This Week's Letters
Students help out town’s seniors
Editor:
The Scarborough Key Club chose to rake and bag leaves for seniors for a community service project.
Lincoln McIssac, “crew member,” and the crew he identified represented the Key Club very professionally. The girls were: Annie Bolton, Sabrina Christian, Caitlyn Wright and Julia Pons.
Everyone was very friendly and respectful. In about an hour, everything was raked and bagged. They left me all neat and tidy and left with warm goodbyes!
Barbara LaPrino
Scarborough
Most thanks community
Editor:
I was honored to be a candidate for the Maine Legislature during the 2006 campaign season. Meeting people around our district and discussing issues important to our community and our state was a great experience.
As I extend my congratulations to Peggy Pendleton on her win, I would also like to thank the community for their tremendous support. It was a close race! I could not have accomplished it without the help and effort of many friends. I am especially grateful to my husband Alan and all of my family for their support.
I look forward to continuing to serve the community as a member of the Scarborough Town Council. I wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season.
Sylvia Most
Scarborough
Messer should have ‘taken the high road’
Editor:
I would like to respond to Jeffrey Messer’s latest letter to the editor in which he berated a recent high school graduate, Allison Bertsch, who had submitted her own letter criticizing those who voted against the proposed school projects in this year’s election.
After reading Mr. Messer’s near-weekly lectures in the Leader over the past several years, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by much of anything any longer. However, his latest letter displays such a level of arrogance for an elected town official that I felt compelled to respond.
Granted, Ms. Bertsch’s letter may have included an unnecessary number of unflattering adjectives directed at the voters opposed to the school proposals. Nevertheless, Mr. Messer’s response goes beyond critiquing the hyperbole in Ms. Bertsch’s letter and seeks to humiliate her for daring to express her opinions at all. He begins by stating that “the citizens of Scarborough don't need to be lectured and ridiculed because they didn't vote in favor of the school and library referendum questions.” He then proceeds to do exactly that which he just said was unnecessary, i.e., to lecture and ridicule Ms. Bertsch and the rest of the sizable minority who voted for the two school projects, myself included. Indeed, Mr. Messer seems to have already forgotten that he bombarded the Leader and its readers with diatribes each week leading up to the election extolling his own personal views on why the projects were excessive and unnecessary and directing the voters to follow his lead in rejecting the proposals. Certainly Ms. Bertsch is entitled to her own views to the contrary.
Mr. Messer seeks to belittle and brush aside Ms. Bertsch’s opinions by rudely observing, “Since you're a recent graduate of the high school, I don't think it's your place to berate citizens on how to spend their tax dollars since you have yet to pay one dollar in property tax yourself.” What Mr. Messer ignores is that, even if she is not a property-owning taxpayer, Ms. Bertsch may well be a registered voter in Scarborough. As such, surely she is entitled to express her opinion no less than a member of the Town Council. Yet Mr. Messer apparently feels he has no need to treat the members of the voting public with the respect he derides Ms. Bertsch for lacking.
Ms. Bertsch’s style of critiquing those who voted against the schools may well have been excessive. But did Mr. Messer, an elected member of the Town Council, have to respond in kind? In his haste to levy his own personal attacks, Mr. Messer seems to have lost sight of a more important issue. Few young Americans take the time to get involved and express themselves on an issue of concern even in national elections, let alone in a local election. According to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, only 24 percent of eligible voters between the ages of 18 and 29 voted in this year’s election. That was actually an improvement over the last several mid-term elections when the turnout for that age group was even smaller. Rather than scorning Ms. Bertsch for offering her contribution at all, Mr. Messer could have chosen to respect her divergent views and respond in a constructive manner. Instead, if anything, he has attempted to discourage her from getting involved again.
Mr. Messer certainly is entitled to his own views on whether the school proposals were a good idea. What he is not entitled to do is treat every opinion contrary to his own, including those that he deems to be offensive, as an invitation to attack the speaker’s right to express herself. As an elected official, perhaps Mr. Messer should consider taking the high road for a change, rather than viewing the world from his high horse.
Mark E. Porada
Scarborough
Editor:
The Scarborough Key Club chose to rake and bag leaves for seniors for a community service project.
Lincoln McIssac, “crew member,” and the crew he identified represented the Key Club very professionally. The girls were: Annie Bolton, Sabrina Christian, Caitlyn Wright and Julia Pons.
Everyone was very friendly and respectful. In about an hour, everything was raked and bagged. They left me all neat and tidy and left with warm goodbyes!
Barbara LaPrino
Scarborough
Most thanks community
Editor:
I was honored to be a candidate for the Maine Legislature during the 2006 campaign season. Meeting people around our district and discussing issues important to our community and our state was a great experience.
As I extend my congratulations to Peggy Pendleton on her win, I would also like to thank the community for their tremendous support. It was a close race! I could not have accomplished it without the help and effort of many friends. I am especially grateful to my husband Alan and all of my family for their support.
I look forward to continuing to serve the community as a member of the Scarborough Town Council. I wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season.
Sylvia Most
Scarborough
Messer should have ‘taken the high road’
Editor:
I would like to respond to Jeffrey Messer’s latest letter to the editor in which he berated a recent high school graduate, Allison Bertsch, who had submitted her own letter criticizing those who voted against the proposed school projects in this year’s election.
After reading Mr. Messer’s near-weekly lectures in the Leader over the past several years, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by much of anything any longer. However, his latest letter displays such a level of arrogance for an elected town official that I felt compelled to respond.
Granted, Ms. Bertsch’s letter may have included an unnecessary number of unflattering adjectives directed at the voters opposed to the school proposals. Nevertheless, Mr. Messer’s response goes beyond critiquing the hyperbole in Ms. Bertsch’s letter and seeks to humiliate her for daring to express her opinions at all. He begins by stating that “the citizens of Scarborough don't need to be lectured and ridiculed because they didn't vote in favor of the school and library referendum questions.” He then proceeds to do exactly that which he just said was unnecessary, i.e., to lecture and ridicule Ms. Bertsch and the rest of the sizable minority who voted for the two school projects, myself included. Indeed, Mr. Messer seems to have already forgotten that he bombarded the Leader and its readers with diatribes each week leading up to the election extolling his own personal views on why the projects were excessive and unnecessary and directing the voters to follow his lead in rejecting the proposals. Certainly Ms. Bertsch is entitled to her own views to the contrary.
Mr. Messer seeks to belittle and brush aside Ms. Bertsch’s opinions by rudely observing, “Since you're a recent graduate of the high school, I don't think it's your place to berate citizens on how to spend their tax dollars since you have yet to pay one dollar in property tax yourself.” What Mr. Messer ignores is that, even if she is not a property-owning taxpayer, Ms. Bertsch may well be a registered voter in Scarborough. As such, surely she is entitled to express her opinion no less than a member of the Town Council. Yet Mr. Messer apparently feels he has no need to treat the members of the voting public with the respect he derides Ms. Bertsch for lacking.
Ms. Bertsch’s style of critiquing those who voted against the schools may well have been excessive. But did Mr. Messer, an elected member of the Town Council, have to respond in kind? In his haste to levy his own personal attacks, Mr. Messer seems to have lost sight of a more important issue. Few young Americans take the time to get involved and express themselves on an issue of concern even in national elections, let alone in a local election. According to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, only 24 percent of eligible voters between the ages of 18 and 29 voted in this year’s election. That was actually an improvement over the last several mid-term elections when the turnout for that age group was even smaller. Rather than scorning Ms. Bertsch for offering her contribution at all, Mr. Messer could have chosen to respect her divergent views and respond in a constructive manner. Instead, if anything, he has attempted to discourage her from getting involved again.
Mr. Messer certainly is entitled to his own views on whether the school proposals were a good idea. What he is not entitled to do is treat every opinion contrary to his own, including those that he deems to be offensive, as an invitation to attack the speaker’s right to express herself. As an elected official, perhaps Mr. Messer should consider taking the high road for a change, rather than viewing the world from his high horse.
Mark E. Porada
Scarborough
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