Opinions
Page D, The Bridgton News, August 4, 2011
Letters
Kids, come down
CHEWONKI TALK — An educational outreach teacher from Chewonki had the rapt attention of her audience during a presentation of Maine Owls at the Casco Public Library. Chewonki will be back at the library Tuesday, Aug. 16 at 5 p.m. for a program on “Riparian Habitats.” Chewonki visits are made possible by Loon Echo Land Trust and Cornerstones of Science grants. example of them. I’ll bet if laws were enforced, our government would be hard put. Think of the money that would be taken back on taxes, fines, interest, and nice warm cells and no retirement? Millionaires, hedge fund managers, Wall Street, banks and big oil. Bush and Cheney; they are being protected, unable to leave the country. The millions wasted on countries we give money to and they tell Al Qaeda where our troops are and will be, to ambush them. How many more will die for a vendetta? Ten years, some men and women 10 tours, just asking to be killed. Think about it. More promises, more lies and what for — greed and power? America, home of the free and the brave, giving their lives for playboy Bush! Are we that dumb? Election will tell. Robert J. Champagne Bridgton
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School budget
To The Editor: In last week’s letter regarding the SAD 61 school budget, Kevin Hancock suggested several valid reasons for supporting the school budget when we get our third chance to vote for it on Aug. 9. The most compelling of those arguments, however, is the message that we are (and have been) sending to our kids. Carmel Ann Collins reinforced this thought in her fine letter, also. I no longer have a child in school. I speak as a past member of the SAD 61 School Board and a citizen who is willing to pay a little more in taxes to support our vital school district. As Kevin pointed out, the students know what is going on. They know that a vocal and seemingly hysterical group of citizens are focused so intently
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on taxes that they care little about the importance of education. They know that these one-issue folks are blind to the necessity of keeping future generations well informed and productive. Only education can achieve that. The students know that if we falter now in providing a decent education for them and their offspring, the impact on our economy and our way of life will be devastating. Some of us understand that the cost of education in our four towns is unavoidably related to the state school funding formula and to other conditions unrelated to local control. The kids know this. They know that if we fail to muster support for the school budget this time — then we are all culpable. All guilty. If that happens, we will need to deal with them and with our shame. LETTERS, Page D
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To The Editor: With the mess we’re in and Congress and our president doing their worst to do the worst to the country, it’s a wonder anything gets done. One thing I know is things will get a lot worse. If they can’t get their way, they will destroy this very country they are elected to protect. The only thing in three years they have done is keep the wars going, and take more from those that can least afford it. Banks, mortgage companies, the auto industry, Wall Street and the stock market are to big to fail — all making billions in profits and the millionaires sit on their cash and get more to fatten their pockets. Even the president is willing to let Social Security and Medicare go. Just to keep their fat a--- richer and their retirements bigger. It makes one wonder who they are protecting, the people or puppet masters and their slaves. Think long and hard before you put another president in. We’ll have five retired presidents sucking their retirement out of us and making millions on the side, just like Congress. Where else can you work four years and be set for life? Yet, Social Security goes three years without cost of living raises, and now they want to cut it. Greed rules and is like a cancer. They will let the country go to Hell because of their stubbornness. What happened to honor and loyalty? They don’t have to abide by the laws they make or any other laws. Income taxes; they are too good, above the common people. It would make me a happy man to see our law enforcement, courts and Supreme Court judges make an
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on the floor. All I could see were her feet and knees — the rest of her was hidden by the folds of the thick curtain that spanned the stage. I went over, sat next to her, and wiggled my torso under the curtain. And there we lay for a good 10 minutes, shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip, knee to knee, staring up at the vents and ducts of the dark stage ceiling, talking quietly. Talking about nothing in particular. Just together. As the time for the service grew nearer, we could hear the muffled commotion of people filling the gym. Gentle voices greeting each other. The soft sounds of hugs. And, when close to us, some polite giggles. “Whose feet are those next to Mandy’s?” we heard a lady’s voice ask. “Oh, that’s her dad,” my wife said. And my daughter smiled.
(Continued from Page D) enough to control his spending. I believe he would get himself right back into debt all over again if he were ever issued more credit cards — and I don’t see our government being any different unless we pass a balanced budget amendment to our Constitution. The eleventh-hour budget compromise in Washington will supposedly prevent bankruptcy for the USA, but I’m not confident it will. How can this Congress bind future Congresses for the next 10 years? Doesn’t the Constitution allow them to tax, borrow and spend under Article I, Section 8? Without a balanced budget amendment they can do what they please and I don’t trust them to behave differently any more than I do my cousin. Both sides claim there are huge cuts to government spending included in the compromise, but I’m not sure I believe that either. Presidents and members of Congress set off my internal BS alarm just like my cousin always did. The way they conduct their personal lives is similar to my cousin too, but there’s not enough space in this column to go into any of that. Should the USA go bankrupt, who would pick up the slack for us? China? According to one Chinese official, we’ve already defaulted on our debt to them because we’re paying interest on it by printing dollars that are worth less than the ones we borrowed. U.S.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke likes to call it “quantitative easing,” but you could also call it counterfeiting. He reminds me of my cousin too. Another of our creditors, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, said the other day that, “They (Americans) are living beyond their means and shifting a part of the weight of their problems to the world economy.” The way he describes us Americans, we’re all seeming a bit like my cousin, no? Putin went on to say, “They (Americans) are living like parasites off the global economy and their monopoly of the dollar” Is he right? I think he is. How did we get to the point when a communist Chinese official and the former head of the Soviet KGB are making more sense than the U.S. Federal Reserve chairman and the president of the United States? As I think about all this, it occurs to me that, for decades, my cousin would call me and I would go and hang out with him again, though I should have known better. And, it’s us Americans who keep electing presidents and members of Congress who act like just like him. I’m thinking Pogo was right when he said, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Tom McLaughlin of Lovell is a retired U.S. History teacher. He can be reached at tommclaughlin@fairpoint.net
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(Continued from Page D) One of the perils of becoming a grown-up is the inevitable disconnect with our children. Just when they need us most, whether to splash around in puddles, climb trees, or just sit quietly and listen to them (“I wonder if maybe boys aren’t yucky after all…”) we so are so often unavailable: off playing golf, potting exotic plants, or reading the Wall Street Journal. We live as if the big-person things we do really matter when so much is just inane. My wife and I have recently rolled up our sleeves to help plant a new church in a nearby town, and (for now) we all meet in school gymnasium. A couple of Sundays ago, while setting up chairs, I noticed my home-from-college daughter lying on the school stage with her feet