Now is not the time for political ads
To the editor,
It is inappropriate, bordering on profane, for political candidates to spend millions of dollars on self-congratulatory TV ads when that money could be used to help Mainers in crisis.
But that’s where we’re at: The deluge of ads from Susan Collins and Sara Gideon is constant.
Now is a good time to remember that Collins and Gideon are not the only candidates vying for a seat in the United States Senate.
One candidate, Bre Kidman, has been using campaign funds to deliver groceries to elderly, disabled and immunocompromised Mainers who can’t
get to the store and have no family who can help them. In doing so, Kidman is showing us what real leadership looks like.
Another candidate, Tiffany Bond, does not accept campaign money from anyone. Instead of spending money, Bond spends several hours every day
providing verified information and helpful strategies to anyone who asks.
If polls were based on demonstrated leadership and integrity, Kidman and Bond would be the front-runners in this race.
Adrian Dowling
South Portland
Candidate is a ‘proven leader’
To the editor,
It’s a pleasure to write on behalf of Anne Carney, who’s running as a Democrat for the Maine State Senate in the July primary. Anne is the real deal, a proven leader in our community with a record of accomplishment as a legislator that shows how effective she is in speaking on our behalf. That matters, because she will represent District 29, which includes all of South Portland.
I came to know Anne Carney when some of us South Portlanders testified before a committee on which she sits as a member of the Maine House. It was a crowded, busy day, so it’s understandable that many of Anne’s dozen or so colleagues paid only partial attention to us as we spoke. They entered and left the chamber, shuffled through documents, spoke quietly with one another, and generally treated us with something more like patience than respect.
Among them, only Anne genuinely listened. She attended to each of us fully and thoughtfully. She asked the kind of questions you can ask only if you’ve been listening. She didn’t act as if she thought of herself as an Important Person. She acted as if she thought of herself as one of us.
You could tell that the attention and generosity she showed us would grant her real authority when that committee came to make up its mind on our issue.
These uneasy times call for that blend of decency and practicality that Anne Carney brings to our politics, a blend that produces both real political effectiveness and real political healing. Her long record of service to our community has brought her many accolades, but maybe her best credential is the quality she demonstrated to us South Portland people that crowded, busy day in Augusta: she thinks of herself as one of us.
Let’s send one of us to the Maine State Senate. Let’s send Anne Carney.
Jeff Steinbrink
South Portland
Urging all to remember 50th anniversary of Earth Day
To the editor,
The 50th anniversary of Earth Day is right around the corner. Sadly, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Southern Maine Community College campus community will not be here to celebrate with the films or events we had hoped, or to remind everyone about how precious nature’s legacy is, that we as students enjoy and will one day inherit.
But it doesn’t mean we do not have it in our hearts. There are so many ways to remember Earth Day: Clean your street; plant your garden; do a favor for your neighbor; plan for the future; and reduce and reuse things you find around the house.
In this way, we can honor the spirit of the founders of Earth Day 50 years ago, and look forward to the times when students of today will be the policymakers and caretakers of this earth tomorrow.
Our Southern Maine Community College community sits right on Casco Bay – with its blue waters, its green islands, flashing lighthouses and Atlantic seas – what better reminder of why Earth Day matters, now and always.
Happy Earth Day, Maine.
Southern Maine Community College
Need for monitoring oil tank fumes
To the editor,
Right now we are all focused on our health during this time of a very publicized threat to our respiratory systems – COVID-19. It is a proven fact that those with healthy lungs are less vulnerable to the serious impacts of this virus.
During this time it is important to remember that there is an ongoing threat to our lungs on a day-to-day basis with the air that we breath. This threat comes from our community whose air is saturated with the toxic emissions from the oil storage tanks in our midst.
We all need to maintain the highest level of personal health to survive this pandemic and others that might come in the future. To do this it is imperative that we continue to push for Global to clean up it’s emissions. Although our community pushed for stricter limits in the consent decree that was settled between Global and the federal EPA, we found out that a new mathematical formula was established by the American Petroleum Institute and accepted by the EPA to estimate a facility’s amount of emissions. Emissions are not calculated by a monitoring system, but by these formulas. This new formula allows for even more emissions and thus it would seem more pollutants such as damaging Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs).
We all can help to push to know what is in our air by sending testimony to the Maine DEP and asking them to mandate that Global pay for 24/7 infrared fence line monitoring with real time results available to the public. We need to know how much of these damaging VOCs are being released into our air.
Testimony should be sent ASAP to: Air-Global.DEP@maine.gov. Tell your concerns about these emissions and request monitoring. Clean air and healthy lungs for all citizens is one of the best defenses against COVID-19 and the viruses that might pervade in the future.
Abby Huntoon
South Portland
Candidate has ‘ability to work with others’
To the editor,
This letter is in support of Anne Carney for the District 29 senate seat. We first got to know Anne when she ran for the Maine State House. We were impressed with her background and how effectively she ran her campaign. She appeared to have the correct temperament for an effective legislator, quiet competence and an ability work with others.
Once elected, we began to see Anne at numerous public events such as city council meetings in South Portland regarding the issues of petroleum tank farm emissions and their eventual decommissioning. She was there to listen and learn about the concerns of her constituents.
After hearing a presentation to the Council by MEDEP about tank farm closure, she went back to Augusta and wrote legislation ( LD 2033 ) to insure that the residents of South Portland would not be burdened with the eventual cleanup of the tank farm sites. The key thing is that she effectively worked both sides of the aisle and the governor’s office to complete the process of getting her bill passed by the legislature and signed into law.
This is a great example of how informed Anne is of local issues and how effective she can be in addressing them. We look forward to having Anne represent us as a state senator.
Tom and Kathy Mikulka
Cape Elizabeth
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