Martin’s Point is more than welcome
Martin’s Point Healthcare is one of the premier healthcare providers in Maine. I became a patient at their South Portland office last year. Never in my life have I experienced an organization as efficient, friendly, professional and compassionate as Martin’s Point.
I was disappointed to learn of the strong opposition to a recent proposal by Martin’s Point to relocate their South Portland operations to the Hamlin School property. I was especially saddened to hear a statement by one resident that Martin’s Point should be allowed to “remain” in South Portland as if we’d be doing them some kind of favor by not running them out of town on the rail.
On the contrary, we should be doing what we can to encourage Martin’s Point to stay in South Portland, rather than relocate to a neighboring community such as Cape Elizabeth or Scarborough. We are fortunate to have such a high quality organization in our community and it would be a real shame if they left because they felt like they weren’t welcome here.
I am a strong believer in the importance of green space I became a member of the South Portland Land Trust for exactly that reason and I am confident that a compromise could be worked out to retain and enhance green space in the Hamlin School neighborhood, while allowing Martin’s Point to create a beautiful facility that would benefit us all.
However, if the neighbors are not willing to compromise, I hope Martin’s Point will consider some of the other properties currently available in South Portland. Over here in the Brick Hill neighborhood we have been happily coexisting with medical offices and nonprofit organizations for years, and there is more buildable land available. Martin’s Point would be warmly welcomed in my neighborhood.
Adrian Dowling
South Portland
Note to readers
The following letters are written by non-native English speakers who are students in the Advanced Writing ESOL class at Southern Maine Community College.
These young men and women have worked hard to write these letters of opinion, hoping to persuade you; for all of them, it is their first experience with the idea of Freedom of the Press. Their assignment was to write a letter to the editor, something not ever done by many citizens. Please support them by taking a moment to read their thoughts and maybe write a reply.
You might also like to come to hear them tell their Sacred Stories on April 27 at South Portland City Hall at 3:30 p.m., completing their final project for the semester. I promise you will not regret this often life-changing experience.
Rosemarie De Angelis,
Adjunct Professor, SMCC
Tech has its ups and downs
While we are checking our emails, we can sometimes feel like throwing our computer out of the window, or going for vacation to escape the stress because of a tiny mistake or mess up. Technology has changed our lives in so many tasks, even if we don’t realize it.
I would not be able to share my homework with my teacher or check the nearby restaurants with their menus or take a drive for the first time all the way to Boston, or take a quick look on the best price for the item I want to buy.
On the one hand, technology can be a great help to reach out to people and spread our message in a very short time. Using technology to improve medicine has become common between doctors and patients. Small devices can track patient status while they are doing their daily routines.
On the other hand, some think it puts us far from our real life. Kids are obsessed with new technology, wasting their time playing video games instead of studying or playing outside. Twenty-eight percent of traffic accidents occur when people talk on cell phones or send text messages. Global warming is taking our planet from us and the new technology is helping it.
So, it’s our choice to manage the way of living with useful and clean technology. It lives with us, and we can’t change that. We are linking technology to cars, home control, businesses, daily activities and fitness.
Technology certainly has pros and cons. What we each need to remember is to use it carefully, keeping in mind that it may bring us things we like but also things we don’t like. Remember to use caution!
Ayoob Mahdi
Iraq
Parents are a gift
Parents are one of the most beautiful gifts of God which we have in our lives. Some of us may have lost our parents in war, accidents or other reasons. Not all of us are fortunate enough to have our biological parents with us. However, sometimes there is someone else who comes into our life and becomes our parent, like an angel sent from God.
Parents often sacrifice for their children to provide them what they need and want. It is like they forget themselves. They are working hard and trying to do all they can. They are saving money for their children and providing food, clothing and education and a lot more.
Mother is always trying to give as much love as she can to her children. She is accepting all the requests that her children have, such as providing good and delicious meals, going shopping and a lot more.
She gives all the answers to their questions and makes herself a shield to all hardness they are facing. Finally they never think they are bored of doing this service.
Let’s think about what we are doing to our parents after all the sacrifice they do for us? How are we taking care of them? How do we appreciate and give them the feeling that all they did was right and we are thankful to them and love them? What have we done for their happiness?
I really do not have good answers to these questions! If I write millions of books about their sacrifice I won’t be able to include and write all the things they do for us. We are today’s children and tomorrow’s parents. Everyone is taking the harvest of whatever they grew. We should give our parents as much love and respect as we can.
Belal Faizy
Afghanistan
Don’t abuse refugee services
How great is Portland! How great is Maine! How great is Portland’s community and society!
The city of Portland is always standing to hold our hands by assisting everybody in need without any exception. Some people’s eligibility is limited by their status but there is always an option in Portland. General assistance is for everybody. It is located at 196 Lancaster St., open from Monday to Friday 8 a.m.-4 p.m. It provides all the basic needs: rent, food and non-food. Remember for extra help you can always knock at the next door, 190 Lancaster St., which is the department of refugee services where you can find the kindest social workers ever seen in the world.
How can we be thankful, how can we improve the greatness of our city, and how can we be helpful to those who helped us first? I strongly suggest to not abuse the assistance we get. Let’s have a heart, which thinks about others and which is always willing to help others. Don’t wait to be denied. If you got a job, let them know and maybe they can help someone else to get where you are; if they give you a workfare don’t try to escape because they will be asking you little compared to what they give you. Let’s all take part and support the development of our city. Portland is me and you, and it’s up to us to make it better by not abusing its assistance but by contributing to its development.
Delicia Nineza
Burundi
Manage your time
If you are a busy person and never once in your lifetime try to manage your time, you will always feel even much more busy and get stressed or overwhelmed at the end of your day. There will be a huge difference in your life if you try to manage your time.
First thing is, it helps you prioritize your work. When you have your list for the day, you must also know when and how much time you have to finish. That way, it makes you even more focused. Second, managing time keeps you on track. The other reason why time management is important is that you will get your work done in less time. When you plan your time, you will see how much time you need for each item of the list and which will need more or less of your attention.
Time management is one of the tough things to do. It takes time to get used to it, especially, when you don’t know how to use your time wisely. You will see how much relief your body will have. Also, you will have time for fun things besides work. I strongly believe that if you apply this and use it wisely, your life can be forever changed. Even though it takes time, you just have to practice, focus and be consistent. I know you can do it.
Dianna Ruda
Guam
Be a role model
I have three children, ages 4, 3 and 1. They are two girls and one boy. Having three children keeps your life busy. You need to take care of them during the night and the daytime, too. My wife and I both work, and I go to school, too. My two oldest go to daycare and the baby is with his grandmother. Some days I drop them off and my wife picks them up; other days, it is the opposite.
At the end of the day, we have to cook, take care of the children, and also play with them. They want our attention, of course. There is housework, laundry and washing and dressing the children. Everything needs to be organized. Sometimes I feel tired. However, I don’t have a choice. They need me.
I now realize the value of my parents, what they did for me. There were 10 children in my family. My parents sacrificed time and money. I now realize that if there are two parents, they can share the work and education of their children. As a father, I want to love my children so that they will learn the importance of family.
To the fathers who read this, I want to encourage you to be part of your children’s lives, to support them in all steps. Without you, they can be lost in society by the influence of people who do not give them good guidance. Be a role model while you can.
Eric Mulamba,
Democratic Republic of Congo
Cultures should differ
People from different cultures are valuable because if we were all the same, the world would be boring. Being different from everyone can help people learn new things from other cultures, too.
Everyone has their own skills, attitudes and experiences, which bring fresh ideas. Culture is the characteristic of a particular group of people which is defined by language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts. Art and music is a culture’s way of expressing itself. People must learn how to treat everyone with respect. If we can live with others from different cultures, we will become more accepting and help the world to be at peace. It’s important to understand other values and beliefs in order to appreciate and embrace the differences.
In my opinion, everyone should travel around the world so we can see and learn more. I encourage people to be a friend with people from all around the world. We are all human with our own way of thinking. If this world only had one culture, our experiences would be much less interesting, our food would be much less exciting and even our clothing would be much less colorful. Language allows people within a culture to communicate. For example how many words for “Hi” are there? Language helps establish a cultural identity.
In conclusion, different cultures give us new experiences, including teaching us about new foods, religion and language. It’s really good to know new things in the world to help us be more open minded.
Hend Alzefiri
Kuwait
Don’t text and drive
Texting while driving can be very dangerous. There have been a lot of accidents because of this. It should be illegal as drunk driving, because both of them take your attention from the road. Also both can make you have an accident, or even kill people by mistake. We should be responsible and focus on the road, because if you don’t want to think of yourself, at least you should think about others.
Texting while driving causes 1,600,000 accidents per year, 330,000 injuries per year, and 11 teen deaths every day. It is also 25 percent of all car accidents. After we read all of these statistics, people should be more responsible and think twice before checking their messages.
People should have no excuse to check their messages or even worse, texting back. You need to be very focused and fully uninterrupted while driving. If people would stop texting while driving there will be much fewer accidents and the road would be safer.
Dawood Almubarak
Iraq
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