Letters

Published
January 20, 2015

Letter to the editor: LePage should be ashamed for forcing out community college president

What a sad, sad day in Maine’s history, when a man with such a remarkable legacy and of widespread regard as John Fitzsimmons is driven out by a governor issuing threats of retaliation. Dr. Fitzsimmons’ departure is an enormous loss for the community colleges and for Maine, and the manner in which it occurred is […]
Published
January 20, 2015

Letter to the editor: Maine community college chief deserved to stay on the job

I have had the privilege of serving as an academic dean at Central Maine Community College. I know firsthand the challenges of working with both the University of Maine System and being consistently underfunded by the state. I have also witnessed the stunning accomplishments of Maine’s community colleges and our graduates under the leadership of […]
Published
January 19, 2015

Letter to the editor: Free community college may drain other institutions

In the rush to praise the notion of free community colleges, I wonder if enough thought has been given to a significant problem that might be created. I see no reason why students trying to minimize their debt would not flock to the community colleges to do their first two years, emptying out the freshman […]
Published
January 19, 2015

Letter to the editor: Invest in prevention programming to cut domestic violence

While I applaud Gov. LePage’s focus on eliminating domestic violence, I think it is safe to say that whatever strategies he has been employing over the last four years are not decreasing interpersonal violence. In 2014, domestic violence homicides rose from 50 percent of all murders in Maine to 66 percent. In addition, a record […]
Published
January 19, 2015

Letter to the editor: Patience, please, for new wave of mail processing

Re: “Postal Service change leaves some Portland boxes empty” (Jan. 14): I am a Postal Service employee at the Scarborough processing center. As a processing clerk, I would like our customers to know that even though there has been a decline in first class mail, we do continue to put our energy in processing that […]

Published
January 19, 2015

Letter to the editor: Collins’ pipeline vote allows foreign corporation to seize private property

Sen. Susan Collins has been re-elected and is now free to do what she does best: represent the interests of her wealthy contributors and the partisan interests of the Republican political leadership. Again she voted for the Keystone XL pipeline. But the legislation she voted for allows a foreign corporation to seize private property by […]
Published
January 19, 2015

Letter to the editor: Columnist’s rhetoric on policing faulted

I am sure the Portland Press Herald requires its reporters to adhere to standards of truthfulness and objective reporting. The distortions in freelance writer M.D. Harmon’s columns of Dec. 26 (“Sowing distrust of police comes back to hurt minority communities”) and Jan. 9 (“Unwelcome changes in policing, health care easily predicted”) show that he doesn’t […]
Published
January 18, 2015

Letter to the editor: A new national park would bolster Maine’s economy

Last summer, my friend Steve and I bike-toured on the land proposed to be Maine’s next national park. We loaded up cross bikes (imagine a sturdy road bike, with durable tires) and traversed the land from south to north, following old logging roads through this magnificent piece of Maine’s north woods. I’m writing to advocate […]
Published
January 18, 2015

Letter to the editor: America would benefit from bringing back the draft

It is time to talk about bringing back the draft. I’m saying that every able young person, male and female, should be required by law to serve America for two years in some capacity. We need to get our mostly out-of-shape and self-centered youth into shape, physically and mentally, and they all need to go […]
Published
January 18, 2015

Letter to the editor: Keeping killers alive is better punishment than death

Re: “Our View: The death penalty wrong for Maine” (Jan. 11): As I am a two-time survivor of the murder of a loved one, I have become as much of an authority as anybody on the death penalty. Monika Malcolm was killed in July 1990 in Portland. Pamela Burner was killed in July 1995 in […]

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Letters