Elizabeth Miller, in a letter April 26, said that Sen. Collins’ suggestion about having more women in the Secret Service is obsolete gender typecasting. My perspective, based on more than 30 years of working in information technology, is a little different.
In the early ’80s, IT departments were almost exclusively male, and some shops were like locker rooms. As the account manager for a consulting company, I once had to ask client management to take down a Dallas Cowgirls pinup calendar that a woman working for my company found offensive.
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As more women took IT jobs, including management roles, things changed: By the time I retired, that kind of behavior was unthinkable. Having greater diversity in the Secret Service wouldn’t be a panacea, but it certainly couldn’t hurt.
Neil Gallagher
Brunswick
Thurber amply qualified for register of probate post
We are writing to express our support for Nancy Thurber for Cumberland County register of probate.
It is a job that many of us don’t think about, but public record keeping is a function of critical importance in county government.
Nancy is very well qualified for the job — she has an education degree and paralegal certification. Her public service has included membership on the Planning Board for the town of Cumberland, the Cumberland County Strategic Planning Committee and community volunteer service.
Nancy has been a small-business owner for more than 20 years and understands the importance of current technological processes needed to store and retrieve public records in an efficient, effective and responsive manner.
We also know that Nancy will listen and be responsive to any concerns expressed by voters and those who make use of the office’s services.
We have no doubt that Nancy, if elected, will perform the duties of register of probate with integrity and with the best interests of the Cumberland County taxpayers in mind.
Janice Tevanian and Dennis Kouba
Portland
Movement offers chance for change in Washington
“Washington, D.C., is in trouble” is an opinion that I hear on a daily basis, mostly to do with the state of Congress. I sense a collective feeling of mistrust about the government in the American people and wish that were not the case.
These problems with Congress are not always with the representatives in office, but the outdated rules and procedures that are continually overlooked and end up staying the same. If we do not finish a job, we do not get paid, so why do they?
I have found an organization that is interested in making this country work well again. No Labels is the name, and www.nolabels.org is where you can learn more about this grass-roots movement that half a million people from different parties have joined already to start making real progress in this time of doubt.
Let’s get logical and keep this moving forward by showing up and seeing how we can be part of the solution. A No Labels event to offer more information about how to help fix Congress took place April 27, and I have my fingers crossed that other Mainers will join me at future events.
United we stand, divided we fall are serious words of wisdom that I am not choosing to ignore.
Theodore Welton
Portland
Humans neglecting duty to protect animal kingdom
The proliferation of cruelty to animals of the wild seems to have no limits and certainly has no borders. It is a national and international disgrace that is spiraling out of control.
Our collective inaction to do so little while the slaughter of these endangered animal species goes on emboldens those who are committing these heinous acts.
Our planet is way out of sync with the civic, spiritual and moral values that are the core of a civilized society. The persistent assault on the animal kingdom does little to raise up the image or prestige of the humans who have a moral obligation to be good caretakers of the diffused animal culture on this planet.
In these last few months, there’s been an incredible rise in the numbers of wild elephants slaughtered in Africa.
In Cameroon at the Bouba N’Djida National Park, poachers from neighboring Sudan killed 300 of the 400 elephants that were in this supposedly protected national park. This reprehensible deed was repeated by a different gang of poachers at another elephant protected zone in South Africa.
The March edition of the National Geographic covers the despicable killing of the rare black rhinoceros in western Zimbabwe.
All of these killings were done for the animal tusks that would be shipped to Asia for enormous profit.
This same war against the animals of the wild can be seen in the diminishing numbers of the Asian tigers that once numbered 100,000 and are now fewer than 3,200. It seems that the more profoundly exotic and beautiful the animal is, the greater the challenges are for its survival.
To do little to reverse the carnage of the wild animals around the world is to guarantee that they will be allowed to vanish soon from the face of this earth. If nothing changes, the legacy that all of us will pass on to future generations will be a shameful one.
Each of us bears the responsibility for that because we allowed it to happen. Our sadness, regret and anger over these happenings must be converted into voices that speak loudly to all national and world leaders in one clear message: Stop it now!
John Oser
former supervising ranger, Cape Cod National Seashore
Parsonsfield
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