Gov. Janet Mills did the right thing

I am proud of our governor, Janet Mills, for standing up to President Trump at a recent Washington gathering for governors. He deliberately called upon her so that he could rebuke laws passed in Maine which affect transgender policy in school athletics. He threatened to cut off federal funding for Maine. And he then went on to cast doubt on her political future.

The governor responded that she was following established Maine law. She did not engage in answering his threats. “See you in court,” she calmly replied. We are fortunate to have a governor who respects and values the law in spite of political intimidation.

Carl Smith,
Brunswick

I’m inspired by Gov.  Janet Mills standing her ground when President Trump publicly confronted her at the governors gathering at the White House on Friday, Feb. 21.

It occurs to me that Gov. Mills, once a survivor of domestic abuse, is always a survivor with muscle memory and deep knowledge of the dynamics of attempted power and control, threat and intimidation.

For those who voted for the current cast of characters in the Oval Office, pay attention. This is not what thoughtful, responsible, patriotic leadership looks like, and at the rate they are wrecking the structures of government, it won’t be long before you, too, will be impacted. Wake up!

Paula Coil,
Rockland

When will Sen. Susan Collins learn?

We are in the throes of a president and his henchmen and henchwomen who, by all observation, want to be accountable to no laws nor how the Constitution set up our form of government. And during the past month, we have our senior senator approving over 90% of the people who will be responsible for carrying out that president’s orders. Many of these cabinet people are demonstrably unfit to serve in our government, but Susan Collins has approved them anyway. As the government is being trashed without thought or concern for the outcome, Collins can only manage to be “concerned” when she needs to realize that her hair is on fire. I keep remembering Collins’ comment after Trump’s impeachment hearing during his first term — “I think that he’s learned his lesson.” Yes, I think he has, also. Too bad, Senator, that you have not.

Brian Hirst,
Harpswell

An open letter to the Department of Government Efficiency

Dear DOGE,

Thank you for so carefully cutting federal workers who do nothing but gab at the water cooler and collect their salaries and benefits. So far, so good. As you contemplate even more savings by cutting earned Social Security benefits for the elderly and reducing the vaccination regimen for the young, I’d like to suggest more personnel cuts. Did you know that there are 535 people in Congress?! And that they can all vote on laws and stuff?! 435 representatives! Holy smokes! … way too many. We need about six … one seat each for Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Charles Koch, Eric Trump and one at-large representative picked by the previous five (just to add a modicum of fairness for the people). And 50 senators! Holy smokes again! We need four at most … one seat each for Peter Thiel, Rupert Murdoch, Steve Bannon and Susan Collins. Collins calls for common sense but she whispers into a hurricane when she needs to be building levees. Besides, she is one of the young ones there now.

And while you’re at it, tackle the Supreme Court, too. We need just one of those folks. I’d suggest Judge Judy, but she’s already overbooked. How about the big, curly-haired guy who’s already there, you know, the one who, a few years ago, had a hair on his can of Coca-Cola? Yeah, he seems level-headed and uninfluenced by outside forces.

And as for support staff for these downsized entities, there are about 1,600 patriotic, newly released political prisoners who already know their way around the Capitol building. I’m sure that most of them will work for free just to be able stroll down memory lane.

Well, that’s about it for now. When I come up with other ideas, I’ll be in touch.

With all due admiration,

Stephen Goller,
Topsham

The value of our land

Editor of the Maine Monitor, Kate Cough, wrote an informative piece this week about the need for “compensation rules for solar on farmland.” Questions were raised about amounts of compensation to farmers, as well as the potential for “‘dual use’ panels that allow for some agricultural activity to continue, like growing blueberries or grazing sheep.”

In the article, I learned that “about 10% of the state’s nearly 22 million acres are considered ‘soils of statewide importance.’ Of those soils, 800,000 acres are considered ‘prime,’ or land that is ‘of major importance in meeting the nation’s short-and-long-range needs for food and fiber, according to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture.'”

I beg to differ. As one of nearly 22,500 residents of Brunswick exposed on Aug. 19, 2024, to the sixth largest PFAS spill in the United States, I offer this paradigm shift. Every inch of our Maine soil is prime. Every inch of our soil on this planet is prime, whether for agriculture, forest, solar or housing. None of it should be seen as anything less than prime.

I ask that we broaden our thinking, rather than compartmentalize it for the convenience of human expediency. In the Department of Agriculture’s suggestion that only 10% of our Maine soils are of statewide importance, the implication is that we place our lands into a hierarchical pyramid of elevated importance. This same hierarchical thinking has destroyed millions of people and their cultures, brought the natural world to the brink of extinction and polluted the only home we have.

Abbie Sewall,
Brunswick

Article brought back memory of a different time

The Portland Press Herald article “Black Mainers made sure Vacationland was open to all” brought back a memory to me that goes back over 60 years ago. In the mid to late 1950s, my brother and I spent several weeks at my aunt and uncle’s home in Bar Harbor. At that time, they owned a motel business that had several little cottages for guests traveling to the area. One rainy evening, my brother and I were hanging out in the small office. My uncle received a phone call and quickly ran outside to change the vacancy sign to “no vacancy.” When he came in, he made several calls to lodging businesses advising them to put out their no vacancy signs. He was warning his business friends that a Black family was looking for a motel for the evening. I knew, somehow, that this was not right, and to this day I am still bothered by that memory. I understand that the times were different, but the Sunday following that incident, aunt, uncle, brother and myself piled into the car and went to church!

Sandra Goodman,
Bath