An overview of Trump’s first day back in office

Looking over Trump’s first day in office, I am not surprised but horrified at the things he has done. Pardoning all but seven of the people who attacked the capital, injured capital police and threatened to kill the vice president (among many) stands out as really dangerous. Obeying the rule of law is what keeps us safe.

In addition, he chose to say as if by royal fiat, “Henceforth there will only be two sexes in this nation — male and female.” Ignoring the fact that there are babies born with uncertain sexes and young people who are experiencing the pull of being the opposite sex. This is such a small percentage of people in our nation. And yet, Trump and others chose to send them back into the corners of darkness.

I could go on and on. But what concerns me the most is his handling of the environment. Withdrawing from the Paris Accords pushes us further away from a global solution to this enormous problem. If we are not at a tipping point where there is no room to solve the thorny and difficult problem of climate change, Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris Accords will push us further. As will his revoking of support for electric vehicles. Transportation accounts for roughly 28% of total gas emissions in the U.S.

I understand that many people voted for Trump in the hopes that he would improve our economy. But is it worth giving up on our democracy and our world?

Jill Standish,
Brunswick

RFK Jr., the CDC and beavertails

In the 1980s, I worked in Anchorage, Alaska, as an ICU nurse at the Alaska Native Medical Center (part of the Indian Health Service) and was so impressed to find there was an office/lab of the Centers For Disease Control on our campus. We were part of an elite group of folks bringing state-of-the-art medical care to our patients in the Alaskan Bush.

Hospitals from the Lower 48 sent their ENT specialists to us to study conditions in order to expand their skills back home.

Our medical center specialized in treating and saving the lives of traditional Eskimos who loved to eat beavertails that they stored in Ziploc bags behind their stoves to ferment the taste — despite the fact that this produced a deadly form of botulism that put them on ventilators. And then the occasional fishermen who chose to spray Cutter’s mosquito repellant in a cup to drink or used the computer alcohol they found in 50 gallon drums that fell off ships on the beach to make “home brew” — killing or blinding them. Met my husband in a hyperbaric chamber; saved only because our ICU doc trained in hyperbaric medicine thanks to the NIH.

Could we count on RFK Jr. to support such medical intervention and study? The CDC has already been compromised. Vaccines, the sharing of knowledge and expertise helps us protect our patients, community and loved ones. Call your representatives and senators.

Lara Pertel-Ashouwak, RN
LCDR U.S. Public Health Service (retired),
Bowdoinham