This week’s edition!
Letters
LETTER: LePage is more like us than them
To the Editor:
Eight Republicans, politicians all, reassured and confident that they must be right because of their number, have like a noisy gaggle of gossips joined together to publicly complain about Governor LePage’s behavior. (Op/Ed: “Republican Senators express concern about Governor’s tone,” TCT, page 3, April 7, 2011.
The Governor, it is generally agreed, misbehaves; he is similar to the girls and women we found so interesting when we were very young, the kind that other women and girls whispered about, you know—easy.
Reporters delight in this; they deliberately and continuously provoke him until they have their way with him. And when they do, they rush to tell everyone, gleefully putting his unrestrained remarks into newspaper headlines.
LETTER: L-A, MAINEiacs have had their ups and downs
To the Editor:
I like Larry Gilbert a lot. He has been a great mayor and an excellent advocate for Lewiston. He has done a lot for our city, and I am proud to call him my friend.
Larry has also been a good friend and staunch supporter of the Lewiston MAINEiacs. He, as well as I, advocated for the team to come to Lewiston. Both of us bought season tickets in advance of their arrival to show our support for the move, and both of us have been season-ticket holders since day one. We have also expressed our loyalty to the team in many other ways.
LETTER: Why would senators join the “Hate LePage” crowd?
To the Editor:
Since reading the Op-Ed piece written by State Senators Roger Katz and Brian Langley and signed by six other senators, I have been trying to discern what they mean by the expression “government by disrespect.” (“Reject government by disrespect: Republican Senators express concern about Governor’s tone,” TCT, April 7, 2011, page 3.)
Also, what is the purpose of this piece? Why would Republican senators join the “Hate LePage” crowd?
Like these senators, I am dismayed and perturbed by the governor’s penchant for getting involved in issues that have little or nothing to do with the problems that our state faces and by his use of derogatory expressions for some of those who aggravate him. This is unbecoming, even for a governor who is obviously not a politician. I hope we have seen the end of this.
LETTER: Bring the debate from coffee shops to the public
Letter to the Editor:
You spend your formative years studying hard in school. You follow society’s rules. Upon graduation you spend the next four to 12 years studying, training and sacrificing to obtain a successful career. Entering the workplace, you work hard and eventually achieve financial success. In our present society that makes you evil.
Or you spend your formative years merely being counted “present” on the days you make it to school. Your disruptive behavior infringes on the right of your fellow classmates who want to learn. Partying replaces studying. You develop the finer points of drugging, drinking and sexual promiscuity. You have babies out of wedlock. You fill our courts and prisons. Mandates force employers to pay an exorbitant minimal wage for your lack of skills. You are a societal victim. You are good.
OP/Ed: Republican Senators express concern about Governor’s tone
By Senators Roger J. Katz
and Brian D. Langley
As Republican Senators, we all want Governor LePage and his administration to succeed. Yet we feel compelled to express our discomfort and dismay with the tone and spirit of some of the remarks he has made.
Were these isolated incidents we would bite our collective tongues because we are all human. But, unfortunately, such is not the case. We feel we must speak out.
We ran for this office as a proud Republicans, inspired and energized by the campaign themes of the Governor to make Maine a more business-friendly state and attract the capital investment we need to create jobs and ensure that our children and grandchildren will have the kind of opportunity and prosperity we all want for them.
Op/Ed: On whose back should we balance the budget?
“Taxing the Rich is Sucker Bait”
By Prof. John Frary
I hope we can all agree on at least three things: 1) Maine’s Constitution requires the budget to be balanced; 2) the state has a really, really big bill to pay in the form of unfunded mandates; and 3) Paul LePage has no responsibility for the accumulation of these unfunded bills.
I know Number 3 will be tough for some people. But let’s face it, the bills accumulated long before he took office.
There’s no way that we are going to reach agreement about who’s responsible for this pile of debt. But we can agree, at least, that assigning responsibility is of no use in solving the problem.
The LePage budget proposal to raise the retirement age and increase the pension contributions of teachers has provoked protests that the budget should not be “balanced on the backs of the teachers.” Some Republican legislators, growing weak at the knees in reaction to phone calls from aggrieved teachers, have joined the cry.
LETTER: In favor of sensible gun legislation
Letter to the Editor:
The following is my response to Lewiston Mayor Gilbert’s column on “sensible gun legislation” in the March 12, 2011 edition of Twin City TIMES.
Mayor Gilbert,
In response to your “Mayor’s Corner” weekly column in the Twin City TIMES, (“Patriots’ Ink sends subtle threat for my MAIG membership,” March 10, 2011) and to show that I support and agree with you about sensible gun legislation, I took your advice and signed the petition on the Fix Gun Checks website.
Unfortunately, folks like this Steven D. Lange of “Patriot’s Ink,” who you spoke about, and other similar organizations and their followers, who believe in the more radical approach of interpreting the Constitution, chose to ignore that the Founding Fathers were both reasonable and, more importantly, sensible about how they wanted the Constitution to be interpreted. “Sensible” being the operative word.
LETTER: Check “Yes” for Clean Elections
To the Editor:
What’s the best way to make sure the public interest is the primary interest of our elected officials? By making sure that candidates don’t rely on special interests to win campaigns.
Maine’s Clean Election system, funded by Maine people, allowed the majority of newly elected legislators to run for office without raising private money. Eighty percent of the 125th Legislature now serves without the usual ties to special interests.
To keep that system in place, it’s important to check Yes for Clean Elections on Line 1 of the Maine income tax form.
LETTER: Pay-as you-go plan could end pension problem
To the Editor:
Maine State government is flawed; an example of this is the underfunded state employee pension fund.
State government claims it would be too expensive to honor existing pension and benefit agreements. The state has proposed a fix that includes no cost of living adjustments (COLAs) for three years, a two-percent employee increase in the retirement fund and, for new employees, delaying retirement until age 65.
This problem and the proposed fix have generated a dust storm of opposing views, making it difficult to fairly judge the problem. The various stakeholders are attractive, articulate and equally persuasive. I have heard that previous legislatures robbed (“borrowed,” if you prefer) pension funds to balance state budgets, heard that other legislatures lavishly modified pension and benefit agreements, freely and excessively obligated state (taxpayer) money to gain the favor of the state employees (voters).
LETTER: Governor LePage, please stay the course
To The Editor:
I pulled up to the gas pump the other day and commenced to fill my gas tank. Ten dollars … twenty dollars … nervously into the 30s, and finally stopping in the mid-40s. I watched others around me anxiously filling the tanks of their vehicles, most carefully stopping at 10 dollars. I looked at their total and looked at mine.
I thought, “Thank God I’m collecting a state pension; otherwise I might not be able to afford a fill-up.” Then I thought, “Instead of saying it with flowers, I’ll say it with gas.” I went home, got my wife’s car and filled the tank.
Thanks to my state pension, I am blessed with an enormous amount of free time. Heading to coffee to meet with my friends I made my daily stop, picking up a couple of scratch tickets and a couple of out-of-town newspapers.
