Public loses
After reading the article (Aug. 7, BDN) on giving Campground Road (Wilson Stream Road) in Elliotsville to Roxanne Quimby, I called Sen. Doug Thomas to discuss the possibilities of a people’s petition to put this matter to public vote if the commissioners approved this giveaway and the right number of signatures are gathered from the residents of Piscataquis County.
He told me it couldn’t be done, as there was nothing in the Piscataquis County charter that allowed for this action on any decision these three commissioners make. He was quite disappointed as it can be done at the local and state levels and in other counties in this state and has been many times, as we all know.
In Piscataquis County, commissioners answer to no one other than who they want to, and in this case it may be the money crowd. Residents of Piscataquis County must find a way to take this absolute power from the county commissioners. Contact your local state officials and find out how this can be done.
It may be too late to save Campground Road for the people of Elliotsville who have managed it quite well for a century and proved that it was owned by the people and not Roxanne Quimby just months ago.
It would be in the best interest of all involved if the commissioners took about 500 feet from the stream back across the road so a trail could be built for those who wanted to hike to the falls.
The final vote will be at the next commissioners meeting on Aug. 22.
Howard Davis
Dexter
Big chemical companies
As a former Maine legislator and lead sponsor of Maine’s Kid-Safe Products law, not to mention mother of a young daughter and seven months pregnant with my second child, I was frustrated but not surprised to see an OpEd defending bisphenol-A, or BPA, by Dr. Mitchell Cheeseman, whose Washington, D.C., law firm represents big chemical companies.
Working on this issue both inside and outside of government, I can tell you firsthand that parents and legislators are fed up with the industry’s tactics and lies.
In Maine and in Washington, chemical companies and their advocates have a pattern of touting studies paid for by industry, only to voluntarily phase out their dangerous chemicals later, when the facts become too difficult to deny. The chemical industry itself just agreed to support a ban on BPA in baby bottles and sippy cups. If it’s unsafe for my daughter’s sippy cup, why would it be safe to use in the packaging of the food we buy for her?
Dr. Cheeseman’s argument, that Maine should delay protecting our children from proven toxic chemicals such as BPA because the federal government is looking out for us, is unsupported by the facts. Even the chemical industry has agreed that the Toxic Substance Control Act, the federal law overseeing chemicals, is ineffective and needs to be overhauled.
I am hopeful that Maine’s Board of Environmental Protection will not be distracted by the industry’s tactics when they consider a measure to remove BPA from certain food packaging, especially kids products.
Hannah Pingree
North Haven
Faith policy
There has been a powerful ad on Catholic TV station EWTN for some time. It talks about critical social issues such as infanticide — abortion — and wholesome marriage. Some select quotes: “Catholics have the opportunity to shape the future for generations to come” and “some issues [such as marriage are] not negotiable.”
Donald Wuerl, archbishop of Washington, D.C., says “Mr. Obama has a different idea of what our culture should look like.” Mr. Obama has assaulted Catholic institutions with his contraceptive mandate. Mrs. Clinton has verbally assaulted our freedom of conscience with her public statement, “Do not let your religious traditions [principles] interfere with your embrace of morally equal homosexual relationships.”
I, as a deeply convicted Christian, am deeply offended that I should re-evaluate moral conduct to suit the Obama administration. As a churchman yesterday said, “the Obama administration now places itself above God and his laws and wisdom.” Fifty-eight percent of Catholics voted for Mr. Obama and at the same time, I believe, voted against their own faith and its principles.
Will you vote party policy above your faith principles?
Elaine B. Graham
Farmington
Remembering Mr. Red Sox
I first met Johnny Pesky in 1973 before a game at Fenway. It was a familiar sight, seeing him smoking a cigar, as he often did. He was always gracious and we talked many times through the years and about his military experiences and times with Ted Williams. As I am in the military, those memories are even more special to me.
I remember him telling me of his flight school experiences with Ted and of him humbly saying, “I guess I was too dumb to go on much further than flight school!” That was Johnny. I saw him for the last time when I returned from my second deployment to Iraq at spring training in 2009.
He talked with my two boys and I took pictures with him. To show appreciation for his service I sent him an American flag that I flew while in combat in Iraq. Johnny called and thanked me. Johnny always had time for anybody and everybody. It didn’t matter who you were or what you did.
I was close friends with Bob Feller who passed away in 2010. I feel sad today of the loss of both of them but cherish the many stories that I had the privilege to listen to and time spent with them. It will be a void in my life for sure but a reminder that we need to let those of the “greatest generation” know how much we appreciate them while we still can.
Steve Curtis
Stacyville
Mandatory reporting
Heather Estey’s letter to the editor (BDN, Aug. 18) raises valid concerns about Maine’s mandatory reporting of sexual offenders law. Ms. Estey’s frustration with the lack of prosecution for those who violate that law is understandable.
Here is the problem: the Legislature repealed that section of the law that authorizes prosecution. The Legislature stripped Maine’s district attorneys of the power to prosecute and eliminated our ability to hold violators responsible. If a person feels that the law should provide criminal or civil penalties they need to contact their local legislator and ask them to reinstate the power to prosecute.
R. Christopher Almy
Charleston
Ms Graham, you speak for yourself, but not for all Catholics. A majority of Roman Catholics in America support contraception and civil recognition of gay marriage. Jesus never spoke out against either. He did speak eloquently for helping the poor and would certainly oppose the anti-poor policies of Romney and Ryan.
She speaks for all Catholics who take the duty to spread the message of Jesus Christ seriously. The Catholics you speak of are Catholics in name only. It is very likely that most of them don’t even attend Mass, which is a requirement for a faithful Catholic. About only 25% of people who identify as Catholics attend Mass, and I think that you would find little support for same sex marriage among those serious Catholics.
As far as the “anti-poor policies of Romney and Ryan,” they don’t exist. Catholic bishops have been defending Ryan since he was selected as the VP candidate. Those bishops realize that when you try to spend your way to prosperity using borrowed money, inflation is the result, and inflation hurts the poor more than anybody else.
The left always demonizes the “evil, greedy rich,” but it is the spending policies of our government that you should be attacking. Before the Federal Reserve Bank was formed in 1913, prices in the Western world had been stable for 500 years, with localized, temporary exceptions in times of war. Our government started making regular use of deficit spending when the Federal Reserve became operative.
Deficit spending is done with borrowed and printed money, and that type of spending causes inflation. To prove that point, a dollar today is worth only 3 cents in terms of a dollar in 1913.
Inflation helps the rich get richer, as inflation causes asset prices to rise. Since rich people have excess money to begin with, they can use that money to buy assets that increase in price with inflation. Poor people don’t have excess money, so as prices rise, they get further and further behind. That’s why you have the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
So stop toeing the liberal line lie of the greedy rich oppressing the poor. Put the blame squarely where it belongs – on out of control government spending. OWS should be camping out on Capitol Hill and 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., not on Wall St. and in Main St. America.
Sanctimony does not become you. Your talk of “serious Catholics” is reminiscent of the Inquisition’s persecution of heretics.
Your screed on inflation is nonsensical and ahistorical. A claim that prices had been stable since 1413 ignores the inflation that accompanied the importation of gold and silver into Europe after its conquest of the Americas, the inflation that accompanied every war America fought, and the inflation that accompanied almost every European War. Consider how historically low the inflation rate is now, despite the level of deficit spending since Bush II slashed taxes. As long as aggregate demand is below supply, inflation is a non-factor.
As to the Catholic Bishops and Ryan, consider the letter that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote this spring as Congress prepared to vote on the Ryan budget. It stressed that Congress should consider how the “jobless, hungry, homeless, or poor are treated.” Ryan and the Republicans ignored the Bishops.
We’ve had inflation in the USA by a multiple of 33X since 1913, and you say inflation is “historically low.” I’d hate to see what you think high inflation is.
The average inflation rate for the last three full years (2009-2011: the first three of President Obama’s eight years in office) is 1.467% per the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index. That is historically low. If you had read my post carefully, you would have understood the phrase “Consider how historically low the inflation rate is now.”
Do you understand the meaning of the word “now?” It refers to the present time, not the last century.
Your silence as to the remainder of my post suggests you agree with it.
I realize you said “now,” but you were ignoring the fact that excess govt spending is the main cause of inflation, which is the main detriment to the economic advancement of the poor. You must be living in a sweet spot if your expenses increased an average of only 1.46% per year for the past 3 years. My increase was much greater.
I’m not a liberal, and I take with a grain of salt almost anything the govt proclaims, especially in the realm of economic statistics. If the govt used the same criteria to measure inflation today that the govt used to measure inflation in 1980, the official inflation rate would be running closer to 8-10% for the past 3 years.
As for my reply to your last sentence, I say Fat Chance. I’ve seen many of your postings, and I know that anything I counter you with is going to be met with an illogical liberal response from you. Not worth arguing.
Check out http://www.shadowstats.com/
That shows inflation using the govt’s 1990 criteria. Inflation over the past 3 years has been 2-7%. It was 6-8% for 3 years prior to that. The 1980 govt criteria show much higher inflation that the 1990 factors, though. 1980 was the year that the govt started fudging the stats so that the real effect of inflation would be hidden from the public. Govt adjustments to the criteria occur on an ongoing basis.
It is amusing to be called illogical by someone who failed to understand my use of the word “now.”
Inflation’s cause is not excessive government spending. Indeed, only the spending under FDR pulled us out of a disastrous depression. Any economist will tell you that inflation is the result of demand outstripping supply. When private demand slumps, public demand in the form of public spending, is the only means of restoring economic growth. Even Milton Friedman conceded “We are all Keynesians now.”
The notion that inflation hurts the poor and the middle class is also illogical. Most of the poor and middle class are debtors; it is easier paying off debt with money that is worth less. Rampant inflation hurts everyone, but modest inflation helps most Americans.
Your distrust of government statistics in favor of a single blogger who doesn’t even have a degree in economics is telling. Why do large corporations use the CPI in their contracts for future price adjustments if the government is so unreliable?
You do realize that plenty of Catholics would say you are Catholic in name only and not taking the duty to spread the message of Christ seriously, right?
Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.
This comment applies to all of you who disparage the Catholic faith, without really knowing the seriousness of what you say. If you only knew the importance of the Catholic faith, and what it means regarding the salvation of all souls, you would be rushing to become members of it.
Perhaps He is forgiving you.
I sure hope so. As someone who has committed way too many serious sins, I know that the only hope for the salvation of my soul is if God forgives me. I pray for his forgiveness and mercy on a regular basis.
If the Catholic Chursh is so interested in doing the right thing morally then why did they, and still do, protect child molesters in the Clergy?
ELAINE GRAHAM: like so many other devout Catholics, you insist that everyone else in America obey your dogma and demonize those who, like President Obama, respect the separation of church and state that you fault. Those of us who are not Catholic are fed up with your intolerance of other beliefs and practices. Why not experience life under the Taliban to see how other intolerant faith treat non-believers.
As I have pointed out to others YOU are intollerant of others opinion too.
I believe that Elane Graham was saying that CATHOLICS should stop voting against the Cathloc Church’s teaching.
I do not believe she advocated forcing anyone to do anything.
“President” Obama does not respect any thing besides his own dogma. The man is not honest and deserves disrespect.
Someone is being disrespected here. Is it Larryincamden who received but two likes in comparison to Bunyan1, who received 26?
I, unlike you post truth not to get “likes” most of the “liking” here is insestious. There are a group here that posts nonswense, then others post crap like “Good letter”, “good post”, “I agree” and on on and they all “like each other.
I would like to see a button that allows a person to either negate a “like” or simply post a “don’t like”.
Your original post celebrated Ms. Graham for implying that fellow Catholics were heretics and viciously attacked the President. You call this truth. I call it opinion divorced from reality and expressed as a screed.
It is sad that you cannot write about ideas and can only write in terms of ad hominem labels.
It is the screeching quality of your posts that generates so few likes.
The word you meant to use is “incestuous.” Your party would outlaw abortion even in the case of incest. Is this part of the GOP’s celebration of “family values?”
Religion has no useful place in governance.
No it doesn’t.
Neither did Barney Frank.
Or Barrack H. Obama.
That I can agree with.
Remember, 30 Tyre shekel peices don’t go as far as they used to, Tedlick.
Or Larry Craig.
Or Mark Foley.
Or Bob Allen.
Or Glenn Murphy.
Shall I go on?
I’m sure you do.
Do what, hon? I never said I did anything.
Having lived in Utah, I couldn’t agree more.
Elaine Graham – Excellent question. “Will you vote party policy above your faith principles?”
Too bad so many will take it the wrong way and spew venom in your direction. Keep the faith.
Elaine B. Graham–Americans have a long and storied history of voting against their best interests. Anyone who is not a millionaire and votes for Romney/Ryan will be doing just that.
OMG Elaine Graham………keep your views to yourself. Vote as you like but don’t spread your religious scat around. So very tired of uber righteous talk from those who follow the pedophiliac leaders.
RAmen!
given your enthusiastic “ramen” i assume you are of the pastafarian faith. how does it feel knowing millions of college students crap out your god every morning?
And by the same rule you need to keep YOUR opinions to yourself.
If YOU have you have the RIGHT to spew your own “scat” so does everyone else.
LIVE WITH IT.
Ah, larryincamden, you never disappoint
Again with the brilliant comment
Howard Davis
The tactics used by the environmental industry to further their depopulation goals for the northern forest will only become more and more brazen.
We must arm ourselves with the information that exposes these organizations as the self perpetuating enviroterrorists that they are.
NO PARK FOR ME
The Cathars were vegetarians, Elaine.
Defenders of Elaine Graham once again dodge the question of separation of church and state in their demonization of Pres. Obama and their defense of Paul Ryan’s budget that was criticized last April by America’s Catholic Bishops. Perhaps those Bishops don’t satisfy the “true believers” who defend the likes of Cardinal Law because they’re princes of the Church. The religious leader of my religious body is lesbian who cannot, of course, marry her partner of 20 yrs. because of the opposition of the Catholic Church and some other Maine Christian denominations. Why is that OK? Who are you folks to decide this? Being holier than thou doesn’t make you right.