I listen to Talk Radio every day, as it is the only voice of conservatism in a sea of liberal bias.

I am very concerned over the “thug” tactics being used to remove Rush Limbaugh from the air.

Liberals love “freedom of speech” as long as it fits their agenda, but as soon as it’s conservative voices that are speaking, it’s “shut them up.”

Liberals have been trying to remove Rush from the airwaves for years.

What Rush said was inappropriate and he apologized.

The fact that Ms. Fluke would not accept his apology is her problem.

I called one of the advertisers who had removed his ads from Rush’s show and his reply to me was that he had to do what was best, but not what was right.

This is what happens when we let “mob rule” take hold, and we let ourselves be bullied into compromising our principles. If you give in to these attacks, it only emboldens these types of people, and then next time it might just be a rock through your window. It’s a very dangerous road we go down when we give in to these “anti-freedom of speech” tactics.

Marilyn Flynn

Poland

Rush Limbaugh suffers from a disease less and less tolerable in today’s society.

He tells the truth.

When someone comes out publicly; in this case a 30-year-old woman, and demands that others provide her birth control, she is seeking compensation for a product that is not essential. I, like Rush, am insulted to hear it referred to as a “health issue.” Typical insurance doesn’t provide for big screen TVs, and it’s not reasonable it should cover other forms of recreation. Because they have been trounced in the arenas of thought and articulation for 25 years, the left has continued to try to silence the opposing views. There is not a more transparent form of cowardice. Unfortunately, Ms. Fluke climbed into the public arena. As for the young lady being a victim, I’m sure the offers are coming in at a sufficient rate as to provide for adequate counseling. In some ways, this is still America. Our most treasured and critical right is free speech. The words Rush Limbaugh chose are the perfect example of what our First Amendment was so carefully crafted for. Thank you WGAN for doing the right thing. You’ve earned a lifelong listener. I’m going to go light a candle now.

Drew Lord

South Portland

Rush Limbaugh is a bully, a bigot and a blowhard. However, the efforts by a group of local petitioners to have his show removed from WGAN are misguided. When you advocate the suppression of opinions you find offensive, you’re playing Limbaugh’s game. He and others of the ultra-right are heirs to the book-burners, demagogues and thought police who seek to stamp out dissent and “heretical” beliefs by any means necessary.

The answer to offensive speech is more speech, not less. To ban Limbaugh is to take the easy way out.

It’s much more difficult to stand up every day and combat his racist, misogynist and just plain dumb ideas in every forum available. And why give him the chance to style himself as a martyr to political correctness or a left-wing media conspiracy?

Let him stay on the air. His rants only further discredit him.

Ellen D. Murphy

Portland

Mark Swann, Preble Street making a real difference

No doubt, Mark Swann should receive recognition for his long-term efforts on behalf of the many homeless helped by Preble Street and its affiliates. If it were possible, those very people now and in the past would give him a medal. As it is, I am quite sure that they have a heartfelt gratitude that onlookers may not be aware of.

It has been my great pleasure to offer very limited casual employment to some men from Preble Street. I have observed the crowd waiting to be admitted to the day center in the mornings, and seen them interacting with each other and staff when the center is open. Preble Street is the place where these folks can take a breath, pass some less stressful time, come to know each other and nurture what hope remains in their often troubled lives.

The guys who worked with me have been good workers. They have told me of the importance of Preble Street in their lives. They are, indeed, grateful. If you are in need of help, you should go there and offer employment to the willing.

You will not be sorry. Your eyes may be opened. You, too, may be grateful, as I am, for Preble Street, Mr. Swann and the people who, working together, are making a real difference for our homeless neighbors.

William Hobbs

Falmouth

Bishops laying burdens on others that they don’t carry

All the commotion with the American Catholic bishops’ insistence on their rights to uphold church doctrine regarding insurance coverage for women’s contraception begs a few questions regarding responsibility:

• If a woman is too poor to afford contraception and becomes pregnant, who will pay for her prenatal care?

• Who will pay for her child’s basic needs: food, clothing and shelter?

If the status quo prevails, these responsibilities will most likely be shunted to the very government that is mandating insurance coverage for contraception be provided for all who wish to use it.

• If the bishops feel such a strong commitment to this moral doctrine, should they not also refuse to accept any funds from anyone or any group who supports or who uses contraception?

They lay burdens on others that they themselves do not carry.

Ann Marie Lemire

South Portland

Put the brakes on effort to build Searsport storage tank

I live in southern Maine. Yes, some might even say “not Maine.”

Professionally, I am an artist/educator and my medium is weaving. In my work, I often use the metaphor of a web to illustrate how we are all connected. Even though I live in southern Maine, I care deeply about my friends, family and the environment farther north and east. We are all connected.

So when I learned about the DCP Midstream Partners’ proposal for a 22.7 million-gallon liquefied petroleum gas storage tank and terminal on 24 acres next to Long Cove in Searsport, I was alarmed.

And I continue to be deeply troubled because the Maine Department of Environmental Protection issued a permit for this facility in September 2011 without an environmental impact study.

The potential impact to human health and safety, the marine environment and the historic and cultural communities (just to name a few reasons) must be examined.

Put the brakes on the effort to ramrod this proposed facility down the throats of the Searsport community.

All Mainers should be concerned about the effort. As Chief Seattle so wisely said back in 1854: “This we know: The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth.

All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”

Let’s make this a regional issue. We are all connected.

Sarah Haskell

York

Santorum seeking to have his beliefs enacted into law

Candidate Rick Santorum fails to understand or to accept the fundamental concept of separation of church and state.

Instead, on the campaign trail, he regularly promotes the tenets of his own faith as part of his political agenda. If elected president, Santorum will no doubt seek to have his beliefs and those of his church enacted into law.

For example, Santorum is opposed to both birth control and abortion, and he recently expressed his position that he strongly opposes the routine medical procedure known as amniocentesis, even if necessary for the health of a mother and her unborn child. Perhaps I’m just unaware of Santorum’s medical background. Santorum is anti-gay and opposes same-sex marriage. Finally, both he and his church relegate women to, at best, a second-class status.

Now, Rick Santorum is certainly entitled to his own beliefs, but here’s what he had to say about mine: “Mainstream Protestantism is gone from the world of Christianity.”

So much for religious tolerance.

I wonder what Santorum says privately about other faiths. I’m not interested in having Rick Santorum’s personal religious beliefs or those of his church become the official state religion in our country, and that’s why maintaining the separation of church and state is so very important.

The First Amendment states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Thus, Santorum, if elected president, will not be “taking back our Constitution,” but undermining it. President Kennedy got it right. Santorum is clueless.

John H. Cross

Tenants Harbor