Letters submitted by BDN readers are verified by BDN Opinion Page staff. Send your letters to letters@bangordailynews.com
Drive carefully with students back in school
Summer is winding down, our days are getting shorter and Brewer students are returning to school. I hope that when people see children with backpacks walking to school or buses traveling through their neighborhood, it will serve as a reminder to be cautious on our roadways while students head to and from school.
Based on past numbers from the Maine Department of Education, more than 3,000 school buses annually transport over 100,000 Maine students. As a member of the Legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on Transportation and a proud grandparent, ensuring Brewer’s youngest residents can travel to and from school safely is incredibly important to me.
If a bus is stopped with its red lights flashing, drivers must stop and cannot proceed until the school bus continues on its way. Those flashing red lights and stop sign or crossing arm are not a suggestion. It sounds like common sense, but for drivers who feel the potential risk of harm is worth arriving somewhere a minute sooner, I would remind them that it is a Class E crime to pass a stopped school bus. This illegal passing comes with a minimum $250 fine for the first offense.
I hope our Brewer community joins me in keeping an eye out for school buses and using caution as students walk to school each day. For our students about to head back, I share my best wishes for a good school year. Go Witches!
Rep. Kevin O’Connell
Brewer
Honor our promises
I agree with Edward Pontius when he wrote in an Aug. 30 column in the BDN, “For the sake of our American veterans who served in Afghanistan on our behalf, for the sake of their health and all who love them, we must honor their concern for their comrades.” This is essential in ensuring that veterans and allies know that as a society we care about all they have given and continue to do. We should offer veterans as much support as they need to help navigate their feelings during this time. Our allies also deserve our support since they have sacrificed a great deal to help us meet any objectives we had.
Without their assistance, many of the missions and efforts most likely would not have been as successful. It would undoubtedly have made those goals the U.S. had harder to accomplish and more lives could have been at risk. As a result of their efforts we cannot allow allies who might be left behind the opportunity to be persecuted for the assistance they provided. This is unacceptable and also could affect the ability of other countries to see that the U.S. honors its promises to its friends.
Whether people agree or disagree with soldiers being deployed to Afghanistan, as a society there should be resources and unwavering support for what they have endured. Veterans are a crucial part to the preservation of the U.S. and their sacrifices should be honored.
Ben Bucklin
Searsport
A sorry time in US history
President Joe Biden’s pathetically bungled execution of the Afghan withdrawal, and all of its long-term destructive implications for our country, internally and around the world, is disgusting and grossly irresponsible. If Biden has an ounce of self respect left, he will step down.
Meantime, the silence of our Maine congressional leadership is deafening! The worst is yet to come, not the least of which is the immoral betrayal of Afghan allies and the talk of sending my tax dollars as foreign aid to the Taliban, corrupt barbarians who killed and maimed our sons and daughters. It is to be hoped that Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King will summon some courage, integrity and statesmanship during this sad, sorry time in our country’s history.
V. Paul Reynolds
Ellsworth