In response to Mead ’16

Letter to the editor: Vote yes on Question 1

To the Editors:
Cruelty towards both wildlife and people has no place in Maine. Chasing shy and gentle black bears through their forest home with GPS-collared hounds and then shooting these panicked bears out of a tree is not fair chase hunting; it is persecution. Any decent human being who witnessed a pack of dogs attacking a wounded bear who had been shot out of a tree would realize why Mainers are being asked to put a stop to this cruelty in our forests.
Bears are intelligent and sensitive beings. To kill them in this way should not be acceptable human behavior. Snaring black bears at a site baited with junk food and then shooting the trapped bear at point blank range is an execution and not true hunting. Baiting itself is nothing more than cheating. There is no challenge in shooting a bear while it is feeding on human junk food—that’s why many other proud hunting states have banned baiting.
Maine people have a unique opportunity to stop cruelty and injustice in our forests, while still allowing for fair chase hunting. For decency and fairness in the Maine woods, please vote yes on Question 1.
Sincerely,Robert GoldmanSouth Portland, Maine

Letter to the editor: False accusations in the Orient

To the Editors:
The members of Bowdoin Climate Action (BCA) are disappointed by the recent reporting the Orient has done regarding fossil fuel divestment. Rather than attempting to facilitate a productive conversation, the Orient accused the student group of intentionally misrepresenting student support for its own benefit. Not only is such a claim false, but it is also wrongly damaging to a student group that has actively pursued an open and productive debate on campus.
The claim that only 825 petition signatures are valid is a misconstrual of the facts. The master spreadsheet, which was supplied to President Barry Mills, contained 1,000 unique student signatures calling on the College to divest. Today this signature count is nearly 1,200. We apologize for not being clear about the discrepancy between the physical and electronic signatures.
Investigative journalism, simply by its stakes, is beholden to the highest standards of objectivity—to present the facts not only as they appear, but also in relation to the context they exist in. In this case, the Orient failed; desire to break a scandal trumped understanding and unbiased reporting.
Where objective journalism would have sought out the rationale of the so-called silenced dissent, the Orient merely asserted its existence. Likewise, with divestment, it failed to actually explore the proposal made before the Trustees—attention to the crux of the argument was replaced by a focus on those arguing.
All of us, for the sake of a constructive and intelligent discourse, owe it to each other to have this conversation with the utmost respect and understanding that Bowdoin demands of us. BCA will continue to pursue a collaborative student-faculty-Trustee effort focused on developing a responsible divestment policy, which best suits both the moral and financial obligations of the College.
Sincerely,Hugh Ratcliffe ’15Peter Nauffts ’15Clara Belitz ’17

Letter to the editor

October 30, 2014

To the Editors:

While reading Julia Mead’s article about Trader Joe’s, I found myself remembering my own trip to a somewhat similar store. Over the summer, I was lucky enough to accompany my father to the wonderland that is Costco. Like Trader Joe’s, Costco only stocks one brand of each item, though that is really where the comparison ends. See, my dad goes to Costco because he is a fiend for deals of the bulk variety.

The mistake that Julia makes is equating lack of choice within the store to lack of choice at all. Some people like Trader Joe’s for its unique products at a marked-up price (I do too, sometimes), while others prefer the ability to buy as much as they want for as little as possible.

So when I walked down the aisles of Costco marveling at my ability to buy unwieldy amounts of Kirkland Potato Chips for cheap, I swelled with pride for the American system of capitalism. I didn’t buy the chips, but I felt heartened knowing that I could. And that is why we won and they lost. That is why America is the land of the free and the home of those who eat way too many potato chips.

Sincerely,
Adam Lamont ’16

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