Letter to the editor: Voting for Michaud, Fulford at 94 years old

Wed, 08/27/2014 - 10:45am

I am 94 years old. I served in the United States Navy from 1942 to 1946. The transport ship that I was serving on in 1942 was torpedoed and sunk off the coast of Africa. I served the rest of the war on the aircraft carrier Langley in the Pacific.

Like the men I served with in World War II, I fought willingly and proudly for my country. We were defending the land of opportunity where any boy could grow up to be president and where anyone who worked hard could provide for his family. The America I fought for was where every kid was guaranteed a good public education. No matter how poor his family, a child could get an education, work hard and make something of himself.

I don't see that today. Today families work hard, they try to save and they do everything right, but they can't get ahead. Sometimes they can't even get by.  

Its not like this everywhere. I read the news. Some states are doing well and others are not. Maine is not.

Anyone can see why Maine isn't doing as well as other states. It's because Gov. Paul LePage and the politicians who always vote his way, like Sen.  Michael Thibodeau of Waldo County, push policies that hurt us. The big tax cut for wealthy people they're always boasting about left the state strapped for cash, and then they used that as an excuse to cut education, cut the circuit breaker and cut revenue sharing that helps keep our property taxes down. It’s like Robin Hood backwards, stealing from the poor to give to the rich. They said it would stimulate the economy, but it hasn't and it won't. It hurt our economy. When you give big tax breaks to rich people there's no guarantee they'll use the extra money to hire another gardener or buy a Maine-built boat. It's more likely they will put it in a Swiss bank account, or invest it in Dubai, or buy a vacation house in Florida. But if you keep money in the pockets of working families here in Waldo County, they spend it at Tozier's, or Reny's, or hire a local man to fix their roof. That's what gets a local economy going. 

My family and I are going to vote for Mike Michaud for governor and Jonathan Fulford for state senator from Waldo County. Mr. Fulford works for a living. He understands that letting the rich get richer and the poor get poorer is not good for our economy. He knows that when working Mainers earn enough money to provide for their families, that is what will create jobs. The governor and his friend Thibodeau have it exactly backwards.

Louis Ares Sr. lives in Searsport.