“Why does anyone need assistance to commit suicide? There are plenty of weapons, tall buildings, high bridges, closed garages with motors running, heroin and sleeping pills, to name a few commonly employed methods that have been successful.”

Rep. Thomas Shields made this observation in a letter to a young constituent. The obvious question is: Why would he?

There is no acceptable answer.

Mike Simpson lives in Auburn and mailed Shields a well-researched and polite letter suggesting that Maine adopt a law permitting physician-assisted suicide. The response he got from the representative was anything but polite or reasonable.

Shields, a doctor, a Republican and a Christian, doesn’t support physician-assisted suicide. He has, he wrote Simpson, toyed with the theory of legislator-assisted suicide.

Constituents could, he suggested, “simply ask your legislator to supply you with a loaded weapon so you can blow your brains out; simple, efficient, but a little messy.”

However, he went on, Shields doesn’t “know many legislators who want to be put in that position of responsibility.”

These are the sentiments of an elected official delivered to a 17-year-old student who wrote to Shields as part of a classroom project.

Shields defended his letter as personal views expressed in a personal communication to the student. Not so.

The letter was drafted on official House of Representatives letterhead. It was a response to a formal request for consideration of legislation. The student’s letter may have been delivered to Shields’ home, but there was nothing private about this communication. It was official business and Shields acted poorly in his official capacity as a state legislator.

No matter what his personal feelings, Shields is an elected official and everything he does reflects on the people of District 72.

Shields owes Simpson more than an apology. We suggest the representative make an appearance at Edward Little High School and give his full attention and official respect to Simpson and his peers, some of whom are old enough to vote.


Public policy 101


Rod Paige is the nation’s secretary of education, the man responsible for implementing policy in public schools.

A man who believes, “all things being equal, I would prefer to have a child in a school where there’s a strong appreciation for values, the kinds of values that I think are associated with the Christian communities, so that this child can be brought up in an environment that teaches them to have strong faith.”

His reasoning, he argues, is that Christian schools operate under set and like values. Public schools are problematic because there are “many different kids with different kinds of values,” he said.

That’s right. Kids are different. Families are different. This country is full of differences and public schools have a duty to accept and educate students of hugely diverse backgrounds, behaviors, dreams and goals.

Should public schools expect students to behave? Absolutely.

Should students be expected to act in concert because of shared Christian faith? Absolutely not.

Not in a nation founded on the very principle of religious freedom.


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