A recent newspaper article cites studies showing the test scores of Maine students are unchanged and, in some locals, getting worse. Many Maine students and their families are bound into underachieving educational institutions and cannot choose better alternatives. Sadly, the results of public education bear out the statement of former Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, who said she could “look at your zip code and tell whether your going to get a good education…. The crisis of K-12 education is a threat to the fabric of who we are.” Yet, the first act of the new Democrat majority in Maine was to cut education funding. This after the Republicans in the last legislature increased funding for education. Democrats seem blindly attached to the status quo in the defense of their own special interests.
So what of priorities and what of choice? Is education to be bound to a rigid one-size fits all mandate governed by the few and the outdated? Should the first goal of the Democrat majority be to cut funding to schools and deny choice to Mainers?
They have already disparaged the most vulnerable of Maine by attempting to block payment to the hospitals, which tend to our sick and needy. Our hospitals are financially strapped as a result of Democrat passed legislative mandates. These financial agreements made between hospitals and State was made with a certain expectation of fidelity and honesty in the relationship. It was expected that restitution and payment would be made for services rendered. But Democrats have found other more enticing endeavors to fund with monies bound by contract and law. As usual, the dutiful partner is left holding the bill for the harlotries of the promiscuous other half.
The Democrats have regained the majority and have quickly showed the true intent of their soul by the revelation of their first and foremost of priorities. They have first cut funding to our schools, then are attempting to block the payment to hospitals, attempting to cut funding to charter schools, blocking school choice and, of course, a myriad of legislation to ban guns. Do you feel represented or repressed here in the new Democrat majority?
Category Politics
Of Culprits and Criminals
“We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American principle that each individual is accountable for his actions.”- Ronald Reagan
Common sense, like the lesson in this quote, is a virtue that we here in the rural Northeast hold in high regard. This is why the recent events, which are careening completely out of control day by day, leave the good, decent people of Maine puzzled and appalled by the words and actions of those elected to serve them. After the horrific and tragic misdeeds of the demented, how is it that the servants (politicians) are now calling their masters (citizens) criminals? What is our crime?
What has prompted the Democrat Party to blame peace-loving, law-abiding Americans with the deaths of little children? Leaders of the Maine Democrat Party have publicly chastised Maine citizens, who own guns and, by the way, make up the majority of Maine residents. Some, such as Janice Cooper, have gone so far as to say that they are sickened by us, yes us, for I am a gun owner myself and not ashamed of it. So what is so sickening about Maine gun owners, which, by the way, make up the majority of Maine residents? Was it our outrage when the Democrats started their new leadership tenure with a call for a pay raise? They hadn’t even started working yet. Same ol’, same ol’. It’s what we call “teenage politics”. Yell, scream and blame every problem on their “idiot” authority figure and then turn around, ask that same authority figure for the car keys and some more money so they can go party on that selfsame authority figure’s dime.
Our Country is in a fiscal crisis, the likes we have never seen, and the first act of the Democrats in Washington is to introduce eight laws to restrict our right to own firearms. Because it’s our fault, you see? We own guns. How can they pass a budget with all these gun owners lurking around? If we would just pass our guns in to the government, they could sell them fast and furious to Mexican drug lords, make a bundle and perhaps balance the budget. Perhaps, because there would, of course, be the expense of the committee to collect the guns, then the committee to log all the serial numbers, then the committee to lose all the serial numbers, a committee to devise a curriculum to teach the new “Omericans” how better off they are without any self-defense and, yes, the committee to implement the new “Omericans” education course.
A little over the top? Of course. But it does seem more than coincidental that immediately after a horrible, heinous attack on little children, the liberal elites immediately launch a coordinated attack on the majority of American citizens, most still blinded by their grief for the loss of the “littlest of these” and too numbed by sorrow to see it coming. Easy targets.
Here in Maine, Democrats label gun owners “sickening”. A newspaper in New York, The Journal News, has printed maps plotting the location of the residences of gun owners. Now incarcerated criminals are threatening those that staff the prisons with harm to their families because they now know where they live. Thieves are rejoicing with the knowledge of what homes have no defense and are easy pickings. In an ironic twist, the outrage against the Journal was so great the paper felt the need to hire armed guards for safety. Oh, those nasty guns make you feel safe now, hmmm. The President and most of his elite friends send their children to schools with armed guards, but not for us, why?
Other papers have asked for lists of gun owners and called for their execution. Dianne Feinstein continues her call for a forced return of all guns from the citizens. Mayor Booker of Philadelphia is offering $1,000 to anyone who turns in his or her neighbor who owns a gun.
In California, residents brought in their weapons in a buy-out program. Standing if front of the pile of weapons, officials stated that the children of the State would be safer now. But how many of the individuals returning a gun had a criminal record, except for the aspersions cast on them by arrogant public servants? And therein lies the culprit to the insanity.
We, as Americans, have wilted under the withering tantrums of our juvenile public leaders, much the same as beleaguered parents tire and succumb to the insults and tirades of a spoiled child. Yes, we grieve for the loss of our nation’s most precious treasure, but we must not allow our public servants to blame us for it. We, the majority of gun owning Americans, are not capable of such mindless acts with the weapons we possess. We only wish that we could be there, with those weapons, to defend the little ones. This is not a crime and we must never allow small, empty-minded despots to portray our love as hate, our independence as immoral and our patriotism as asinine. They will try but we don’t have to accept the label. We are Americans, free by the blood of our forefathers. Don’t ever forget the cost to gain it and the cost to lose it. May the fire of freedom still course through our veins and burn in our souls, forever unquenched.
Merry Getsmas
It’s a Wonderful Life! And, yes, it is. The theme of that timeless classic represents one of the greatest most daunting challenges to parenting. How to teach our little ones that the giving is greater than the getting? How to live like the Apostle Paul who, whether abased or in abundance, learned the secret of contentment?
I was blessed to have grown up in a poor home. Yes, blessed. My father, a Vietnam Vet, left for the mission field in New Guinea, not long after returning from war. After returning stateside from the New Guinea, he immediately turned his passion and energy into church planting for the denomination to which he was affiliated. What that meant for our family was that we were in perpetual state of rebuilding our family budget. Once the church my father had planted reached a financial place to comfortably support our family, we moved on to start again. Over time, my resentment of this would turn to wisdom as I saw the need for sacrifice for the greater good. Lessons a teenage boy would prefer not to learn, but necessary nonetheless. I have learned that the best way to teach a wonderful life is to live a wonderful life.
But in the arena of politics it is all about the getting, isn’t it? The struggle for “who gets” is the ideal that predicates every manipulation, parry and thrust of this age-old dual. In the State of Maine, there is one Party that has a focus upon their interpretation of “who gets” and what they get. The other Party is in a constant study of vacillation and debate on which interpretation of “the gets’ and “who gets” they should adopt; the Party’s or the people’s.
The first is the Democrats. The have one constant focus and they do not divert from that. The government should get and the people should give. They firmly believe and espouse that all the wealth and treasure of Maine residents should be heaped into the halls of government where it can be protected and regulated away from the mishandling by the uneducated masses. And if there be any heaps left in the hands of the uneducated and unenlightened, those heaps should be immediately labeled as ill-gotten gains and the possessor of said heaps should be made to wear a sign with bright scarlet letters that spell “businessman”. Yes, after two short years out of power, the first order of business for Democrats was to try and vote themselves a raise. There is nothing left to guess on “who gets” with Democrats.
The reason for this immediate, feverish rush to the “till” for the Party, whose symbol is an Ass? It’s really quite obvious. For the two years, under the leadership of Paul LePage, the Republicans have been attempting to shovel those heaps of Maine’s wealth and treasure back out to the people of Maine. By lowering unemployment, creating jobs, making health care affordable and competitive, and passing the largest tax cut in Maine history Mainers are starting to see hope for an actual rebuilding of their own personal heaps. With 6,800 net new jobs in just 12 months, the average personal income above the national average by 30%, new home purchases up again by 23.6%, and the unemployment rate down creating 10,000 jobs since 2011, its hard to comprehend why Democrats regained a majority, unless you look at the issue of the “who gets”.
These Republican accomplishments did not come without a struggle. More could have been accomplished, were it not for very public defections from the hard left of the Republican Party. Editorials chastising the Governor in front of the State and the Nation did not give a picture of leaders focused on the people. The Tweed Chair debacle of the Maine Republican Convention convinced the people of Maine the Republican Party was riddled with factions consumed with getting their own agenda accomplished rather than fighting for the whole of Maine. Mainers had all they could stomach of what they were getting from Republicans and showed them the door directly adjacent to the woodshed.
In short, the Republican Party must decide which version of the “who gets” they believe in. If they want to present a remake of the Democrats vision, the populace will opt for the original rather than the cheap imitation. If the Republicans finally decide to offer Maine people a choice that is a contrast to Democrats, it had better travel in a clean, tightly run ship or the people will not get on board. The State of Maine and its people need to have their heaps of wealth returned to them, but they will not tolerate any more heaps of humiliation to go with it.
WHAT????!!!!!
To say I am embarrassed and discouraged would be putting it mildly. Yesterday the Senate voted on a UN Treaty (CRPD), which would have given a foreign entity unprecedented jurisdiction in the private lives of American citizens. This troubling abdication of US sovereignty is just one in many troubling attempts by liberals to grant the United Nations influence of the American people. What is most shameful for me as a Maine resident is the knowledge that our two Republican Senators from Maine voted for this Treaty. Thankfully there was not the two-thirds majority needed to pass the Treaty. Senator Snowe and Senator Collins owe the people of the great and sovereign State of Maine an apology and explanation for their thoughtless vote.
The Maine Conservative Voice 