There is much opining on op-ed pages and in the social media space about Sen. Joe Manchin’s abrogation and self-interested scuttling of his own party’s plan to combat the ravages of climate change. Much of this criticism is warranted and eminently fair: Sen. Manchin, a millionaire, has much of his personal fortune invested in a fossil fuel brokerage company he helped found, and his purple-red state has had a long, dirty love affair with coal.

Nevertheless, the patrician upper house has 99 other voting members, and so-called “moderates” like Sen. Susan Collins, who is beholden to party but doesn’t represent a state with rich gas or coal reserves, could exercise some of her power to help improve the future for my children, and theirs.

As much of the world literally and figuratively burned last week, rudderless politicians who are enslaved by corporate interests and senseless planks in a party platform did nothing but watch. “Rome isn’t burning,” they say. “Remember that cold day in January?”

I’m “very disappointed” in Sen. Collins.

Chris Indorf
Saco