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Collins is doing the hard work
In Washington, the U.S. Senate has been hearing about the Equality Act, federal legislation that would ban discrimination against people based on sexual orientation and gender identity — protections that I believe are long overdue. However, there are significant headwinds between these efforts and a full, federal law ensuring protections for Mainers and millions of at risk members of the LGBTQ community.
This bill already passed the U.S. House, but with just three Republican votes, is falling victim to the partisanship that we all hate. To become law, it needs the support of at least 10 Republicans in the Senate to be signed into law. But, based on the partisan wrangling in Congress, it’s clear that it’s going to take a lot of hard work and compromise on both sides to move us closer to equality.
We know that this is an issue where folks agree on the basic tenets of fairness, but the texture of the legislative language is very important. Fortunately, our Sen. Susan Collins has a long record of fighting for LGBTQ rights, whether it be her leadership on repealing the horrific “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy I had the misfortune of seeing penalize my fellow servicemembers, or her support for workplace protections and a slew of other common-sense issues.
This is why I was disappointed to read the recent Bangor Daily News editorial criticizing Collins. Instead, this newspaper should be encouraging Collins’ efforts to bring others to the table and have the tough conversations that it will take to reach a bipartisan agreement on the Equality Act. Without Collins’ support and her leadership in the Republican Party, this bill is destined for failure in the Senate, and the LGBTQ community will continue to face unfair discrimination.
Scott Strom
Pittsfield
Rail investment for Maine’s future
We have the opportunity to pass LD 227 to establish the relevance of extended passenger service through the heart of Maine. The proposed legislation should appeal to both the passenger train nay-sayers and passenger train advocates.
First, our state does not have a comprehensive enough rail plan (both freight and passenger) as most other major states do, both blue and red. Often the passenger rail plans are “shelf” plans. The plan may state that in the first one to five years no action is thought to be needed, but predictions in years six and above suggest that the plan begin to be implemented. This puts sanity into the process and avoids numerous one-off situations for many smaller studies and false starts.
Maine needs to focus on economic development, which has been lacking in the past several years. LD 227 would make strides in this regard by focusing on Brunswick (Portland and Boston) to Bangor. Funding would come from the existing multimodal fund, thus would not add to the general budget.
For the nay-sayers, this bill would avoid the infamous California extensions to nowhere and give a realistic view of economic benefit. For the advocates, we get a realistic view of need and what the service may look like.
As a prudent retired railroader with 37 years of service, I encourage our legislators to pass LD 227. It’s a realistic investment in our future.
Robert Holland
Rockland
Golden and Medicare for All
Recently, a new Medicare for All bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. Rep. Jared Golden co-sponsored the bill in the last session, in recognition that universal health care is an urgent need in Maine and across the U.S. But during and since his re-election, he has been signalling that he no longer supports Medicare for All.
Our number one priority at this point should be public health. Golden needs to hear from constituents about how important we consider Medicare for All. Contact him today.
Lisa Savage
Solon