Dave Bunker’s departure from Maine Public Radio is unfortunate for a number of reasons. Primarily, it is a great loss due to Bunker’s informed, knowledgeable and, above all, personable delivery. It is also unfortunate in light of Maine Public Broadcasting Corp.’s difficulty with arbitrary decision-making last year.

This decision was made by overriding Bunker’s suggestion of continuing the program from the Portland studio. The obstacles cited meant an effort to accommodate would have to be made by management. Without input from listeners, there is no way management would know to make such an effort.

The input was not sought and therefore an opportunity to demonstrate “a lesson learned” from last year was missed. The voices of radio are extremely powerful, reaching so many. They mark the mood and time of day, to be counted on and looked forward to. Sensitivity to listeners would greatly enhance MPBC’s image to its subscribers.

Margret Baldwin

Surry

How ironic that on the same day you publish a story on jail consolidation as the solution to the difficulty of recruiting prison staff (BDN, Aug. 21), The New York Times has a front page article on thinning prison populations across the country and the need to reduce prison staff.

Consolidation of facilities in Maine would entail construction costs and more cars on the road as staff and families would have to travel farther and there would be longer trips involved in transporting detainees to and from court. Sensible alternatives would include a pay raise for guards, who certainly deserve it, and recruitment of displaced prison staff from out of state.

Diane H. Schetky, M.D.

Rockport

Having lived in northern Maine my whole life, I’ve seen some serious changes in the woods. Some are for the better, such as safer work conditions, but most are for the worst.

Wild and mature forests in Maine have all but disappeared with the exception of a few small areas scattered throughout the state. We seem to have forgotten what the benefits of a wild, mature forest are since we have become unfortunately accustomed to the now-abundant young industrial forests.

As an avid outdoorsman, I can tell you that a true wilderness experience in Maine is the real

endangered species.

Though the thought of a national park isn’t one I’ve embraced yet, I see a serious need to protect more areas as wilderness. I see Baxter State Park as a good management model for future proposals. The size, management and uses of such a wilderness area should be discussed thoroughly in public with good faith and respect from all sides. I’m tired of the polarized and misinformed discussion. There are many of us in northern Maine, and plenty in southern, who want wilderness and would like to make it happen in our lifetimes so we can die knowing our grandchildren might once again have a wilderness experience like the one many of us had when we were young.

Tim Beal

Sherman Mills

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What people below Bangor don’t seem to understand is that those us who live here in northern Maine have access to the wilderness daily. We go fishing and come home and cook the fish. This is our lifestyle.

It is not a vacation, we don’t do this once a year, we live it. When we say “Restore Boston, leave our Maine way of life alone,” we mean it.

If you want to come up here and use it, please do. You are welcome, we want you to come and enjoy what we love, what is in our hearts. But don’t think you are going to control us for your vacation use once a year.

Robin Burgess

Millinocket

Robert Ronco, in decrying the role of religion in the Middle East conflict (BDN letter, Aug. 23), asserts that, “both the Muslim and the Jewish (sic) revere the same piece of real estate and cannot abide each other’s presence therein.” Despite the support for this position given by slanted media coverage, this statement is factually incorrect. It is only under Jewish control that the holy places of Muslims and Christians have been not only “abided” but protected, with access provided to the faithful.

In contrast, under Muslim Arab rule, the holiest place in Judaism, the Western Wall, was treated with deliberate dereliction and was wholly denied to Jews, and Christian holy sites fared little better. More recently, Muslim authorities have been diligently working on the Temple Mount to destroy Judaism’s archaeological heritage there, and the tomb of Joseph was attacked with an eye to replacing it with a mosque.

Despite these offenses against decency and the requirements of Oslo, Israel offered the Arabs an ongoing presence on the Temple Mount as part of the price it was willing to pay for peace, an offer which Arafat rejected out of hand, opting instead to incite the latest round of violence. Muslims walk the streets of Jerusalem and Hebron daily, despite the sanctity of these places to Judaism and the ability of the Israelis to have driven them out long ago, and in marked contrast to the fate of the Jewish communities of Arab countries, which were subjugated, brutalized, or expelled.

Israel may abide by the commandment prohibiting murder, but the killing will continue as long as that democratic nation needs to defend itself against an autocractic Arab culture that is dedicated in both word and deed to its annihilation and the terrorizing and murder of its population.

Bruce Freedberg

Bangor

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In response to Robert Ronco, who wonders whether we are worshipping in vain. The atheists cannot be right. Their philosophies lead to worse things than what the church is guilty of.

But don’t blame God for man’s inhumanity to man. And yet, those who commit atrocities in God’s name do indeed worship him in vain. It is not that He doesn’t exist. The challenge for all of us is to pay better attention.

Rev. Gregory Du Bois

Glenburn

My father gave me a sweatshirt that read, “If Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.” I spoke at a legislative hearing on Aug. 24, and met many unhappy mothers.

If the Department of Human Services knocks at your door, you better assemble a dream team of lawyers, because the Attorney General’s Office has made Maine the highest state in removing children, according to Rep. Deb McNeil. If you’re a poor mother going through a divorce, you fit the DHS profile for child abuse and neglect. If you are ignorant of your constitutional rights, don’t expect the DHS to inform you. How can the hot-shot attorneys general advance in their careers if they “lose”cases – meaning they don’t remove your children?

Protective custody cases should not be combined with divorces. The woman is already stressed by the threat of losing her children, and it detracts from focusing on protecting her assets. Furthermore, the confidentiality is jeopardized, because divorce is a

matter of public record.

It is a conflict of interest for the DHS to mandate people to

see DHS-picked psychiatrists, li-censed by the state. How can they be objective? Their loyalty is most probably to the state that pays their bill. The best way to solve the problems with protective custody is to put Commissioner Kevin Concannon out to pasture and safeguard against corrupt practices. No more profiling and targeting divorcing mothers.

The laws must be changed so that DHS workers can no longer hide behind immunity. Anonymous calls to DHS are misused by DHS; people have the right to know their accuser. DHS ruins people’s lives without so much as an apology when DHS is wrong.

Bethany Berry

Rockland