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.

Perhaps our local state representatives could explain why Lewiston property taxpayers are forced to cough up monies to support our ever-growing immigrant and domestic welfare population while places like Falmouth, Scarborough and Cape Elizabeth get a free ride.

Now comes Governor Paul LePage, duly elected by the voters of Maine, attempting to bring fiscal stability to our state after years of incompetent Good Old Boy/Girl leadership, which catered to all the special interest groups that created more taxes—not jobs. His efforts have brought on the wrath of nasty liberal Democrats. They can’t seem to accept that they lost.

Their actions of beating down and trying to destroy the reputation of their enemies and their families show us why good, competent and qualified people choose not to run.

It’s time to bring the debate from the local coffee shops to the public. Start flooding this paper and the daily paper with letters expressing your outrage. Working hard and complaining about your taxes does not make you a racist.

Getting upset and defending your Canadian ancestors does not make you a racist. They came to Lewiston to fill jobs, not apartments. Your ancestors helped family members through crises with family support. Today you send your problem relatives to DHHS for assistance.

To the majority of hardworking state workers, teacher, fire, police and others, maybe it’s time to take a step back and really take a hard look at your pension versus the Social Security that those in the private sector will get. Some of you have contributed extra to your state pension in order to gain part and full payment of your insurance premiums upon retirement. Social Security does not have this benefit.

Many state workers complain that although they paid into Social Security, they can only collect 40 percent of their stated benefit. I would remind you that Maine is one of 11 states that fall under this criterion. Why did the Maine Legislature fail to recognize this? Could it be because the law was the brainchild of George Mitchell?

Those who point to Governor LePage’s misspeaks and claim he is holding up the state to ridicule and hurting job growth are flat-out wrong. We are a laughing stock because it appears we are more interested in an anti-business mural than our fiscal problems.

You, the readers of this paper, can become active and try to change things, or you can stay passive so that we continue the status quo. The ball is in your court.

Robert Macdonald

Lewiston