[FYI This version of the story includes video. – KM]
Topless march draws crowd, cameras, but remains peaceful | Lewiston Sun Journal
Posted in Environment, Law and Order, Maine, Outdoors
Tagged Andrea Simoneau, demonstration, march, naked, nudity, protest, protesters, topless, University of Maine at Farmington
I was terribly relieved to learn that no one was injured during Friday’s historic topless march through downtown Farmington.
Local police officials had spent much of the week assuring the media and the public at large that plans were in place “to keep people safe”!
Phew!
I also was glad to see that Michael Heath of the American Family Association of Maine finally weighed in on this critical occurrence of women showing their breasts to enlighten us all of its relationship to the homosexual rights movement.
“The promotion and presentation of public nudity is a staple of the homosexual rights movement,” he told reporters.
See there? I never would have made that connection.
Without Heath’s wise interpretation I would have thought the endeavor was simply a somewhat amusing effort put forth by a frustrated college student in desperate need of something to stand for.
Click on the link for the rest of this commentary by Renee Ordway in The Bangor Daily News.
[I’m a little surprised Maine troopers didn’t already have the AR-15 given the kind of firepower criminals tend to pack. I hope these weapons cause people in a faceoff with troopers to simply give up and take the consequences of whatever it was that caused the troopers to be called in the first place. The AR-15 is an effective weapon in the hands of a trained police officer. By the way, a derivative of the AR-15 is the M-16 used by the U.S. military. — KM]
Maine State Police troopers will be issued 105 new assault weapons that are much more powerful than the rifles they have been using.
The Legislature approved the purchase of the AR-15 assault rifles, manufactured by Bushmaster at the company’s plant in Windham. The new weapons cost a total of $76,191.
Why the need for greater firepower? Mike Edes, president of the Maine State Troopers Association, said “almost nobody” in the department has confidence in their Ruger carbine rifles, the 9 mm weapons that the AR-15s are replacing.
“My analogy is this: I’m a deer hunter. I would not go hunting with a 9mm for deer,” Edes said. “So why would I want to be protected against a person that has another firearm, and wants to kill me and is coming after me, and rely on a gun I wouldn’t even go deer hunting with?”
The guns are being paid for with a combination of drug enforcement money and state funds, said Rep. Paulette Beaudoin, D-Biddeford.
Click on the lick for the rest of this story by Meredith Goad in today’s Portland Press Herald.
And here is a link to the Bangor Daily News version of the story, which seems to be better written. Here is the link to “State police to receive new AR-15 assault rifles” | Bangor Daily News
Mitchell Montpetit, who graduated high school with me – Ashland Community High School, Class of 1980 Go Hornets! – may have summed up Maine for this time of year. This is his Facebook post from yesterday.
In a 4 hour period today I went from sunny and warm, to windy and rainy, then into a snow shower and ended it all by being bit by a mutant blackfly that only got mad when i smacked it, you’ve got to love Maine!
Actually, I do love Maine and for some of the very reasons in Mitch’s post.
Posted in Education and Schools, Environment, Maine, Outdoors
Tagged Ashland Community High School, blackfly, Facebook, Maine, Mitchell Montpetit, snow shower
Letters From Away 