Keep on, Smiley

Ever since Sarah Smiley wrote about moving to Bangor, I have thoroughly enjoyed reading her columns. She is a great addition to our local paper.

Far from being part of a military family, I hold political leanings somewhere left of liberal. In 1968 I married a conscientious objector and fled with him to Canada. We’ve gone separate ways since then, but we both remain committed to peace and justice. Having had family members and friends in the service over the generations, I continue to respect those who serve with honor and integrity in the military.

Smiley gives readers a meaningful, sympathetic window on her life, and by extension, lives of other families of members of U.S. armed forces. To be sure, hers is pretty much limited to views of an officer’s family. Probably enlisted personnel have significant differences and much bigger problems.

But here she is — a Southerner, apparently a Republican, a young mother — writing with humor, sometimes sadness, always with especially excellent style. Smiley is a great find for the BDN. I hope a few more besides me will tell you how much we like Smiley. She’s a lot better than some of your other columnists, including some nationally syndicated writers.

Sharon Bray

Orland

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Skip turkey this year

Barack Obama has risen from humble beginnings to the power of the presidency. But, every one of us has the presidential power to pardon a turkey on Thanksgiving. In fact, here are some reasons to skip the turkey this Thanksgiving:

You are what you eat. Who wants to be a butterball? You won’t have to call Poultry Hotline to keep your family alive. You won’t sweat the environment and food resources devastation guilt trip. You won’t spend a sleepless night wondering how the turkey lived and died. Your body will appreciate a holiday from saturated fat, cholesterol, and hormones.

My family’s Thanksgiving dinner will include a tofurky, lentil roast, mashed potatoes, corn stuffing, stuffed squash, chestnut soup, candied yams, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and carrot cake. An Internet search on vegetarian Thanksgiving got us lots of recipes and other information.

Buck Johnston

Bangor

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Honors for Dr. Block

The BDN’s recent article, “Dearth of rheumatologists in Maine puts state’s aging population at risk,” reveals a concern for the adequate ongoing treatment of arthritis patients in our area. The article itself, while focusing on that concern, briefly mentions a distinguished honor received by Dr. Sidney Block that I feel may have been lost on those readers who just skimmed the article.

As a longtime patient of Dr. Block’s, I am proud of the recognition he received as a “Master of the American College of Rheumatology.” As noted in the article (and according to the ACR Web site), this distinction can only be “conferred on ACR members, age 65 or older, who have made outstanding contributions to the field of rheumatology through scholarly achievement and-or service to their patients, students, and profession.”

Dr. Block is “only” 65 – the youngest age possible to receive this recognition. It sounds as if the American College of Rheumatology has just been waiting for him to be old enough. We may not have many rheumatologists in the state, but Bangor is blessed to have a rheumatologist of the caliber of Dr. Sidney Block.

Sarah M. Menkin

Plymouth

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Sears Island plan sunk

Transportation Committee chairman Dennis Damon of Trenton says he doesn’t “see how we’ve undermined the work of the [Sears Island Joint Use Planning Committee], and I don’t see how we’ve made the agreement inoperable. … We did not change a single period or comma or capital letter in the agreement” (BDN, Nov. 21).

Let me help Sen. Damon: When residents devote hundreds of hours of arduous work over a period of years to hammer out an agreement that eluded the state for decades, their work is undermined when a legislative committee decides not to accept it. By not signing off on it until the committee’s further demands are met, it is not being accepted.

Also, when environmental activists signed off on the agreement, they did so knowing a cargo port would go through a rigorous permitting process. This shows good faith in the legislative process, that once their own work was done, procedures would be followed to review environmental impacts.

The agreement says part of the island will be preserved and part will be left open for a cargo port, should the need arise and the project win environmental permits.

By refusing to endorse the conservation easement on Sears Island until a cargo port is permitted, the agreement has been made inoperable. So, no, Damon didn’t change any of the punctuation, just the entire spirit of the compromise.

In effect, the Transportation Committee has nullified years of work on a compromise that would have moved the state forward. Perhaps the tactics will backfire. Perhaps when the good faith of environmentalists is met with the bad faith of legislators, it’s time for a citizen’s initiative. How would Maine voters, most of whom consider themselves environmentalists, cast their ballots? They might even up the ante — to say, preserving the entire island.

Tammy Scully

Belfast

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God defined marriage

Who has the authority to define marriage? Does not that authority belong to God, who created marriage and defined it as the union between a man and a woman? He had the authority, and still has it unless he has delegated it to some portion of his creation. I am not aware that he has made that decision.

To the people he designed, created and continues to sustain, God has given much authority. For example, people can choose to attach benefits to marriage. People also have authority to create other formal relationships and contracts and to define them as they wish.

And the people can attach benefits to these new relationships and can remove benefits they previously attached.

People can attach the same benefits to civil unions as they attach to marriage. Or they can choose to attach different benefits.

People have the authority to design and create formal relationships, not including marriage, and to attach benefits to, and remove benefits from, all relationships. But if there is evidence somewhere that God has delegated to people his authority to define marriage, I’d sure like to see it.

Michael McCabe

Whiting