Letters

Published
May 26, 2015

Letter to the editor: Don’t tolerate hate speech; make your objections known

I read with dismay the “he said, she said” article on May 20 discussing Hyde School’s decision to remove its basketball team from the Maine Principals’ Association competition. I am disturbed that the tone of the article focused on how and when the MPA became aware of the racial taunts endured by the Hyde players […]
Published
May 26, 2015

Letter to the editor: Hyde School, students show sportsmanship, enthusiasm

I was quite distressed as I read the account of the Hyde School situation and the reasons for the withdrawal of its boys’ basketball team from the MPA. As a wrestling official before I retired to Brunswick, on many occasions I was invited up from Massachusetts to be the head official when Hyde hosted the […]
Published
May 26, 2015

Letter to the editor: Follow protests of bigotry with policies to fix problem

Thank you to the Portland Press Herald for reporting on the racism and bigotry within our state and country. Thanks also to the members of the Portland City Council and School Board who attended the news conference to speak out against ugliness rooted in fear, ignorance and poor policy. Though I appreciate the words spoken […]
Published
May 25, 2015

Letter to the editor: Make sure veterans are not forgotten

In July of 1965 I came home from the Navy. It was a big shock. Suddenly some of my former high school classmates and total strangers wanted to argue and fight with me. They hated me just because I was a veteran and that made me part of a war they did not like. Then […]
Published
May 25, 2015

Letter to the editor: Linking firearms, freedom a sadly effective strategy

Mary Plouffe’s column in the May 3 Maine Sunday Telegram (“Maine Voices: Concealed guns conceal emotions”), explaining the psychology of the gun rights movement, was as “fascinating” to me as it was to her. The National Rifle Association recently held its annual convention, attended by an estimated 70,000 law-abiding, patriotic Americans determined to protect their […]

Published
May 25, 2015

Letter to the editor: Don’t convict conductor  in Amtrak derailment yet

A letter by Allan Neff assumes the guilt of the Amtrak conductor whose train derailed horrifically. He defends Tom Brady and continues: “If we let the punishment fit the crime with any degree of proportionality, the Amtrak employee should pay trillions of dollars and spend several lifetimes in prison, but of course he will not.” […]
Published
May 25, 2015

Letter to the editor: Freedom to carry guns results in low crime rates

After reading all the letters to the editor about the pending gun legislation, I really felt I had to write. I see a lot of statistics that previous gun control writers have used to buttress their position. Statistics can be manipulated and massaged to show almost anything. Here are the facts, readily verifiable by anyone. […]
Published
May 24, 2015

Letter to the editor: Vaccine deaths in Mexico at odds with news story

On May 10, you published a long editorial (disguised as a news article) regarding the dangers of not vaccinating (“Maine teen has to ask: Is everybody in this room vaccinated?” May 10). Ironically, the very next day, a news article appeared in your paper about the tragic deaths and illnesses in Mexico caused by a […]
Published
May 24, 2015

Letter to the editor: Illegal trash dumping can be stopped

The Press Herald article on trash being dumped in our woods was disturbing but it did not address the root cause of this rather new phenomenon afflicting our environment. There was once a time when you could dispose of your trash (large or small – hazardous or not) at your local dump at no cost. […]
Published
May 24, 2015

Letter to the editor: Many Mainers unaware of arsenic in private wells

Nearly half of Mainers use private wells for drinking water, yet an alarming number are unaware that they regularly consume arsenic. More than 30 percent of private wells are contaminated, and one in 10 wells in Maine contains dangerously high levels of arsenic. Despite arsenic’s prevalence in Maine groundwater, nearly 41 percent of homeowners in […]

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Letters