Tuesday’s ClickBack column, the BDN’s interactive editorial feature, sought comment on Hollywood Slots in Bangor, Sen. Barack Obama’s decision to forgo public campaign financing and the Christian Civic League of Maine’s decision to drop its petition drive for a referendum on gay rights. Readers’ responses posted on the ClickBack page at bangordailynews.com included these comments:

Hollywood Slots – boon or bane?

Hollywood Slots already has remade Bangor for the worse. Poor old Paul Bunyan now stares at a huge beige parking garage and hotel instead of the Penobscot River, where log drives were held. This massive monstrosity dominates so much of the Bangor waterfront – what were planners thinking?

mcpd

Sen. Barack Obama last week announced he will not accept public financing for his presidential campaign – is he a special interest sellout or wise guardian of tax dollars?

You shouldn’t be able to buy the presidency. Too much of both public and private financing of presidential campaigns is wasted on slick advertising and packaging of the candidates. I’d much rather see all of the candidates get down and dirty on some kind of imaginative month-long TV reality-game show so we get to know what makes them tick and how good they would be at actually doing the job of president. Wouldn’t you at least like to see Sen. McCain and Sen. Obama square off on “Jeopardy”? It should be a competition, not a telethon.

takei

The Christian Civic League of Maine dropped its petition drive – is the gay rights issue dead in Maine?

The issue is not dead. The CCL’s petition failed because it advocated discrimination. But as California goes, so goes the nation. So it’s only a matter of time before there is a referendum here in Maine for making gay marriage legal. Then we’ll have to ask ourselves if marriage is just for reproduction and lineage purposes or is there some other meaning which is more egalitarian. If so, surely God would understand if some guy wanted to marry his truck. Which opens the door to marrying all types of things – crepes suzettes, old copies of “Wuthering Heights,” pain medication, etc. “Love laughs at locksmiths” – Proverb.

takei

I believe that the Civic League has finally realized that they have exhausted any broad support for anti-gay measures that they might have had. It seems like Michael Heath sat down and made a list of everything he did not want gay people to have and lumped them into one petition and it was too much to gain much support beyond the small League core membership. Perhaps even a good number of Civic League members wish to not continue the fight over gay rights. The message, I believe, is that Mainers are comfortable with the equality status of gay residents at the present time. The debate will heat up again when the gay marriage issue comes forth and it will and it should.

wosoliwen