Re: “Gov. LePage freezes additional project funds for Land for Maine’s Future” (Sept. 15):

Whether you are rich or poor, there are certain needs that are required to live. Energy is one need that must be fulfilled in the form of food, fuel or that inner drive to keep on. Without energy we are depleted, defeated or perhaps put in a state that makes us want to quit.

In the 1980s I was appointed to the Land for Maine’s Future Board. I was asked to represent the public. Others were appointed for their expertise in recognizing significant Maine sites to be conserved, to fuel that inner need that so many people use as energy to recharge.

What is incomprehensible to me is that the leader of our state government is proclaiming that the needs of one segment of society should be sacrificed to fuel the needs of another. Both goals are necessary.

Since the public has spoken through the acceptance of land bonds, why should their voices not be honored? Indeed, if Land for Maine’s Future is to continue to achieve the goals that energize appreciation, how can negotiations be continued if Maine’s leader undermines the trust built between the parties negotiating?

The land and waters offshore and in our state, along with the farms, are what drive so many of us to live here.

Surely we need to do the best possible job we can to take care of the addicts, homeless, poor – but do we need to sacrifice the energy and nourishment that so much of the public derives from living or visiting Maine?

Alice H. Rand

Cape Elizabeth