Blog Posts

A dear friend in Portland helped found a medical sister city project, Konbit Sante, between Portand, Maine and Cap-Haitien, Haiti in 2000, where they have helped build and expand medical care to this area of a quarter million Haitians on the northern coast. It's been an incredibly difficult but successful venture and has been vital to both Haitian and Maine citizens as well as a sign of hope for the world. The recent, possibly illegal shut down of USAID has caused one of Konbit Sante's programs - the only one funded by US government funds - to close. It was a program that offered maternal, infant and child health care. According to Konbit Sante,
As a direct result of this mandated stoppage:

Thousands of children will no longer receive essential vaccinations and vitamins.
Community health workers will no longer run family planning clinics, educate women about their pregnancies, or monitor the conditions of expectant mothers and infants.
Thirty workers in all, including community health workers, nurses, lab technicians, and support staff, are no longer working at Fort Saint Michel.

Dear Senator Collins,

A fork in the road...It seems so indeed. A non-elected, non-confirmed billionaire seems to be in charge of ending programs that Congress enacted, laying off and firing federal workers, stopping government funding.

What was your job again?

I so fear that our president, twice impeached, felony convicted, provocateur of the January 6th attacks - a man unable to abide by the laws and norms of our country - is now making every effort to seize congress's power and finish consolidating his control over the Supreme Court. There aren't many guardrails left, are there? In spite of the fact that so many of your colleagues loathe the man and his relentless bullying and divisive words and actions, despite many of them having been in the Capitol on the day of his attempted insurrection - fearing for their lives - they seem, from this distance, to have become obsequious court fools to the man, fearful (not without reason, I grant) and enabling.

But again, What is your job?

Dear Representative Golden,
How terribly disappointing that you voted to enact the Laken Riley Act which accelerates the process of stripping due process from residents. You co-sponsor a bill to make sure that silencers canbe used by gun owners, citing among other reasons the confusion of the ban, the overreach. My God, the Laken Riley Act is a terrible overreach, allowing for indefinite detention of folks accused of a crime, any crime no matter how minor, convicted or not. To quote Paul Simon "Sorrow is everywhere you turn -- And that's worth some money, think about it, that's worth some money." What a boon for the private prison industry, what a nightmare for civil rights and due process, what a merciless and cruel act.
The murder of Laken Riley was a terrible act of violence but the Act will not prevent violence but will continue to accelerate people's fears, people's divisions. We need real solutions to immigration reform but not the demonization of those seeking shelter, safety, asylum in a world gone mad with violence and vengeance. You must do better than this, Representative. The Laken Riley Act is a complete red herring bill and does nothing to solve real problems.

Dear Senator King,

You’ve been a steadfast supporter of Israel and have spoken out strongly on Israel’s right to defend itself after the horrendous attacks of October 7.

Israel is the military superpower in the Middle East, but has always been in a precarious and difficult situation with its neighbors. As one Israeli statesman said, “we jumped out of a building on fire and landed on another people.” In it’s attempt to keep its own people safe, Israel has brought increased oppression and fear to its Palestinian neighbors. Not an easy situation for any of the parties.

Dear Senator Collins,

In situation after situation, crisis after crisis, opportunity after opportunity, you have let down your constituents in Maine. During President Trump's tenure, you most often went along and enabled him, rarely spoke out against constitutional outrages beyond "I think he's learned his lesson now." In backing Mitch McConnell's blockage of Merritt Garland during Obama's presidency to voting for Trump's radically conservative justices pushed through by McConnell, you have continued to foster a system that allows minority rule and extreme attacks on civil rights and democracy itself. Except for rather narrow "feel good" legislation and bills that directly bring money into Maine, you have simply been a cog in the wheel. We elect Senators to represent the people but also to use the insight from their position of power to lead, especially through difficult times...

Humanity has been sorely tested these past two years with the Covid pandemic. As the lethal virus spread quickly from China to the West and deaths started to mount, the medical and scientific communities, working with governments around the world scrambled to sort out what could be done to limit the virus's damage. Uncertainty abounded – the source of the virus was unclear, treatments not yet proven, different nations took different precautions, the scientific community strove for unity but without enough knowledge of the virus yet to achieve it, many missteps and corrections were made along the way as history with the virus accrued – often adding to a sense of chaos and uncertainty. In the US and other countries, narratives often devolved along political lines, with significant and growing mistrust between factions, as governments strove to implement safety plans. There were hopeful moments, as well, with people recognizing and honoring front line workers who faced increased risks, and with governments, at least in the beginning, seeming to recognize that we needed a just and concerted worldwide effort to survive the pandemic and that people deserved the safety net that only communal action and shared resources can bring.

    Since the protests following the killing of George Floyd and the plea / insistence that Black Lives Matter, I've noticed a number of placards and road signs in our rural county that announce All Lives Matter or America Matters or Maine Lives Matter.

Dear Congressman Golden,

Please vote for impeachment of the president.  There is a rising danger in the presidency of Donald Trump that no one will hold him accountable for lying, bullying, deceiving the public and Congress, for his strong-arm, anti-democratic and mob-like behavior toward members of the opposition, world leaders, and members of his own party. 

The images of war and killing were compelling.  They made a simple case to punish the perpetrator.  Not that all the facts were in, the complexities known, but then judgment and retribution works so much better before they are fully informed.  It's impossibly sad, of course, that the images and news of people fleeing for their lives, month after month, have led only to a fierce protectionism - Keep 'em out.  History so often has shown it easier to avenge the dead than to embrace and shelter the living.  Fifty-nine cruise missles, a "targeted" military action, as if to say that violence for a specific purpose has no need for further explanation.  We have become so used to our own military superiority and posturing that we no longer abide by the laws of the international community which prohibit attacks such as this.  Vigilantism on the world stage is against the law as surely as it is within nations; it profoundly threatens the future of a peaceful and lawful world community.