LETTERS: High prescription costs affect the whole family

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To the editor:

When it comes to prescription drugs, we can all agree that rising prices have become a critical issue. Some Mainers are going without their required prescriptions as they can no longer afford them. Others are cutting pills in half or going without daily necessities like decent food to keep up with the costs. It is time to help assure Maine families that they will be able to pay for necessary prescription drugs.

So why isn’t Congress fighting to do just that? The White House and Congress released their “Build Back Better” framework for a $1.75 trillion social spending bill. This bill does not including anything to address the high cost of prescription drugs.

This is the moment when Congress could include a provision to allow Medicare to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices. But this provision isn’t in the bill!

If you are reading this letter then I hope you will pick up the phone and call Congressman Golden and tell him Mainers need lower Rx prices.

High costs like this affect the whole family. Soaring drug costs mean that some people aren’t able to stay healthy or eat properly. It shouldn’t be this way!

Let’s advocate for what’s right. It’s time for Medicare to be able to negotiate for lower drug costs so we can afford the medications we need. Congress is debating the bill framework right now. Please call today. There is no time to lose!

Paul Armstrong
Palermo

LETTERS: Turn the wheel for ourselves

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To the editor:

The market economy is one of mankind’s greatest achievements but it works best for society when there is competition. Starting in the 1980s the application of anti-trust laws switched from “anti-competition” to “anti-price fixing”. Since then we experienced an explosion of mergers and acquisitions that has resulted in fewer providers of goods and services and fewer employers to choose from.

For example, 73 percent of all meat sold in chain grocery stores are provided by only four giant companies, like Tyson Foods. Here in our local area we saw cable company Adelphia bought by Time Warner Cable, which lied to us thousands of times per day. Remember, “high speed internet starting at $14.95”? Then TWC was bought by Spectrum, which is owned by Charter Communications. How long will it be before all of that is owned by Amazon, Disney, or Google? In the past year Spectrum has raised my monthly subscription twice, the last time by 28 percent. “He who owns controls” – and we have no control. Working with small companies we can create the competition that Spectrum doesn’t have.

Due to the hard work of some local citizens who have experienced, “Taken Enough Already” and, like those Boston “Sons of Liberty,” who were sick and tired of dealing with a giant corporation, the East India Company, we have the opportunity to be free of the tyranny of Spectrum. Instead of dumping tea we can be dumping the burden of making some financial elites even wealthier. We can own, and therefore control, the infrastructure that provides internet service.

Once in place, rates will rise only if we say so. The quality of maintenance will be determined by us, the local community. We need not be the frogs in the boiling water.

Everyone knows that owning a house is less expensive than renting. Renters always have the risk that their home will be sold to some distant owner that will keep raising the rent. Let’s break free from this system that sends our local wealth to people who care nothing for us. Let’s take a hold of the wheel and turn it for ourselves.

Vote Yes for our own Fiber Optics internet.

Brad Sherwood
China

LETTERS: “Hell, Yes,” on China’s Question #1

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To the editor:

China Citizens are being asked to vote Yes or No on the creation of the China Broadband Fiber Optic Internet system to serve every home in China that wants it, all without raising taxes, by issuing a Bond that will be paid back by subscribers over time.

Last week our China Broadband committee reviewed the Hawkeye Fiber report where the whole town was surveyed, and maps and detail were provided. It showed the costs and the six problem areas where it will be more expensive to serve.

The Town of China selectboard continues to look for dollar certainty on the China Broadband project and even with a “Yes” vote of citizens, the select board will be able to reassess if this project is in the town’s best interest.

The big picture is how this system will benefit the Community. It creates competition where we currently have an unregulated monopoly provider that can set any price it wants. There is no regulatory “PUC” or Public Broadband Commission to set rates for internet service.

The alternative is real competition with multiple providers. Competition keeps money in the pockets of citizen subscribers.

For a rough example, if a subscriber saves $40 a month compared to an incumbent provider, this is $480 per year and $4,800 in ten years. Say we get to 1200 subscribers; in ten years this is $5.7 Million dollars in the pockets of China Citizens who subscribe to this new fiber service.

To me, this makes it an easy “HELL YES!” vote for Community Broadband!

from Bob OConnor, Citizen of China concerned about connectivity since the 1980s and serves on the China Broadband committee

LETTERS: Opposed to candidate because of past performance

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To the editor:

I feel compelled to write this letter to both the selectmen, the selectmen candidates and the residents of the Town of China. I am concerned that Peter Foote, a former selectman, may be a candidate for re-election as a selectman for the Town of China. My reason for concern is under the former town manager, when Mr. Foote was also serving as a selectman, he was asked to write a job description for a new position as public works director. He not only wrote the job description but he applied for the very same job. I feel persons involved, as the town manager as well as Mr. Foote, would have been aware that this was inappropriate and perhaps illegal. Many China residents attended a board of selectmen meeting to express their concern. To the very best of my memory, the town manager apologized and said he didn’t realize it, and it was an error. That particular job as director of public works has never been filled although they did hire a public works manager with a small monetary increase above fellow public works employees to compensate for the extra workload as well as the current job.

I believe the selectman that we vote in to serve the town of China should be there to serve all the residents as well as the residents who are employed by the Town of China. They should listen to the people they serve and be sure the people that work for the Town of China are treated and recognized as a valuable asset to our town.

It is important that they seek to lower taxes but not as their sole goal. We are all in hard times with the price of gas and groceries, etc. but sometimes the means of cutting taxes may be hurting the town’s future. I am referring to the sale of the town’s property, thinking they could earn money on taxes especially if it was subdivided into housing lots. I ask was this relatively small amount of money worth it in the long run when a group was trying to improve the town by adding a park for all residents and perhaps someday a community center that would be a safe place for teens to gather to play cards, chess, pool, ping pong, etc., and for residents to have a time to gather to do the same thing, especially senior citizens who need a place to socialize.

Summarizing I do not have faith in Mr. Foote as a candidate for such a trusted position. I also thank the selectmen who do put the Town of China residents and employees’ interests and well-being as the most important part of their service.

Thank you.

Marilyn Reed
China

LETTERS: Vote “yes” for better internet

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To the editor:

To the Town of China:

Please consider all the advantages of good internet service and how continued poor service could keep our town years behind the rest of the country. Internet is important in so many ways. Three come to mind immediately: education, business and personal.

The Town Line has been a helpful source of information on this subject and I specifically point to their October 14 issue.

The Broadband Committee has researched and proposed a solution of which we the citizens should favorably consider and vote for on November 2.

In person, or absentee ballot, please join me to vote, Yes, on China Town Question #1.

Fred Wiand
China

LETTERS: A thank you to the community, Supports Marquis for selectboard

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To the editor:

Dear Friends,

I would like to thank the Town of China for the many years of continuous support during my terms of office. After 22 years serving on the selectboard, I have decided it is time to hand over the baton to someone else. Jeanne Marquis has the same spirit for volunteerism and the deep connection to China as I have had over the years. She and I worked side by side picking up trash on Earth Day on the lakefront. Many people may recognize Jeanie for her articles in The Town Line newspaper, but you may not know she also spends many hours each month volunteering for the China For a Lifetime Committee.

When COVID first broke out, Jeanne organized a team of drivers to deliver groceries to the elderly so they could stay home. She gathered volunteers who like to sew to make and deliver masks before masks were readily available, and she helped to create outdoor classroom spaces in our China School Forest. Jeanne has and always will be there to help our town, so I feel strongly about supporting her to carry on in my place on the selectboard. Please vote for Jeanne Marquis on November 2.

In appreciation and love of the China community,

Irene Belanger
China

LETTERS: Marquis is superb candidate

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To the editor:

Dear Town of China Friends and Neighbors:

Good government in our community requires the election of outstanding candidates.

The best candidates offer personal qualities such as independence, non-partisanship, positivity, knowledge, balance and modesty. They also possess a demonstrated record of community achievement and action.

Jeanne Marquis is a superb candidate who meets that test; she is running in the November 2 election for a position on the China Select Board.

As a resident and registered voter in China, I will support Jeanne.

I respectfully ask you to consider casting your vote on November 2 for Jeanne Marquis; please also ask other residents you know to carefully review her background in order to make the best choice for the Town of China.

Thank you.

Stephen Greene
China

LETTERS: Jeanne is a darn good listener

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To the editor:

Over the past few years, I have become acquainted with Jeanne Marquis. I was informed recently she is running for the office of selectperson to serve the town of China in a leadership position. I find Jeanne to be a darn good listener and to have great loyalty to the town in which her family has lived for generations. She is bright, curious, mature, well-educated and offers good ideas and sensible suggestions. She is respected and will make a good addition to the board that provides stability and guidance to the town. I openly support her candidacy.

Richard Dillenbeck
Augusta, Georgia, summer resident on China Lake

LETTERS: Voting “yes” for better internet service

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To Town Line editor and the Town of China Residents:

Joann Clark Austin

Joann Clark Austin

I feel compelled to write to the Selectmen of China, and the townspeople.

The town selectboard asked in 2017….., that’s four years ago….., for help. The Town,….we…., needed some people who understand the workings of the internet to solve our connectivity issues. For many in our town Covid has made poor internet connectivity and poor internet speeds even more apparent. The selectmen asked folks to volunteer, to work for many years, to find the best answer to internet services in China. The committee has done that. That is what we are voting on on the November ballot.

The selectmen told this generous dedicated set of volunteers they not only had to find the right answer, but that they, the volunteer committee, also had to sell the idea to us town folks (who, speaking for myself, could never have found the answers and who has so little understanding that I didn’t care to go to the three explanatory meetings they have held as requested). I did get to one.

Then last week, the selectmen would not allow the committee to use their working funds to send out a flyer supporting their proposal, while at the same time, the select board gets to put a note on the printed ballot to vote “No”, with no reason given. Selectmen should have put a “Leave to Voters” recommendation with explanations of why three of them voted to not recommend going forward. At the end of that meeting my heart just ached for the volunteer committee. Why would anyone ever volunteer again?

I discovered by chance that Consumer Reports says that a municipality doing exactly what the Broadband Committee proposes is the best way forward…. That good utility services like electricity, telephone, and now internet are (and have been since the 1940s) best accomplished in more rural areas by municipalities. And even better, if we vote “YES”, but there are not enough townsfolk signing up for the lower cost, higher speed, more reliable service, then the town can reevaluate and pull out of further implementation.

Based on what I’ve been hearing and my own poor internet service over the years, I am definitely voting yes on the November Ballot question.

from Joann C. Austin (China)

LETTERS: Freedom has many meanings

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To the editor:

I am writing to you today to address the tone of discourse online when the subject of COVID-19 is mentioned in any way.

I have two concerns. One is that some people are horribly misinformed, endangering their own health and the health of their loved ones. Another is that loud, rude insistence on “being heard” makes others cower in fear of confrontation. My larger concern is that this is the intended effect.

On the information front, millions have received the vaccine and there has been no high incidence of side effects. Vaccinations have a long history of eradicating deadly diseases without a high incidence of side effects, and the COVID vaccines continue that history in spectacular fashion. Republicans such as former President Donald Trump and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have both encouraged everyone to get vaccinated. This is not a partisan issue.

For those who say “but vaccinated people still catch COVID,” I would point out that those people overwhelmingly do not end up hospitalized. They can manage their symptoms at home. Where there has been a vast deluge of hospitalizations, those are the same areas where vaccination rates are low.

On the “personal freedom” front, I completely agree that nobody should be forced to be vaccinated. However, employers have labor rules to follow and they are subject to litigation for failing to maintain a safe workplace. They have every right, reason and incentive to conclude that vaccinations are safe and effective, and to insist that their employees get vaccinated. In other words, if you defend personal freedom, then defend the rights of these businesses to make health and safety related decisions for themselves.

Freedom is a term that can be applied in many different ways. Would we be a free nation without a mandatory draft? We sacrifice individual freedom every day in many ways to keep our nation free and to preserve the common good, and if anyone has missed the connection between a runaway virus and a threat to freedom, I’d be happy to discuss it with you.

Behaving in the common good is what keeps us all free.

Thank you.

Walt Bennett,
South China