Letters to the editor

Posted on March 27, 2006, at 12:00 a.m.

Blame where it’s due

I am astounded that Derek Mitchell would claim that the three students who ran for town council lost because students were disenfranchised in this election. That claim is entirely unfounded. Absentee voting was available for students and advertisements for voting absentee were posted all over campus for quite a few weeks before the election. Every student on this campus had the same opportunity to vote as the other citizens of Orono. The low turnout among students was due to the fact that students just don’t get involved in politics at this level in substantial numbers. Also contributing to the low vote for the students running was the lack of any sort of platform or set of ideas for the town of Orono coupled with the lack of any real campaigning. Perhaps Derek should contemplate a little longer why he lost this election instead of passing the blame to someone else.

Christina Brown

Senior political science major

Biased or shoddy journalism?

As I was reading the “Old Town mill closes doors” article in the March 23 Maine Campus, I thought that the article was well written and informative until I read page two. Yes, there will probably be a significant ripple effect throughout the Old Town area and the local logging industry. And yes, the co-op students who attend UMaine have had an excellent opportunity taken from them. But where on earth do people get the notion that the mill closure is “Baldacci’s fault?” What good would come from the permanent closure of “such an environmentally harmful practice?” And, oh yeah, this is a good one: What would happen if Maine were to “shift away from pulp and paper or place it under state control to avoid dependence on corporations?”

The University of Maine’s College of Natural Sciences, Forestry and Agriculture harbors one of the top Forest Management Departments in the nation. The people associated with this department are experienced, well-informed and are highly respected throughout the forest industry. My question to the Maine Campus is, why didn’t the reporter seek the expertise of the Forest Management Department for this story? Why did the reporter ask a sixth-year food-science major, a fourth-year English major, and a doctoral student in environmental engineering – Mr. Lake’s comment really surprised me – for their reactions on the mill closure instead of performing the job of a journalist and seeking a respected, well-informed source? Is Nutting Hall too far from Memorial Union? This article should have been on the opinions page and not on the front page. I do not know if this is shoddy or biased journalism, but in the future, if the Maine Campus wants an opinion on the ballot for the front page, shoot me an e-mail.

Ed Fortin

Senior Forest Operations Science major

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