Your front page article, “Pro-Gun rally shines light on liberal laws” (April 25) merely placed the light on your liberal writer, not on the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.

Giving credence to the Brady Campaign to End Gun Violence anti-gun bunch added additional humor to her article containing, at best, half-truths.

Shame on Maine for getting a score of only 11 out of the possible 100, while wonderful California is fortunate enough to score 80! Oh, did reporter Ann Kim mention that California crime and violent crime rates are many, many times those of Maine?

Probably an innocent oversight. She also forgot to mention that the national homicide rate is now half of what it was in 1991 despite the facts that there are many more guns present in the hands of honest Americans, and a bunch of states are now granting the right to carry when they couldn’t before.

A quick study would show Ms. Kim that the states that freely grant their citizens Second Amendment rights have lower crime rates than those with sometimes illegal, restrictive gun laws. Vermont, for example, allows concealed carry by residents and nonresidents alike without condition. Compare its crime rates with California, New York and Illinois and you will see the wisdom of their lawmakers.

In each case, as states grant more freedom of gun ownership to their residents, crime rates have gone down. The problem is not caused by honest, patriotic Americans who are exercising their constitutional rights. The problem is caused by people like Ms. Kim who want to place Draconian laws on honest folks that benefit only the law breakers.

Fred Walther

West Poland

In regards to last week’s gun rights rally in Portland: Under a strict reading of the U.S. Constitution, I fully support every American’s right to own and carry — a vintage 1787 muzzleloader.

Paul Oppenheim

Yarmouth

Family the biggest factor in performance of student

 

I wish to weigh in on the issue of recent suggestions that Maine educators’ pay be linked to student performance. To those who favor such a ludicrous idea, do you also recommend that dentists be paid in relation to how many teeth their patients have or lose, or how many cavities they have?

How about paying doctors for only the most healthy patients? (Actually that one is on the way, thanks to Obamacare: Read “denial of care to reduce health care costs.”)

Back to education — there is a factor that strongly influences student performance over which teachers have exactly no power, regardless how good a teacher they are: the home environment.

If the student comes from a home in which the parents or guardians do not hold education as a high value, one cannot expect the parents to enforce a lifestyle that supports high student performance, such as making time for homework. If the student is not rested or fed when he arrives at school, he will not be able to grasp and assimilate what is being taught.

If the student comes to school primarily to escape a miserable or abusive homelife, academics take a secondary place in the priorities.

There are too many factors that affect student academic performance to lay it all at the feet of the teachers. This suggestion is seriously flawed, and ill-thought-out.

Lisa Davis

Caribou

Readers explain support for gubernatorial hopefuls

 

In the Portland Press Herald on April 20, Rosa Scarcelli, a Democratic candidate for governor, took the state Legislature to task for not doing enough to convince Bar Harbor-based Jackson Laboratory to set up a new research facility in southern Florida, rather than Maine.

I don’t know if extra efforts and incentives would have done the trick, but I do know that a straight-talking, hard-hitting, common-sense approach to improving the business climate in Maine is exactly what this state needs. I do know we need a career business person at the helm, not a career politician.

The message is clear: For fiscally conservative, socially moderate citizens such as myself, Rosa Scarcelli is the clear-cut choice for governor. She’s a common sense, no-nonsense leader, the real deal. I enthusiastically support her candidacy.

David Treadwell

Brunswick

Bruce Poliquin is running as a Republican to be Maine’s next governor. Being a Republican will probably turn some readers off, which is understandable, as political labels evoke stereotypes that are either positive or negative. However, Mr. Poliquin’s attractiveness derives from his work ethic, competence, honesty and integrity.

Although running as a Republican, Bruce is not a political operative, having never held office, but very active in community affairs. Born and brought up in Waterville by hard-working principled parents, he integrated his native intelligence with the work ethic instilled from his predecessors to win a scholarship to Phillips Andover Academy and later studied economics at Harvard University.

A lifelong entrepreneur, he helped build an asset management company for worker pension funds, with assets over $5 billion. Later, as a real estate developer, he has learned first-hand about the overlapping and inefficient bureaucratic layers of red tape that impede business development in Maine.

He wants to create a governmental culture that help generate business opportunities that will allow our children to both enjoy the Maine lifestyle and make a living. When asked what he would do as governor to help our area prosper, he avoids the “politician’s” promises of targeted governmental largess. Instead, he vows to work hard at promoting effective state programs and agencies while eliminating the redundant and ineffective. Reducing Maine’s crushing tax burden would allow business opportunities and jobs to develop naturally. When Bruce says he will “work hard,” I believe him. His campaign shows that this is the only way he knows.

Traveling over 55,000 miles crisscrossing the state to personally meet and listen to as many small groups of Mainers as possible, he and his message have earned both admiration and respect. You can get more information at www.BruceforME.com.

Roderick MacGregor

Sebago

 

Maine seniors have a friend in Steve Rowe and that is why I am supporting him for governor. As a state legislator and a member of the Health and Human Services Committee, I have worked with Steve on a number of issues and he has always stood up for those who cannot stand up for themselves.

In his capacity as the state’s attorney general, Steve helped me improve Maine’s awareness of elder abuse and stepped up enforcement against people who would take advantage of Maine’s seniors. Steve took on the pharmaceutical industry to lower prescription drug costs for seniors in the state as well. He defended the state of Maine, all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, when they tried to overturn Maine’s lower-cost prescription drug programs — and he won.

Steve Rowe has spent his entire adult life serving the people of Maine and of this country. He answered the call of duty by joining the Army and he has continued that path as a state legislator and as the state’s attorney general. Steve has the commitment and the background we need in our next governor.

I am currently the only independent member of the Maine Legislature and I will be looking forward to voting for Steve Rowe for governor because he puts people before politics.

Rep. James Campbell

Newfield

 

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