In response to Warren Packard’s letter Dec. 20, I would like to make the following comments: He makes the statement, “There is a limit to just how much we can afford to make the (Androscoggin River) water cleaner.”

What is the difference between that statement and another that says, “There is a limit to how healthy my child can be?”

The thinking that sustains both these statements is that industry has to pollute, and my child has to eat junk food.

Packard should know that there are mills in Europe where the water coming from the mill’s water treatment plant is cleaner than the water entering the plant.

His kind of thinking prevents this country from being the best it can be. I see it in those who say it’s not OK to discriminate, but don’t pass a law that ensures rights because what we have is good enough. Don’t make health care really available to all because what we have is good enough. Don’t expand Head Start to include more children because what we have is good enough.

I see it in the attitude of people who go to church and quote from the New Testament and then decide war is good enough.

I see it in politicians who say they are “compassionate conservatives,” and then vote in a huge tax cut for the very wealthiest people, while at the same time they slash funding for the needy who, they say, have it good enough.

Jenny Orr, West Paris