A letter to the editor (BDN, March 17) submitted by Frank Torino advocated for social Darwinism. The author listed different groups of people needing society’s support while the rest of us had to contend with rising fuel costs and taxes (and not acknowledging the impact these items have on the very poor). He suggested that it was families’ responsibility, not the state, to care for the poor and disabled, and that if they didn’t step up to the plate then “let natural selection take its course.”

We are members of a regional collaborative that attempts to make the world a little better. We use available resources as efficiently as possible to try to care for people that neither family nor state have embraced. We agree that all of us are facing many challenges, and that it is times such as these that test the words we use to describe our society, including those of our Founding Fathers: “that all men are created equal [and] endowed with certain, inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men.”

While the primary thrust of the Declaration of Independence was to establish a case for “throwing off” the imperialistic and colonizing rule of the British, the Declaration advocates for an appropriate role of government. Rather than allowing fear and anger to dictate who we are, rather than comparing human beings to County deer in a March of a really tough winter, let’s strive to find the best in us as we work to make this state and nation the best they can be.

Vicki Rusbult

Shawn Yardley

Dennis Marble

Greater Penobscot Continuum of Care