Many families avoid any discussion about safe driving and don’t consider transportation alternatives for their loved ones until there is a crisis. There are things adult children can do to help their parents stay safe on the road before a crisis.
For example, families can urge their loved ones to speak with a doctor about the effects their medications and overall health may be having on their ability to drive. Families can also ask an occupational therapy specialist to conduct an independent assessment of their loved one’s driving ability and safety behind the wheel.
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No matter the situation, We Need to Talk online at www.aarp.org/weneedtotalk helps adult children better understand how to speak with their parents about driver safety and how to approach the topic of their one day hanging up the keys.
We Need to Talk can also help adult children become aware of certain warning signs that it might be time to hang up the keys as part of the AARP Driver Safety Program.
The Driver Safety Program reviews some of the basic skills and rules that can keep us safe on the road. Since 1979, more than 10 million people have completed the course.
Available to everyone over 50, the course focuses on accident prevention measures, how to deal with aggressive drivers, and new rules and technology that affect driving. As a bonus, in Maine insurance companies are mandated to offer discounts to drivers who have completed this convenient and affordable program.
Make it a family outing. It’s easy to find a class and enroll through AARP’s website, and why not save a little on insurance?
Tom Harvey
state coordinator, AARP Driver Safety Program
Hartford
Women’s health rights used to score political points
The Republican Party has chosen to inject religion into what should be a political debate of national issues in our elections. It has thrown a wrench, purposely, at the First Amendment, which states that Congress shall make no law abridging religious expression or the practice thereof (paraphrase).
From Rick Santorum, to Virginia’s governor and legislature, to Newt Gingrich, et al., religion is being used to divide the American people. Moreover, George Washington said on several occasions that this country would be open to all religions, whether Christian, Jewish, or Muslim.
But now we are being volleyed with stepping on the rights of the Catholic Church because of women’s well-being. Is someone of that religion being prevented from practicing his or her religion?
Women’s health rights are a moral issue, not a religious issue, being used for political score. To use women for political and fear tactics is abominable. Hospitals and doctors must have the freedom to treat their patients confidentially and in private. The state has no right, nor does any politician, to interfere in that sacred relationship.
You want religion? Then attend the church, synagogue or place of religious assembly of your choice. However, when any church injects itself into the political scene of the United States, it is not serving the interests of the country but using our freedoms to thrust itself upon all peoples, regardless of faith. Is that not what we saw in your paper in the photograph of Santorum and the nuns?
Coming from a family of Jews, Protestants and Catholics and having taught at a Catholic university, I believe I can say, “Let us remember we have a Constitution that protects us and a government unequaled in the world. Let us protect it and stop the demeaning of women for religious purposes and for self-aggrandizement.”
Richard S. Cohen
Cape Elizabeth
Bible steers men away from domestic violence
Domestic violence has received a lot of attention lately, as it should. Like so much in today’s culture, the question arises: “Is there an app for that?”
Well, there is, and it is very old and not widely taught. I refer to Ephesians 5:25-33 in the Bible. It addresses how a husband is to treat his wife, and in today’s society, how a man should treat his significant other.
The following is taken from the Living Bible because it is a bit easier to understand.
“And you husbands show the same kind of love to your wives as Christ showed to the church when He died for her. … That is how husbands should treat their wives, loving them as parts of themselves. … No one hates his own body but lovingly cares for it just as Christ cares for his body the church. … So again I say, a man must love his wife as part of himself.”
Christ loved us so much he died for us, and we husbands (or boyfriends) are instructed to love our wives (or girlfriends) that much, to be willing to die for them, to protect them at all costs and to cherish them.
We are not instructed to beat, humiliate, yell at, insult or kill our wives (or girlfriends). We are to love them.
Richard Prince
South Portland
County oversight proposal would hinder LURC’s work
I want to thank Robert Kimber for his column in the Feb. 24 Press Herald (Maine Voices: “LURC needs to be reaffirmed, not subject to local political pressure”).
It reminded me to express my support for the Land Use Regulation Commission and the important work it does to protect the lands and waters in Maine’s unorganized territories for the benefit of all Maine people and for future generations of folks who will be able to have access to the treasures that these places hold.
I hope LURC will be supported by our Legislature, not weakened or potentially even dismantled, by L.D. 1798, which is now being considered by our Legislature.
My family owns a camp at Nicatous Lake in T41MD, and LURC oversight prevented us from adding a porch on the shore side of our camp.
Though we may have grumbled at the time, we now appreciate that they “saved us from ourselves” by firmly applying the setback standards that protect this beautiful body of water. The unspoiled shoreline of that lake is very worth small sacrifices.
Like good building codes, carefully crafted land use standards that are fairly and consistently applied protect individual property owners and the environment from misguided activities.
For the sake of the next generations, I hope the Legislature acknow-ledges that the good work of LURC should be supported and strengthened, not fractured and weakened by inappropriate county oversight, as L.D. 1798 proposes.
Christine McDuffie
North Yarmouth
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