Online job hunting

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I am writing to comment on your “Finding new jobs challenging” article of July 18. Having been unemployed for about a year now, I can easily identify with the hundreds of jobless or soon-to-be jobless men and women in Maine.

Even with a good education, technical training and experience, finding a job that is a good match for your background and experience is not an easy task. The article mentioned some resources that are available to assist people in their job hunting. I would like to add one more that might be helpful.

Project Go@ls (Go Online with AmeriCorps at Libraries and Schools) has many volunteers, including myself, who are available at the following libraries: Caribou, Lincoln, Bangor, Lewiston, Topsham and Portland. We will teach you one on one, how to use a computer, including the Internet, in your job search. If you don’t have a computer at home, you can search hundreds of jobs in Maine or anywhere in the United States from the library.

To reserve an hour for a lesson, call the library and sign up. The program always welcomes new volunteers who would like to teach computer skills.

David E. Winslow

Bangor

I was shocked to discover that your staff felt it necessary to print the picture of Susan Conway’s car accident (BDN, July 20). Whether or not the staff espouses the philosophy of your paper’s motto, “It’s what you need. To know.,” the rest of humanity may not agree with you. Accurate reporting of our community’s events and mishaps is one thing; exposure to horrific pictures of such a personal loss is quite another. Your newspaper’s lack of sensitivity to your public is unconscionable.

Letters like this one have graced your editorial page several times. Although I commend your staff for printing them, I find your continued practice of printing photos like these reprehensible. Your reading community faces unbearable trials like this without having to be exposed to such a terrible visual reminder. This is not responsible journalism, but unsympathetic sensationalism. I, for one, did not need to see that photograph, neither did this poor woman’s family who now have that picture in their mind.

Isn’t it time you did what a responsible newspaper is supposed to do, i.e. accurate reporting for the public you are supposed to be serving? Printing pictures like this is exploitation of someone’s sorrow, not responsible journalism. If I was interested in shock-value journalism, I would turn to the tabloids.

Estela G. Lane

Houlton

A letter to the editor in the

July 23 Bangor Daily News, titled, “Silent cry of unborn,” has powerful emotional and religious appeal. But, on the other hand, it is scientifically questionable.

The historical debate between church and science is well brought to light in this letter. The religious stance is clearly stated. However, the author “silently” noted a scientific principle of stem-cell research in the last line of the letter which states, “Their pain and the spilling of their blood is acceptable and legal.”

Stem cells, by definition, are undifferentiated and therefore the embryo – not a fetus – can’t feel pain because pain receptors are not yet formed and can’t spill blood because blood cells are not yet formed. It is a compelling argument to describe the silent cry of the unborn, but the capability to cry is not available within stem cells in the embryo.

Mark Schwartz

Stillwater

The passing of Ken Ward has left me and a multitude of others with an empty feeling. He was a genuine “grass rooter” with a set of values we can all follow to enrich our lives.

Beside his family, harness racing has lost one of its biggest benefactors.

Ken was the dean of active harness writers in New England and his weekly “Railbird” column in this publication was a must read. I remember the day not too long ago, that Ken was given the honor of parading world champion pacer Niatross at his beloved Bangor

Historic Raceway.

Last fall, he was inducted into the New England Harness Writers Hall of Fame.

He presented me with a beautiful jacket which I will always cherish. His warm spirit, together with his numerous acts of generosity and kindness within his community and statewide, made him one of life’s givers.

How will I remember my friend and colleague? “A man never stands so tall as when he stoops to help a child.”

John J. Ginnetti Jr.

President

New England

Harness Writers Association

Being a person who suffers from rheumatoid arthritis, I’m writing to add my personal perspective to the recent guest commentary encouraging Congress to expand Medicare to cover the cost of the prescriptions.

As an RA patient living in rural Maine, I know not only the debilitating impact this disease can have on one’s daily life and how painful and costly the treatments can be, but also the added burden of traveling hours out of the day to see a doctor for routine treatments. In addition to the medical wonders of drugs like Enbrel, I cannot tell you how convenient it is to use a biologic that can be self-administered at home twice a week. If this were not the case, I would spend two days each week traveling to appointments with my doctor.

I am lucky to have good private insurance that covers about 80 percent of my prescriptions. But I am gravely concerned about the number of senior citizens who desperately need prescriptions like Enbrel but cannot get them because Medicare does not cover them. It simply does not make sense that Medicare will cover the most expensive treatments, such as surgery and hospital care, but fails to cover the costs of the very medicine that might prevent the need for surgery in the first place.

Congress must do everything in its power to see that every person who suffers from an illness like mine receives the medicines that can help them the most. In the long term, it will save money and human suffering.

Joan Cummings

Oquossic

The Acadia Corp. has been proudly providing visitors’ services in Acadia National Park since 1932. Your editorial writer (BDN, July 23) correctly suggests that “spirited competition is expected from firms that operate nationally in other national parks.” He then goes on to state “Competition may bring some improvements, and it could increase revenues to the parks, including Acadia. But let’s hope the popovers and strawberry jam go on forever.”

I question the “improvements” competition may bring. It will indeed bring increased revenues to the park, regardless of whether we or one of the national competitors operate the Jordan Pond House and Acadia information centers in the future. If we are successful in obtaining a new contract, you can be assured that the popovers will be freshly baked, the strawberry jam will be the same high quality, and the hot tea will be served in the traditional fashion with two china pots.

We will continue to buy locally whenever we can and the livelihood of local fisherman, gardeners, screen printers and craftspeople will remain secure. Management decisions will be made here on Mount Desert Island.

Will a national competitor uphold these standards? The new contract requires neither the standards we have set and maintained for the Jordan Pond House nor the purchases we make from Maine farmers, fishermen or craftspeople. The important decisions will be made in corporate offices far from Acadia National Park. In the words of many a sage Maine philosopher “Be careful of what you hope for, you may get it.”

David B. Woodside

President and

General manager

The Acadia Corp.