Barack Obama is not the person who is going to bring the change this country so badly needs. There is anger from the tea party, but there is also anger from Democrats like myself who feel betrayed.

As long as both major parties are successful at keeping the tea partiers and the progressives railing against one another, all working class people will lose. I think we have much in common.

We want good jobs that pay decent wages, jobs that won’t be shipped overseas. We want affordable, quality health care and an educational system that prepares our kids for success. We want a tax system that is fair and eliminates loopholes for the richest individuals and corporations.

Warren Buffet pays less tax than his maid and GE and Exxon pay no taxes at all, while we are overtaxed. It is my hope that working class people of all political stripes will wake up to the reality that both parties now serve only the rich and that we need to come together with one voice over common interests and demand change from our politicians.

If we don’t, they will continue to laugh all the way to the bank with our money.

Thomas W. Mikulka

Cape Elizabeth

Columnist reveals why LePage won’t win again

Many thanks to M.D. Harmon for explaining in lavish detail in his March 25 column why our local embarrassment, Paul LePage, will be a one-term governor.

Philip Davis

Gorham

Merrill Auditorium beautiful, but not handicapped-friendly

My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed the “Young at Heart” program Sunday afternoon at Merrill Auditorium, especially as I am 83 and my wife is 75.

Wow! What enthusiasm and willingness to go at it. I used to row competitively until I was 77, and my wife plays violin in the MidCoast Symphony, so seeing that wonderful crew enjoying themselves and cheering us all up was a great boost.

But I have serious concerns about Merrill Auditorium. It is anything but handicap-friendly; multiple stairs everywhere, an elevator that’s so slow it’s useless.

One woman fell near us and had to have EMT care. We also saw another EMT crew coming to help someone else. With serious balance and joint problems, I found it almost impossible to get to the men’s room or even get to and from our seats. I hate to think what might have happened if there were a sudden emergency. With that crowd, it would appear to be difficult to get everyone out safely.

Yes, it’s a beautiful auditorium and the acoustics are great — but I don’t see us returning there. It was physically too painful, and we fear for others.

The Rev. Henry L. Bird

Harpswell

Test high schoolers using same quiz as immigrants

In a syndicated column in the Press Herald (“Colleges don’t teach about our presidents — or any other U.S. history,” Feb. 21), Michael Leo Pomeranz observed that only 20 percent of American high schools require a course in U.S. history.

That prompts a suggestion: that one criterion for a high school diploma be a passing grade on the same test required of immigrants seeking U.S. citizenship.

Not that that test couldn’t be improved, but it would be a start. Being born in the United States may entitle one to American citizenship, but our DNA does not imbue us with a rudimentary grasp of the organization and functions of our government and how they came to be.

Alexander Severance

Brunswick

Letting engines idle wastes gasoline and pollutes the air

 

Now that gas has passed $3.50 a gallon, maybe high prices might end a practice that is all too common — leaving the engine running while shopping or getting the mail. Recently, I know of one SUV that was left running for 35 minutes while its owner used the local YMCA.

Modern fuel-injected engines (most vehicles) need only 10 seconds to warm up. After that, you waste more money running the engine than restarting it. Unnecessary idling also wastes fuel, causes pollution and gets zero miles per gallon — and idling an engine also causes twice the wear on internal parts compared to driving at regular speeds.

Idling is also bad for your health and your neighbor’s. Car exhaust contains nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds particulate matter, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide.

All of this is spewed into the environment, and none of it is good to breathe, but carbon monoxide is especially harmful because it slows the delivery of oxygen to the body’s organs and tissues. Exposure to carbon monoxide aggravates heart disease and can cause headaches and visual impairment. Children are especially sensitive to the effects of air pollution because they take in more air than adults.

If you’re concerned about the escalating price of gas, if you want to protect your health and that of others, and if you care about the quality of the air we all breathe, please turn off your motor. It’s a simple act of good citizenship that everyone can do.

Don Loprieno

Bristol

Supply-side economics only makes the rich richer

So-called supply-side economic policy has a 30-year history of failure unless you are one of the 2 percent at the top of the income ladder.

That ladder rests on the back of the poor, who are poorer, and the middle class, who are struggling.

What mindlessness allows folks to think that tax breaks for the rich will encourage them to create jobs in the United States when they can substantially increase profits by moving those jobs overseas?

Having taken good manufacturing jobs away, those same rich folks want to break the unions so they can make more money. What mindlessness allows them to think those lower-paid workers and those who have lost jobs will buy more goods?

What mindlessness allows folks to believe reduced environmental regulation, cutting the work force, and cheating workers out of the right to collectively bargain will lead to more taxes being paid? This mindlessness has a name — “Reaganomics” — and we have a 30-year demonstration that it doesn’t work.

John Wood

Hollis

 

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