Letter

Published
June 2, 2019

Letter to the editor: With buried lines, railroad right-of-way, CMP project could work

The debate about Central Maine Power’s plan to build New England Clean Energy Connect – a transmission line across western Maine – is a murky swirl of dialogue that needs to be simplified, and then settled. The debate about whether or not to consume this power is false: Carbon-free power generated and used anywhere will […]
Published
May 30, 2019

Letter to the editor: Plan to reduce jetport noise will be focus of June 5 meeting

The Portland Jetport has received complaints for many years about airplane noise, especially from nighttime approaches over South Portland. During the daytime hours, many planes heading to Runway 29 follow the “Harbor Visual” approach over Casco Bay, Bug Light and the Casco Bay Bridge. This approach is not available after sunset, and thus the planes […]
Published
May 29, 2019

Letter to the editor: Wage laws, unions drive up government construction costs in Maine

Your May 4 front-page story “Construction costs may push cities to scale back projects” is but another example of how government construction costs far exceed the costs of work done in the private sector. A bid on a project financed by the taxpayer has been a license to steal, and there seems to be no […]
Published
May 28, 2019

Letter to the editor: Ranked-choice voting yields better results

Thanks to ranked-choice voting, independent-minded Marty Grohman ran in 2018’s 1st District Congressional race and Zak Ringelstein ran for U.S. Senate. Although neither of these candidates was elected, they argued well for positions that I hope are influencing the winners in those races: Marty spoke of the need to find areas of agreement in Congress, […]
Published
May 28, 2019

Letter to the editor: Tax credit bill sets right priorities

For once, relief would go to the people who really need it.

Published
May 28, 2019

Letter to the editor: Medicare more efficient than private insurance

I graduated with a law degree at age 51 and found I couldn’t keep my school insurance. I spent almost three years while job-hunting (and working several part-time jobs) with six-month-maximum coverage policies that covered no doctor visits and no medications but had a huge deductible if I were hospitalized. Then I went to a […]
Published
May 27, 2019

Letter to the editor: Vaccination is a responsibility, not a choice

In the mid-1990s, I was in private practice as a nurse-midwife in Aroostook County. During that time I became very ill with pertussis (whooping cough). At one point, my airway closed off completely and I couldn’t breathe. I nearly lost consciousness. That was the closest I have ever come to believing I was going to […]
Published
May 26, 2019

Letter to the editor: Maine Voices author exaggerates threat posed by guns

In Karin Leuthy’s Maine Voices column of May 22 (“Augusta fails to recognize that gun injuries, deaths are a public safety crisis”), she decries the ownership of guns as a public menace, using deaths by suicide (using guns) as an example of why we should reduce the number. Would she prefer the far more painful […]
Published
May 26, 2019

Letter to the editor: Enough has been spent on war – what about a Peace Academy?

The monuments around our country are testimony to our inability to sustain nonaggression, a World War II combat veteran says.
Published
May 25, 2019

Letter to the editor: Maine drug-importation program would have federal safeguards

I am writing concerning the May 18 letter (“Drug importation lacks protections for patients“) in which Robyn M. Boerstling responded to an op-ed in support of L.D. 1272, a bill that will establish a safe and effective program of wholesale importation for lower-cost drugs. This program follows the model I wrote working with the Portland-based […]