To the editor:
I have known Senate candidate Troy Jackson for nearly a decade. He and I don’t always agree on every issue, but we agree on most, and I trust him with my life, with the lives of my children, grandchildren, friends and neighbors. I even trust him to do his best for people who disagree with him politically. I mean that literally.
My greatest value for political leaders is that they will support the best quality of life for us all, and I trust him to seek out, find, and stand up for the best solutions to our most pressing problems.
First, to address the problem of too much money controlling our politics that affects all other problems we face, I trust him as a clean elections candidate himself to support legislation to reduce the influence of major big-money interests in our political campaigns and in legislation.
To address the problem of income inequality, the increasing burden of poverty, and a diminishing middle class, I trust him to stand up for increasing the minimum wage and requiring the richest to pay their fair share of taxes. He has been endorsed by the Maine Credit Union League, an organization that does so much for the working women and men in Maine and small businesses credit unions support.
To address the many problems of our fractured health care system, I trust him to support expansion of Medicaid for the state now and a simplified, improved Medicare for All that would increase quality, access, and affordability. I trust Troy to support best solutions to the problems of the mental health system in which decisions made over recent years by Maine Health and Human Services have seriously eroded the quality, accessibility, and affordability of treatment for mental health and substance abuse.
I trust Troy, endorsed by the Maine Education Association, to seek out and find best solutions to improve educational resources and practices pre-K through college. A high quality educational system for all will help to solve problems addressed above and other social problems. Such as environmental protection currently undermined by corporate money and lobbying. And such as an unfair, unjust, and outrageously expensive and increasingly privatized criminal justice system that doesn’t reduce crime nor make us safer.
I have often heard Troy speak in various settings and have seen him in action in the Maine Senate. He always stands up vigorously for best solutions and criticizes as vigorously the forces seeking to undermine justice for the middle class and poor. He does it without any of the name-calling, insulting, or bullying that is such a big part of political life in this presidential campaign and in Maine governance. He shows by example that it is possible for civility to reign in politics. Incivility may be more entertaining to enough people to improve media ratings, but it always undermines effective problem solving and justice.
Stuff is coming out from Clinton’s emails about her “public and private positions” in her “private” speeches to campaign donors. Much worse, stuff continues to come out about DT’s allegiance to big money without any redeeming concern for the public good (as Clinton shows) and his extreme prejudice toward nearly all except the greediest. Like many others, I harbor desires to move to Canada, but I won’t because the U.S. will continue to need people like Troy Jackson who will worry about politicians’ allegiance to big corporate interests. And so I will do the best I can to defeat all Republicans up and down the ballot who nominated that candidate whose name I won’t say, because he has gotten way too much free attention already. When Clinton has won the election (as she must) I will do the best I can to hold her feet to the fire on her public positions in this election campaign and to help achieve “our revolution.” Like Bernie Sanders, Troy Jackson will fight on toward justice, and so will I.
Seek out and find the best candidates you can trust for the best solutions. Vote for them. They are running in almost every race in Aroostook.
Alice Bolstridge
Presque Isle
