At this time when the voice of nearly half the country has been silenced by a slim but insidious majority, it is important to remind our legislators, no matter which side of the aisle they sit on, that it is not everyone’s mandate:

• to legislate tax reform that benefits the wealthy while neglecting the needy;

• to plunge our country into further debt;

• to enact environmental policies that favor the corporations that pollute our air and water;

• to drill for oil in environmentally sensitive areas without pursuing conservation measures and alternative energy resources;

• to write public policy based on religious tenets;

• to write federal laws that discriminate against personal freedoms;

• to place added pressures on our teachers and students without providing the funds to help our courageous teachers and students meet higher standards;

• to outsource American jobs with decent health benefits so that we can work part-time without any benefits at all;

• to appoint partisan surrogate ideologues as justices to our country’s highest court.

Democrats got out the vote and made tremendous efforts to elect a leader who speaks for the whole nation. What we got was an administration who speaks for barely half the nation. Now, it is up to all citizens to make sure our congressmen, Rep. Mike Michaud and Rep. Tom Allen, and our senators, Sen. Olympia Snowe and Sen. Susan Collins, make our voices be heard in Washington.

Elizabeth Henry, Auburn

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