What Dr. Erik Steele lacks in character he more than makes up for in unbridled ambition in the article, “Standard-bearer” (BDN, Dec. 8). He states that anyone who persists in suspecting that he supported the integration of hospitals under the Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems umbrella in order to facilitate his promotion to chief medical officer of that corporation can “kiss my stethoscope.”

I’ll take you up on that, Doc.

I’ll meander my way through that behemoth on State Street in Bangor, through some of that pointless, vacant real estate that EMHS is throwing up all over the area. Perhaps I’ll find you commiserating with your EMHS board colleagues as you cower behind your tax-exempt, nonprofit status, all the while pulling down your very profitable six-figure salaries. All that bloated empty real estate, bloated administration and bloated corporate compensation.

I will happily kiss your hallowed stethoscope, Doc.

Debbie Walker

Hermon