There is a threat to the health of Maine children. Seventeen years ago, I gave up a lucrative law practice to have more time to raise my children. My first boss, a legislator, told me his priorities were kids and older people. He said, “You can’t repeat the second grade.” I have imitated his priorities in my life.

A kid at a yard sale, 24-ish, sold dorm room junk, things outgrown. He had a wispy goatee and a high voice, “Twenty-five cents for anything. I need to get rid of it all.”

Getting rid of the trappings of immaturity is a rite of passage. It helps us start anew. But what if those things you chose in immaturity stuck with you forever? We don’t allow certain products advertised to children. Interposing mature judgment between a child and the irreversible is what it means to be a parent. And if your kid gets hurt, you are the one left to help. No politician, activist, social worker or surgeon is going to stroke their head, feel their pain or help support them.

Before a backdrop of falling test scores, kids are trained to view race as determinative and are exposed to graphic sexual content in many Maine schools. Concerned parents oppose school focus shifting away from academic achievement and toward hypersexualization and race. Before they cast their ballots, voters have a right to know if a candidate would outlaw sex change surgery and irreversible drug therapy for minors.

Jesse Bifulco
Camden

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