It is important to know where candidates running for U.S. Congress stand on keeping Social Security strong for current and future retirees.

“Where are the jobs?,” asked the young man that answered the first door I knocked on for Sue Mackey Andrews, D-Dover-Foxcroft running for Maine Senate District 4.

Recent studies have show that Lyme disease -- a tick-borne illness with debilitating consequences -- is on the rise. If left untreated, this disease can cause arthritis with severe joint pain and swelling.

I volunteered to join Sue Mackey Andrews, Senate District 4 Democratic candidate, going house to house talking with residents in Piscataquis County. I was so moved by the number of people who needed to work two jobs just to keep up with healthcare and medication expenses

Jason Brochu’s opinion piece about how tariffs on imported lumber will offset the present advantage Canadian producers enjoy from Ottawa’s subsidies does not mention the fact that Maine taxpayers have subsidized many businesses here, including Brochu’s company, through tax incentive programs, such as the Pine Tree Development Zone and Employee Tax Increment Financing.

The Maine Interior Design Association is disappointed that Matthew Gagnon did not take the time to properly research his recent column in which he decries the licensing of our profession. An easy place to start is on our website (midamaine.org) where anyone can learn what the title Maine Certified Interior Designer means.

The Trump administration's recent freeze of payments to insurers with sicker customers is another swipe at Obamacare. According to American Health Insurance, this freeze will cause escalating healthcare costs especially to those who need it the most. Ever since failing to totally repeal Obamacare, the Trump administration along with Republicans have taken steps to make it increasingly difficult for the Affordable Care Act to function and to be affordable.

State Senate District 4 candidate Sue Mackey Andrews has visited my community, and has invited me to participate in door to door visits in a number of towns. Citizens have raised many concerns during these events, and in each case, Sue has been an active and empathetic listener.

For over half a century, Americans have paid into the Medicare system with the expectation that they will have access to healthcare in retirement. For those 65-plus, Medicare provides more affordable health coverage where private insurance would cost seniors out of the market.

I strongly support Sue Mackey Andrews for Maine Senate District 4. I've known and worked with Sue for over 20 years. Her commitment and passion on behalf of families in Piscataquis, Somerset and Penobscot counties are well established.

Don't let Rep. Bruce Poliquin buy his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is sitting on about $3 million that he intends to use to do just that. He has been a poor representative for the people of Maine, showing time and time again that he is a party creature with little or no interest in you and me and the problems we face in Maine.

As Americans, we have the resources and compassion to rise to this crisis for our fellow human beings. Learn more about the refugees at our Mexican border and how we can help by attending Keeping Families Together at the Thompson Free Library from 2-4 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 5 in Dover-Foxcroft.

Before I moved to Sangerville 44 years ago. I worked as a custodian in a K-6 grade school and then I went and worked in a 7-8 grade school. In both schools I saw some very sad and depressed students. The younger children did not understand why their mother or father was not coming home anymore and the older boys and girls became very angry and some needed anger management. Children are the biggest losers. Very sad.

President Donald Trump is taking quite a risk if he succeeds in putting an anti-pro choice judge on the Supreme Court. He faces the fact that the big majority of women in this country support a woman's right to choose.

I met Jared Golden on several occasions while he ran in the primary. He struck me as being astute and forthright in his apprehension of the problems facing America and the people of Maine.

Thank you to the Bangor Daily News for the recent editorial on LD 1666, which the Legislature just passed to make proficiency-based diplomas an option for Maine schools, rather than a mandate. This would allow Maine schools a little more local control, rather than having to serve another unwieldy state mandate.

Access to and options around health care impacts our daily lives in ways large and small. For rural Mainers, this is especially true. I am working with Maine Family Planning to host an interactive and family-friendly civic engagement event at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, July 11 at the Commons at Central Hall in Dover-Foxcroft to address these very questions.

We in Maine enjoy being able to see moose and bear, and go camping, fishing, hiking and hunting, especially in remote wilderness areas. A big reason is that Maine’s longstanding “adjacency policy” serves the Unorganized Territory and our state well. Large tracts of north country have been protected from sprawling development, where we can still “get away from it all,” and where animals needing large wilderness areas can survive.