In reading the very nice articles about former Maine Secretary of State Dan Gwadosky who died this month, I realized that he truly did a lot for the Maine people, much of which I was unaware.

But one of the “special” things he did that I did not see mentioned in the articles was the book “Maine Remembers Those Who Served.”

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Former Secretary of State Dan Gwadosky, who died Aug. 10, has been remembered for a lot of achievements, but a book honoring Maine veterans has been left out of many accounts. The Associated Press

My friend, Keith, who was a World War II veteran, was one of the veterans chosen to be in this book. He is on page 95. I received my book in 2001 as a gift.

It would be nice if people who did know this could find the book and enjoy it as I did. I also found it in the library where I live, so the people here could look through it and maybe find someone in it that they remember.

Dan Gwadosky made this book possible in honor of the veterans, along with all the other special things he did.

I hope you can print something about this.

Kathryn Doughty

Westbrook

Save the postal service and be nice to your granny

How to save the Post Office:

If every first-grader in the country wrote and mailed a letter to their grandmother every week, they could improve their writing skills and save the post office.

And how happy the grannies would be to have a piece of first class mail.

Barbara Bardack

Freeport

Green power standard left out of energy column

Steve Ward’s Aug. 7 Maine Voices column (“Maine benefits from power deregulation”) doesn’t mention the fact that the Legislature has mandated the Public Utilities Commission to create a green standard of our electricity product, which will be implemented in the coming months.

As Ward mentions, we don’t have coal deposits here in Maine. But most electricity consumers here may not be aware that 8.3 percent of their power is nonetheless generated from coal, one of the dirtiest power sources available.

Coal plants are responsible to a large extent not only for climate change, but also for the public health threat that accompanies the emissions of mercury and other neurotoxins that drift into our state.

Those who care about breathing clean air and diminishing the demand for electricity generated by dirty coal may want to consider signing up for Maine’s green standard offer when it becomes available.

Sam Saltonstall

Peaks Island

‘Tri for a Cure’ entrants offer a lesson in living

The following is a thank you note, a public declaration and a love letter to all the women who participated in the Tri for a Cure Triathlon in South Portland on Sunday, July 31. Regardless of cancer survival status, age or athletic ability, everyone was a winner.

After watching my 30-something neighbor in the second wave of purple caps hit the water, I grabbed my bicycle with the goal of getting the couple of miles back home before she flew by our corner.

Alas, I got caught up in the spectator labyrinth. I rode as fast as I could through Sawyer Marsh hoping I would get there first. As I approached the neighborhood, I heard her shout my name as she streaked by — her orange bicycle a flash of light.

Although I missed the opportunity to cheer her on, there was no shortage of others to salute. Many of us gathered at the corner of Sawyer and Adelbert were witnesses to acts of bravery, determination and — yes — good manners! In response to our calls of encouragement and compliments on fabulous biking shoes, what did we hear? “Thank you!” “Thank you for coming out!” “What a cute dog!” And so on. Repeatedly. Until the last cyclists went past.

Most of us will be called upon to survive something in our lives. These women showed us how it can be done. Love, enthusiasm, friendship, family, determination, community and fun in spite of it all. And good manners. That’s more than survival. These grrrlz rock!

Susan Cummings-Lawrence

South Portland

Immunization, fluoridation are government control tools

The July 24 Telegram contained commentary by an “instructor from Harvard,” David Ropeik, decrying the growing sentiment against vaccination among Americans.

I would challenge the paper to devote the same amount of space to some further revelations of the insidious nature of innoculation by a government that has betrayed the trust of its people at every turn.

Just as the white invaders have always done throughout history, the modern near-totalitarian United States continues to pursue its clandestine eugenics programs. Before you object, consider the program of aerial spraying that has been quietly taking place for the last 15 years, now known to many as “chemtrails.”

So many are waking up to this practice that its authors are preparing a cover story for it, namely geo-engineering. Tons of aluminum, barium and strontium particles have been released over the heads of an unsuspecting and mostly unquestioning public. Are we being chemically “dumbed down?”

I could talk about many such practices, such as fluoride in city water, which is now being recognized as ineffective and dangerously toxic. David Ropeik’s background reveals him to be a typical henchman for the state, serving in Homeland Security as well as the corrupt corporate media. As more of us “wake up,” we will surely see such propaganda efforts stepped up by the prevailing control system.

Robert Speer

Buxton 

Tar sands pipeline would do damage to climate

At the end of this month, I will be taking a trip down to Washington, D.C., to participate, along with probably at least 1,000 others, in a civil disobedience action to protest the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline. If built, the pipeline would carry oil from the tar sands of Alberta down to the Gulf of Mexico. This is a project with massive site-specific environmental impacts (due to pipeline oil spills and the destructive, energy-intensive extraction process itself) but, more than that, it is a climate nightmare.

NASA climatologist Jim Hansen has said that if we have any chance of getting back to a stable climate, “the principal requirement is that coal emissions must be phased out by 2030 and unconventional fossil fuels, such as tar sands, must be left in the ground.” In other words, if the tar sands are thrown into the mix it is essentially game over for the climate. The ultimate decision to grant or deny approval for the project lies with President Obama.

As Bill McKibben, the founder of 350.org and a leading environmental writer, said, “This is a stark choice for the administration to make. They can go with the fossil fuel industry or they can go with the scientists who’ve told us it’s ‘game over’ for the climate if these tar sands get developed.”

Hansen and McKibben were among those who put out the initial call to action, and they have now been joined by the executive directors of 28 leading environmental groups. I’ll be going down to take part in this action, and I am hoping to see some other Mainers there as well. For those interested in learning more about the action or signing up, the website is tarsandsaction.org.

Greg Kimber

Temple

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