The conversation might have gone a little like this between great-great-grandpa’s Sen. Ethan Strimling, D-Portland, and Reps. John Richardson, D-Brunswick, and John Eder, Green-Portland: “What do you mean, free the slaves? What’s Lincoln thinking anyway? The high cost of waging war with the South will only hurt states such as Maine where slavery has no effect. The threat to Maine’s millworkers and farmers is what we need our federal government’s help for. Working men and women of Maine are being sent off to lay down their lives for a freedom they will never see. Our state has a terrible budget shortfall, yet the Washington establishment is prepared to squander millions on a reckless war that is against our best interest.”

Could the discussion have gone like that? Possibly, if the above named Maine legislators were in office then. I read with disgust the Bangor Daily News article (Jan. 31), “State Democrats propose anti-war resolution.” The shallowness of their thinking is so great that you don’t even get your feet wet.

Should a diplomatic resolution be sought before war? Absolutely. All Saddam Hussein has to do is cooperate with United Nations resolutions. Instead we’ve drawn a new line in the sand 17 times. The last line has now been drawn.

To say “workers in Millinocket and farmers in Clinton have a much greater threat than Saddam Hussein” is an isolationist, self-serving remark and should be retracted. A concern, yes, a big problem, yes, but a threat? Are the mills going to explode, killing thousands of innocent people? Are the cows going to give people anthrax? Was the brutal attack on innocent Americans on Sept. 11 so long ago that our Democratic legislators have forgotten?

Additional inflammatory statements like, “enough money to be able to bomb Iraqi families and their children,” and “squander billions on a reckless war that is against our best interests,” and “military intervention would provide few benefits for Mainers,” further illustrate how this group of legislators has a huge case of tunnel vision. The attitude of, “If it isn’t going to help me and mine, then I don’t want it,” is paramount in their twisted belief system. Where’s the “for the good of all” thinking that stopped Hitler? I doubt if that war helped Mainers much, Mr. Strimling, Mr. Richardson and Mr. Eder, do you? Or did it? You be the judges.

A few weeks after Sept. 11 there were articles about President Bush questioning what he knew and when he knew it. Could Sept. 11 have been prevented, in other words? The president is doing all within his power to prevent another such terrorist attack or even worse, one with dirty bombs. Is he jumping into war? No! Hussein watches CNN, and he knows a stand has been taken. If we go to war, it was Saddam, not Bush, who forced it. Bush does not want war, but security for our free country.

Democratic legislators should do in Augusta what they were elected to do: solve the Great Northern Paper crisis; solve the woeful milk situation which has been spiraling downward for a long time; solve the budget shortfall; and stay clear of issues national in nature.

According to reporter A.J. Higgins in the Jan. 31 article, Republicans were virtually invisible during the anti-war resolution news conference, and I say great. In fact, Sen. Chandler Woodcock, R-Farmington, said he was offended by the remarks of Strimling and others. So was I, plus hurt, realizing that elected Maine legislators could have such a minuscule view of such a monumental threat to our state, country and all of its citizens.

John S. Walker is a time-share developer from Island Falls.