All Americans deserve health care
Each health care plan the GOP comes up with is crueler than the previous one. So far, their efforts have been to try to remove health insurance from millions and cut Medicaid, while providing a huge tax cut for the wealthy. I thank Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King for standing against repealing the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, without having a better replacement plan.
So the Affordable Care Act is still here, but uncertainty is driving out insurers and raising costs. Insurance should not be a buffet approach because broad coverage is what keeps rates low for everyone. Disparity in health due to inability to pay adversely impacts education, work productivity and prosperity for communities and, indeed, the country. Poor health in families leads to premature deaths and generations of poverty. Surely the world’s richest country can create a system that could prevent those dire outcomes.
This situation offers an opportunity for Republicans and Democrats to work together to improve the Affordable Care Act by shoring up the exchanges, restoring subsidies and incentivizing Americans to get and keep health insurance. For some, coverage is still too expensive, so Congress should consider a public option. Another priority should be improving the delivery of health care. This route will lead to lower premiums and lower health care costs.
I urge those who represent us in Washington not to take away health care from the most vulnerable and let ideology block expanding health care to all Americans.
Susan Vaughan
St. George
Transgender Americans worthy of military service
When I turned on my phone Wednesday morning to discover President Donald Trump was reversing efforts to allow transgender people to serve openly in the military, I was disappointed, but hardly surprised.
It seems that every day there is some new attack on the community I call home. Whether it’s our president coming after trans children or the ceaseless discrimination and violence faced by trans people and trans bodies every single day, the message is clear: Trans people don’t deserve to exist.
We don’t deserve to feel safe in schools. We don’t deserve to pee in peace. We don’t deserve to walk down the street unaccosted. We don’t deserve to work as ourselves. And now, we’re told we don’t even deserve to serve our country. It seems the only things our society thinks trans people do deserve are violence, isolation and a constant feeling of worthlessness.
But for those of us who love trans people, who call this community our home, we know we are worthy of so much more. We are worthy of love from our friends, family and neighbors. We are worthy of of safety in our schools, work, communities and homes. And as the 15,000 active duty, and 134,000 veteran trans people in the United States already know, we are worthy of service to our county.
If you’re looking to support trans people, look no further than the trans people in your own families, neighborhoods and communities. Make sure they know you support and care about them. Make sure they know you’ve got their back.
Quinn Gormley
Director
Maine Transgender Network
Portland
Bathroom solution
There has been much discussion of late about transgender people and what bathroom they should use. I would like to suggest that we could take a lesson from the lowly portable toilet. These are not segregated by gender, and no one seems troubled by both men and women using the same facilities.
The portable toilet stall does offer more privacy than the stalls in most public bathrooms, but it would not take much imagination to extend the stall petitions to the floor and ceiling and cover the cracks. The upper extension would need to be a frosted material to let light in. Urinals would have to be eliminated or put in stalls.
Fred Otto
Orono
Build hospitals, not warships
In Rockland, the Aegis guided missile destroyer USS Mahan (DDG-72) will be anchored in the harbor offering tours for those attending the Lobster Festival. This type of warship is primarily used to launch Tomahawk cruise missiles in the many wars and conflicts in which our military continues to be involved. It is a weapon of mass destruction.
This warship is not a tourist attraction. It kills indiscriminately. It seems inappropriate that such a warship be docked in our harbor during a festival for “the whole family.”
These Aegis guided missile destroyers cost nearly $2 billion a piece, which is truly an economic waste of resources that could be better spent on healing the many ills of our world. True security comes through real diplomacy and love of our neighbors, and especially our enemies. Yet, maybe the worst reality surrounding the presence of this warship at the Lobster Festival is that it is a recruiting tool for the U.S. Navy. Many young people will see it as an amazingly powerful warship protecting us from some imaginary enemy out to do us harm.
We have met the enemy, and he is us. Instead, we need to build hospital ships and alternative energy and transportation solutions and find ways to feed, house and heal those in need in this country and around the world.
George Ostensen
Hope
Fulford the real deal
Mainers in the 2nd Congressional District can take heart in Waldo County businessman Jonathan Fulford’s announcement that he is running to be the Democratic challenger in the next matchup with Republican Rep. Bruce Poliquin.
Fulford’s two campaigns to try to win a seat in the Maine Senate say a lot about his principles and priorities. He ran as a Clean Elections candidate, accepted no outside money, relied on an enthusiastic corps of volunteers, pulled no punches about his populist background, and personally knocked on thousands of doors across the county. Equally impressive: Fulford listens before he speaks. He deeply believes in the wise saying, “Seek first to understand rather than to be understood.”
I look forward to hearing more from this man of the people as he campaigns across the 2nd District taking his message of hope, his common sense, and his conviction that hardworking men and women deserve a congressman who can represent the best in us all. Fulford is the real deal.
Andrew Stevenson
Belfast