Opinion

Local Letters to the Editor

Seniors can least afford cutbacks

To the Editor:

    On Jan. 29th I testified before both the Appropriations and Health and Human Services Committees at the Statehouse. I testified as a volunteer member of the AARP Capitol City Task Force and a senior on a fixed income and urged the committees to reject cuts to the Low Cost Drugs for the Elderly and Disabled Program (DEL).

    Many older Mainers are struggling with the rising costs of food, health care and heat for their homes. Maine’s DEL program helps pay for prescription drugs for low-income Mainers who are age 62 or older and not yet eligible for Medicare. The proposed cuts to the DEL are nothing short of devastating. The state has alternatives. At-risk seniors and the disabled do not.

    To suggest that DEL beneficiaries can get their prescription drugs cheaply at national pharmacy chains or through discounts from the pharmaceutical companies themselves is short-sighted. Not every brand-name drug has a generic equivalent for a lower cost, and while it might be possible to get a starter supply of a drug directly from the pharmaceutical company, this is not a sustainable option.

    AARP is fighting on the issues that matter to Mainers and their families. We recognize the need for a balanced budget, but eliminating prescription drug coverage for elderly people is not the best way to save money. The state must not balance the budget on the backs of those who have absolutely nothing to give.

Rena Heath
Hallowell

The prodigal son and Big Squaw Mountain

To the Editor:

    The story starts as most with a journey. Mine was a journey of the unknown type, the preverbal search for self. A search of the unknown that has turned into many things, most of all a journey home.

    I grew up on Squaw Mountain. My mother had me on skis before I could walk. Since coming back to town I learned my father used to work on the mountain when he was younger. He trekked up here from Pennsylvania, met my mother at the family store (Jamiesons), had us kids and built the house I sit in now. My grandfather Neil Jamieson was one of the original board members and first investors of the mountain back in the 1960s. Anyway, there’s lots of history up here for me.

    I always heard talk over the years of Squaw this and Squaw that. One day while hitchhiking somewhere or the other, I got a ride from a classmate of my mother’s. She said that she had just been up at the mountain and that they were getting ready to open it up and looking for help. I was thrilled but also on my way out of town. She said “They have a thing on Facebook called, Friends of Squaw Mountain. Check them out.” So check them out I did. I went up and put in a little time and effort. Here’s what I gathered from my own experience and a candid interview with Amy Lane, president of the non profit organization “Friends of Squaw Mountain.”

    Upon arriving at the lower mountain, it seems as nothing has changed since the days I spent there as a kid. The lodge definitely looked as if some TLC was in order. I was put to work painting ski racks and took my time to soak up the whole vibe. I saw some familiar faces and some new ones but regardless, the people of old Squaw Mountain along with some new ones had finally come together to make something out of this sacred land.

    When I heard talk of going up to the upper lodge on a scavenger mission I was all in. For me, that’s where the gold lies hidden, photographic memories of my mother guiding me around the place, like a dream, without a care in the world, bowls of hot chili after a brisk run down the top. I also wanted a chance to confirm for myself all the rumors I had heard about the top being wrecked by vandals. I needed to see this place for myself.

    We drove up there to look for ski poles but I found much more; as with most things in life, searching for one thing and finding something completely different that in turn is just what I was looking for. I got to rediscover a piece of my past, perhaps even a piece of myself I had lost long ago.

    The lodge was in pretty good shape. Most if not all the hotel rooms were fully furnished. All the kitchen equipment was intact. In fact the lodge was exactly as I remember it. I could almost see the ghosts of past float through that place. All the rumors I had heard: “the lodge is wrecked”, “the chairlift is broken”, “the place needs to be completely rebuilt,” in my opinion, were not true. It was the same old Big Squaw Mountain it has ever been, a little dustier, unlived in and the pool had a few TVs in the deep end.

    I’ve seen the mountain come alive with mine own eyes. Caring, good intentioned people have come together to make this happen. The trails are groomed, the lower lodge is ship shape, even hosting dinners with musical acts, the place is ready, all that needs to be done now is a weight test on the chairlift.

    Squaw Mountain is hoping to open for business on the lower half by early February. What will become of Squaw Mountain, god only knows. I do know that if the right investors came along then things could really happen. The town would boom again. The full opening of Squaw (the name is up in the air right now) could support a small northern Maine town and bring much needed revenue back to the people of Maine. With a full opening the mountain could support well over 100 jobs, which are much needed right now.

    Come for the nostalgia, stay for some runs and a cup of hot cocoa. Tickets are $25 for adults. For more information and how to help this cause contact Friends of Squaw Mountain on Facebook.

Matthew Lynch
Greenville

Hi-tech progress?

To the Editor:

    Three wheels, two in front, single traction wheel aft. Note the yellow battery box, so large that it forces the driver’s head into the roof, his chin firmly onto his chest, and the base of the box extends out below the compartment floor. Batteries have been reduced in size since 1980, while energy has increased. Time to try it again? Comfortized?

    High hopes for energy density batteries like lithium are a bit shaken with Boeing’s problems with the 787 battery fires. Perhaps the bi-polar lead battery could contribute something. In the meantime glass-mat batteries laid on their side might allow shrinking the battery box in this rare “antique” to allow for driver comfort?

    Reverse? Very seldom required. Open the door and push backwards with the foot.

    The time may not yet be quite here for a Triumphant Technologically Spectacular (June 21-22, 2013). A revival of the Mt. Washington Alternative Vehicle Regatta of the 1970s, this year various green transportation technologies will once again climb New Hampshire’s literally “Awesome” auto road to the 6,288-foot mountain summit, developments to be casually demonstrated thereupon, not by the overly cautious Automotive Titans of the World, but rather, humbly, from small single car backyard garages?

    In 1975 a converted VW Beetle, stripped to body “pan” only, had already casually climbed to the summit and returned to the mountain’s base with more energy than when it began the ascent. That experimental unit still exists today, hidden away, dusty, in a Maine agricultural barn.

    Note: Is it progress when we consider that the manufacturer of the Edmonson vehicles casually promised in 1980, that if the buyer couldn’t get 100 miles per gallon from his gasoline fueled version, he could return it for a complete refund of his purchase price? But now it has been possible to buy an American production car with a designed top speed of 193 miles per hour?

Charles E. MacArthur
Sangerville

What if …

To the Editor:

    What would happen, if “You” wanted to build a Legacy, something that your children, your grandchildren and beyond would look back on and say, “My great-grandparent or my grandparent did this”? What if — instead of doing what “You” believe to be right for “You” — “You” did something for others and in so doing made something of yourselves?

    What would happen, if “You” saw a little child abused, in need of food and clothing, or just love and attention? Would you build your Legacy based upon only your family, which you protect and care for? Or would you also include this child who is invisible in the public eye? Would you build your Legacy even if obscured from others?

    What would happen, if “You” as politicians saw those you represent, heard the voices of those who chose “You” as their protector, and “You” worked to protect those you perceive as children under law? To protect the lands that they work, to protect the lands that they sweat over to provide for their families? To protect their right to clean water, or existence? What would happen if “You” acted to protect the lands that you seem to perceive as yours by right, as elected “Lord of the Land,” to dismember, dissect, bisect and even destroy for nothing more than a Legacy, never receiving full compensation for your dirty deed or your willful ignorance?

    What would happen if “You,” the protector, was found out? What if “You” were revealed as, not a protector, but as an arm of the corporate greed? What if “You” were identified, and rightly so, with the new Global Order and enslavement of the entire populace of the world? One that treats others in the same ways used by the masters of this early country, our forefathers, under guise of a Constitution of the people?

    What would happen, if “You” thought for yourself instead of what “You” have been paid to think? What if “You” acted for your family, for your friends, for your community, for your church, for those you do not always agree with, and for the benefit of those that disagree with you and your beliefs, your ideas?

    What would happen, if “You” became a better person than the entities and individuals that would cause harm to those that you care about, and beyond to those “You” should care about, above your potential Legacy, one that you may never achieve?

    What would happen, if Peter Vigue, Doug Thomas, Paul LePage, et al, became heroes to protect the people and the land, the water, the essence of Maine, which they claim to love, which they claim responsibility for? Would that not be a Legacy— one for history, for all to take pride in? Would that not add to Maine’s Legacy, one of Mainers, “Maine, the way life should be”? What would happen if thee become them?

    Stand forth, musketeers, thee three! Become loyal Mainers or Legacy of Villains! Choose today who “You” will be — forever recorded in the annals of Maine history, and ever doubted for posterity. This is your Legacy.

Heidi Brugger
Freedom
Eric A. Tuttle
Guilford

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