United Way and the Public Interest

Your story on the United Way Tuesday, Sept. 14 (“United Way of Mid Coast Maine kicks off $1.725M campaign”) notes that the United Way of Mid-Coast Maine supports 47 programs at 36 local non-profit agencies! Campaign co-chairs Bob and Barb McCue are quoted as saying “This fall we’re hoping for a better tomorrow. We’re not there yet, but we can build toward it, always keeping in mind our United Way goals: that all our neighbors deserve to be financially stable, we all should feel safe, healthy and connected to our community, and we want our children to have the best possible start in life.”

This is an eloquent statement of a Public Interest. It goes deeper than being a declaration of charity. One way to say this is to quote Walter Lippmann, whom many of us remember as a great reporter, commentator and public savant and whose writings were writ large in The Times Record. He said that the Public Interest is “Old men planting trees they will never sit under.”

Thrilling words. They help give focus and depth to our efforts to do good to others just as much as we want others to do good to us. They evoke a Public Interest.

John Rensenbrink,
Topsham

Do your job

To our elected officials:
Wow. Just wow.
I’m not going to go into all the things that are making me frustrated. All the things that are giving me pause. All the things that are causing me to distrust elected and non-elected leaders.
I am writing to remind you to defend the Constitution of the United States of America. That’s part of your oath when you took office and a big part of your job. Do your job.

Marsha Hinton,
West Bath