Opinion

Local Letters to the Editor

River Festival
is family-friendly

To the Editor:
    I’d like to publicly acknowledge and thank the organizers, sponsors and volunteers of the recent Redneck River Festival in Guilford for a great community event. There’s a lot to like about this day, but the one thing I would acknowledge is the success at keeping this a “family-friendly” event.

    Admission is of course free, but there’s much more — a water slide and the Guilford Fire Department’s “mist” for the kids and many of the participants offering everything from backpacks to watermelon to balloons at no cost to the kids and their parents. There were even free piglets for the kids who could catch one.
    It’s unfortunately become trite to say these are difficult economic times — and that means it is easy to forget the difficulties many are facing. I congratulate everyone who helps keep this fun day from becoming overly commercialized and therefore a financial hardship for local families. That so many people and businesses come together to provide a day that everyone can attend and enjoy with very little cost is a great accomplishment.
    I therefore predict this Festival will grow (as it has) and get better every year. Thanks again to everyone who helps make this possible — including friends and neighbors who attend. See you there next year!

Walter Boomsma
Guilford

 

Let’s not spoil
a very good thing

To the Editor:
    I am a Maine Guide, and I’m darned proud of it. My office is a pond. My desk, a canoe. The sun serves as my clock on the wall. Moose watching is my business, and business is good. Who could complain about something like that?
    Well, me. I love the job, don’t get me wrong. The clients come from all walks of life, all places on the globe — South Africa and Australia, to name but a few — and they’re always entertaining. One of my guests this year had been drawn for a cow tag in this fall’s hunt, and yet they spent a summer evening on a moose safari by canoe.
    No, it’s not the clients, although I do feel sorry for them. Many trips are all trussed up to be on “remote, wild ponds,” but I wonder what’s going through the client’s mind when they show up to the pond and see a dozen canoes already on it. True, some clients are unruffled by this. For them, it’s all about the moose, and it doesn’t matter to them if they see one on a pond or in the middle of I-95.
    But for many others, though, it’s more than that. Not long ago, I took a couple out on a moose tour. We saw no moose on the pond, yet they said that the entire safari was better than the whale-watching trip they’d been on just the day before. They’d seen all kinds of whales, but the boat they’d been on was too loud, and the other passengers too numerous for their liking.
    “And it’s quieter out here,” the lady said, gesturing at the silent waters and looming mountains. “And special,” she added.
    There are more ponds up here in the Moosehead region, just as quiet and special, than guides, but too few are willing to take the initiative and go looking for different places. For me, a Maine Guide’s worth isn’t knowing where the well-known moose ponds are, it’s knowing where the unknown ones are, too. Already this year I’ve been on nearly a dozen different bodies of water (not all of them ponds). I’ve struck out on some, but on others, magic has happened. And not solely due to moose. It’s the beavers, otters, turtles, red-tailed hawks, turkey vultures, wild turkeys, bald eagles, crying loons, hooting owls, howling coyotes, white-tailed deer, and black bear that I’ve seen this year that also lends something special. (And don’t forget the scenery!)
    Simply put, some ponds are being guided to death. Which brings up an interesting question: should these over-guided ponds take one for the team, so to speak, so that all the others can truly live up to their billing as “remote, wild ponds?” I’m not sure, although through some manner of healthy dialogue between guides and/or outfitters, I’d bet we could come up with something that satisfies everyone — especially those who pay for our services.
    But in the meantime, to my fellow guides, I issue a challenge: Go beyond your comfort zone. Turn away from the tried-and-tired ponds and head for different waters. You’re Maine Guides, not some Park Ranger stuck to the same scrap of land. We have a resource (moose, primarily, but wild and remote ponds run a close second) to protect. Giving your clients what they want might just be driving that resource away. Your job is not to give your clients what they want. Your job is to give them more than they could have ever dreamed. And who could complain about something like that?
    Not me.

Christopher Keene
Greenville Jct.

 

Voters deserve
fair representation

To the Editor:
    This letter is in reply to Rep. Paul Davis’ letter of July 24, 2013 titled Greenville “firing squad” unnecessary. It was the 4th of July when Rep. Paul Davis and Sen. Doug Thomas took time from their busy day to meet with some residents of the Greenville area to discuss what happened with the redistricting of the Piscataquis County Commissioners. No moderator, no podium, just a few people with something on their minds standing in what did turn out to be a circle, of which Paul and Doug were a part. It was no firing squad. It may well have been the most basic element of democracy. Was it preplanned and scripted? If it was nobody told me. To their credit Paul and Doug freely joined us and stayed to talk it out. Thank you both for taking the time to explain it as you see it.
    There may well have been much more to the discussion than appeared on the surface to some but for others there was just the question of why the lines were drawn the way they were and could they be adjusted. Not that the old districts made that much sense but the new ones do not make any sense either. Rep. Davis said that the apportionment had to be based upon the principle of one man, one vote but there are almost infinite ways that can be achieved. Geography does have to be considered especially when gasoline is approaching $4 a gallon and the geography made no sense.
    There were two issues. First, why were the district lines drawn in such a manner as to include two of our three incumbent commissioners in the same district, the new District 3? Eric Ward resides in the Greenville area and Fred Trask resides in Milo. One will have to go and Mr. Ward’s term is up at the end of 2014 while Mr. Trask’s term expires at the end of 2016. It looked to those of us at the meeting that Mr. Ward had been shut out. Meanwhile the new District 1 in the southwestern corner of the county, including Sangerville, has no incumbent commissioner.
    Secondly, why were the commissioners and municipal officials not informed by our legislative members of the work of the state redistricting committee until the whole thing was a “done deal”? More local input may have resulted in a more sensible arrangement.
    They were reasonable questions. If there are rational reasons for what was done then there should not have been a lot of tension on July 4th, just enlightenment. Our county residents deserve fair representation and our county commissioners should not have to be chasing through inconveniently shaped districts to do their job if at all possible.
    Our state representatives and senator asked us for their jobs. I am glad they did. They are not jobs that I would want. Thanks to all of you for your service. However, when your constituents offer input please accept it gracefully.
    Take it for what you will — ignore it or run with it — but there is no need to blast us in the local paper for simply asking questions and voicing our opinions.
    The right to do that was part of what we were celebrating on the Fourth of July.

|Gary Morse
Greenville

 

The plague
of pornography

To the Editor:
    I am opposed to all forms of porn, whether it’s going to strip clubs, topless bars, subscribing to any kind of porn magazines, cable TV or on the Internet. Because after awhile, too many men develop a mental disorder and they lose respect for women and women are just looked at as sex objects, and when some of these men find women do not fill their lust anymore, they look to younger girls 14 and younger. These men don’t care about the lives they destroy as long as they fill their lust and in their minds it is an accepted way of life for them.
    The spring of 2007, the Austrian Government had an ongoing investigation on child porn sites in 77 nations and has provided the FBI with more than 200 U.S. Internet addresses in which “suspects pay about $90 to view the abuse of infants and older boys and girls being sexually abused.” Think about that next time you want to look at any kind of “porn.”
    You want to read more about sexual abuse of children, get a copy of July 30, 2013, Portland Press Herald or a copy of July 31, 2013, Bangor Daily News.
    Men must have the moral courage to speak out on the dangers of going to strip clubs, or any other porn that men want to look at and you will find some men laugh at you. Don’t worry what these pinheads may think of you for saying ‘no’ to all forms of porn. You have no control over gossip, those men have no character and they look like “fools.”

Joseph Riitano, Sr.
Sangerville

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