page article about Syd Sanders, the Belfast Area High School valedictorian, gave me such hope for the future of our country. Syd represents all that is good about his generation with his firm sense of purpose, optimism, intelligence and determination. He and those like him will go on to become our leaders and will use their smarts and compassion and technological savvy to guide our nation forward on a new and enlightened course.
Thank you to Syd and all those who are about to graduate in these uncertain times — they are the future and I am both thankful and hopeful for the positive changes they will bring to our country and to the world. I hope they will be well, stay strong, think big and do good.
Or, as Miss Rumphius advises in Barbara Cooney’s sweet story, “You must do something to make the world more beautiful.”
Sara Hessler
Ellsworth
Shift to a plant-based diet
Aware of the COVID-19 related health challenges facing workers in meat processing plants during this pandemic, it may be the time for us to pause, reconsider our eating patterns and look at the impact of meat-based diets on our planet.
Our meat-based eating patterns account for one-fifth of global carbon emissions. Plant-rich diets reduce these emissions and tend to be healthier, leading to lower rates of chronic disease. Data from the United Nations shared by Project Drawdown, notes that healthy, plant-rich diets can be one of the most impactful solutions for our earth, potentially lessening carbon emissions between 64.8 and 91.5 gigatons by 2050.
This would be a good time to try 1-2 meat-free days per week, or even to explore going vegetarian or vegan.
As Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh has said, making the transition to a plant-based diet may be the most effective way an individual can stop (or at least slow) climate change.
Let’s shift some of the negative effects of COVID-19 to a positive.
Marty Soule
Readfield
An idea for small business money
Much of the money to be earmarked for small business is being squandered and put in the hands of large companies. Many of these companies are paying huge salaries to their executives or have recently given bonuses or done stock buybacks.
We should demand that any money going to small businesses requires a cap on pay so that no one in the company can receive more than 10 times the salary of the average employee in the business, including the CEO. I would like to see what Sens. Angus King and Susan Collins feel about this.
Philip Brooks
Bar Harbor
A lesson for our leaders
People are wanting this quarantine to end. Many people want to get back to work, but it seems to me that the loudest sentiment is that they are bored, tired and don’t like the government telling them what to do. Unfortunately, the virus that has killed over 70,000 of our fellow Americans doesn’t care if you’re bored or you don’t like the government telling you what to do.
We are nowhere near the end of all this and now is not the time to give up because summer is coming. We need to stay the course, and no amount of wishing it away will ensure that the tourists we need to visit will be healthy and virus free.
That our president is encouraging the gun-toting protesters who want the quarantine to end is outrageous. He is helping to ensure that America remains at the head of the pack in terms of reported cases and deaths. He is guaranteeing that all of the sacrifices we’ve made these past few weeks will be in vain. And our senator, Susan Collins, has linked her name to President Trump, who seems to care more about opening the economy and keeping his stock market numbers high for re-election than he does the health of his fellow Americans.
She made her decision to be one of his apologists when she cast her vote against his removal, stating that she thought he had learned a lesson. The lesson he learned then is in full effect now. He can do whatever he pleases, from doing nothing to declaring absolute authority, and no one will do a thing about it.
We need to teach them both a lesson in November and vote them both out.
David Cox
Orono