Tina’s Law overdue
Bill Diamond is a leader on a mission.
Diamond, Senate representative for most of the Lakes Region, is trying to make operating a motor vehicle with a suspended license as socially taboo as operating under the influence of alcohol and drugs. And so far he’s doing a good job.
Since the summer, Diamond has been on television news programs and in local and regional newspapers decrying the stupidity of suspended drivers, like Scott Hewitt of Caribou, who have multiple suspensions on their driving record but insist on driving, thereby endangering the lives of others. As has been reported in detail this year, Hewitt’s license was under suspension at the time he collided with Tina Turcotte in South Portland this summer. Almost immediately following the tragic incident, authorities and government leaders identified the risk suspended drivers pose to the general population and have been using the Hewitt case as a good reason why reform needs to happen now to improve motorist safety.
Turcotte’s death, especially, has spurred Diamond to lead the charge to make Hewitt an example of how serious OAS convictions can be and how the state needs to deal harshly with repeat offenders. For this role he is well suited.
Diamond is no stranger to taking on bad drivers. In the 1990s, then-Secretary of State Diamond led the charge to deal harshly with drunk drivers. Because of Tina Turcotte’s death and staggering statistics of potential Scott Hewitts around Maine, he’s now redirecting that focus onto suspended drivers who refuse to drive responsibly.
“OAS wasn’t an issue a decade or so ago. OUI was the issue,” Diamond says. Diamond said his motivations for exposing the problem of suspended rivers is “to save lives.” People with multiple suspensions will be fined and serve lengthy jail time (starting with six months) if they receive more than three suspensions in three years.
“This is very plain. If we had Tina’s Law this summer, she’d be alive right now,” Diamond said. “Hewitt wouldn’t have been on the road, he would have been in jail.”
All Maine legislators should approve Tina’s Law early in this next session so more offenders can be put in jail where they can’t harm those who drive responsibly.
Turn yourself in
Don Swander, commander of the Windham VFW Post and someone who takes great pride in local veterans and their meeting place behind the Windham Mall, is disgusted and deflated by the actions of a few vandals who are making beautifying efforts at the Windham Veterans Center near impossible.
This week, Swander carried a small tree resembling Neptune’s trident into the newsroom Tuesday morning with a look of utter bafflement on his normally upbeat and chipper face. Swander was anything but chipper. For at least the fourth time in a few years, he was reporting acts of major vandalism at the center.
The vandalism has Swander wondering if it’s worth the effort that he, other vets and local benefactors are putting in to make the center an attractive location. He wants the center to succeed, as do many others in town, but he is wondering if it’s worth it. He sees the vandals as “terrorists,” and wonders if it will ever stop.
Previously, vandals – presumably local kids with nothing better to do – have thrown pretty large rocks through windows at the center. Each window repair costs about $300. Vandals have also pockmarked a once-viable trailer parked next to the center. Not a window or piece of sheet metal has gone undamaged. And ATV riders have cut a rutted and ugly path through the vet’s property. The latest not-so-random act of vandalism is the cutting of several trees that were recently planted for a local Boy Scout’s Eagle project.
Much vandalism happens in Windham and surrounding towns. All you have to do is read the police log weekly to catch up on the latest. The center is remote and quiet, making it the perfect target. But to use a machete or hatchet to hack down a few beautiful trees donated in honor of fallen veterans is pretty low and the person or people responsible should turn themselves in and pay for replacement and offer to do the replanting work themselves.
The vets are offering a $500 reward to anyone who knows about this crime. That’s a lot of money. Hopefully, before being turned in by a friend who would rather have a new XBox than continue a friendship with someone who would vandalize a gathering place for America’s true heroes, the person who committed this act is big enough to realize his wrong and turn himself in. Take this chance to do the right thing. There is forgiveness for those who do things like this, especially during this Christmas season.
-John Balentine, editor
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