As Gov. LePage and many in his party begin to congratulate themselves on finishing the year “in the black,” may I remind them of some unfortunate consequences of their frugality?

Let’s start with two dead children left vulnerable by an ineptly managed and underfunded Department of Health and Human Services; 20 percent of Maine school children identified as food insecure; a growing number of Maine families destroyed each year by an opioid epidemic that was ignored by tight-fisted officials; ignoring the mandate of the voters in a referendum and an order by the state’s courts to extend health coveraget to 70,000 Maine people by the governor and his toadies in the Legislature; keeping 20 publicly-funded nursing positions unfilled by an administration unconcerned or unaware of the growing health threats to Maine citizens. The list goes on.

So before we get too carried away with the high-fives and pats on the back, this piece of advice from Cicero: “Non nobis solum nati sumus.” (Not for ourselves alone are we born.)

Steven Powers

Falmouth

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