General Dynamics doesn’t need tax handouts
At 1 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 30, in Room 127 at the State House in Augusta, the Legislature’s Taxation Committee will hold a public hearing on LD 1781 that proposes to give General Dynamics, the fifth largest weapons corporation in the world, $60 million in corporate welfare.
This is not in the best interest of Maine taxpayers. The state currently struggles to properly fund education. Health care is still not available for tens of thousands of our fellow citizens. Our roads, bridges, water and sewer systems need repairing. There is great need for education and retraining for living-wage jobs that have positive benefits to our society.
General Dynamics saw $31.3 billion in revenues in 2016. They’ve had so much cash on hand that between 2009 to 2016 they bought back billions of their own stock. Stock buybacks are bad for workers and average shareholders. It favors the slick traders who can time their sales and corporate executives with pay packages tied to stock performance. Last month, Congress dramatically reduced corporate taxes, so General Dynamics is doing just fine.
Maine can’t afford to give General Dynamics $60 million. There are many better uses for that money here in our state.
I’d like to encourage readers to attend the public hearing or contact their state representative and senator to share your thoughts about LD 1781. Our tax dollars should meet the needs of Maine people, not satisfy the greed of wealthy special interests.
Robert Hayes
Winslow
Why I support school choice
As our nation recognizes National School Choice Week, I am reminded of the crucial role school choice plays for me and my family.
Thanks to Maine Virtual Academy, a tuition-free online public school, I am able to compete all over the country as a nationally-ranked tennis player. Currently, I am ranked No. 1 in Maine and in New England. Nationally, I am ranked No. 30 in the 16s and also ranked 55 nationally in the 18s. Recently, I placed third in doubles at the Winter National Championship in Orlando, Florida — a great accomplishment for a New Englander with the tough competition in the Sunshine State.
With the demanding travel schedule associated with tennis, I’m able to continue my education through the academy’s online program. With the personalized learning model, I can dedicate time to tennis during the day and work on my studies in the mornings and evenings. When I’m traveling for a tournament, school can come with me. My teachers are supportive and understanding of my demanding travel and training schedule.
Even though I am 16 years old, I have already been in contact with many Division 1 colleges from all over the country and Ivy League schools.
Without my family’s ability to select a school that suits my unique schedule, I may have not had the opportunity to play tennis at this level, much less become the top player in New England.
Lana Mavor
Yarmouth
Treat animals with decency
As scientists continue to study the animal world, we are learning that many nonhuman animals are thinking, feeling and aware beings, not so different from human animals. With the expansion of knowledge, is it not time to start treating nonhuman animals as fellow citizens of our shared planet, and with the same decency and kindness we are supposed to demonstrate towards each other?
The Bangor Daily News reported on a 25-ton humpback whale that kept a Maine-based marine biologist safe from a 15-foot tiger shark. Brunswick’s Nan Hauser was convinced this great whale was trying, as delicately as possible, to keep her close and safe from this shark.
Wolf families demonstrate deep devotion and loving behavior with their mates and pups that would put many human families to shame. Birds and beavers, bears and pigs, horses and elephants, our own dogs and cats, and so many other nonhuman species and individuals, communicate with each other and demonstrate devotion, affection and connection with their families, with their own species and even between different species.
If we humans open our minds and hearts to the truth, is it not time to finally end the cruelty of trapping animals for profit, of shooting animals for “fun,” of raising pigs in gestation crates where they cannot even turn around and are driven insane, of imprisoning living animals for human entertainment or in laboratories?
Are we not here on this planet, above all, to be kind and to love? And if not now, when?
Robert Goldman
Portland
No dark money here
On Dec. 26, the BDN ran a column by professional lobbyist and campaign staffer Lance Dutson, entitled “ The real dark money in Maine politics.” It discredited earnest citizens attending rallies throughout the state as being “paid protesters.” He gave absolutely no proof of any of these allegations.
Clearly, Dutson is mystified as to why anyone would stand in the cold with a cardboard sign to voice their concern over any issue — without being paid. It must blow his mind. Why would anyone concerned about the dire consequences of the tax reform bill, the repeal of Affordable Care Act, the defunding of the Children’s Health Insurance Program or any other issue take time off from their jobs, spend their own money on gas (and airfare), spend evenings at meetings, spend weekends making signs, forgo vacations and stand in all kinds of weather to voice their concern?
We are indeed “regular folks getting together on our own” — real people who are so deeply concerned about our country, neighbors and families that we feel compelled to exercise our civic duty to protest against these policies. There are no secret funding sources from shadowy “D.C. groups.” There is a hat that gets passed around each meeting to pay for photocopies or cardboard and markers or banners. No one gets paid to contact the press about events or to write letters to the editor as Dutson claims. We volunteer our time to these efforts freely. It is the duty of all citizens to be informed and involved in the governance of a democracy.
Sarah Holland
Camden