Hope Haven mission in Lewiston deserves whatever help it can get. So do other Mainers struggling to pay for heating oil.

Why, then, does the idea that the help is coming from Venezuela bother us? Because it does.

Gov. John Baldacci has shown a strong commitment to providing heating assistance to Mainers who need it. With the Legislature’s help, he increased state funding by $5 million and launched the Keep ME Warm Charitable Fuel Fund, a private charitable organization raising additional help – with a goal of another $5 million. On Wednesday, he accepted a $1,500 donation from the Telstar Middle School Student Council. Part of the money was raised with school dances and “Spirit Week.” In total, the fuel fund has raised more than $400,000 so far.

If we can accept help from kids, surely it’s OK to accept a deep discount on oil from Venezuela.

People sitting in cold houses don’t care where the help comes from.

Maine is not the first state to accept aid from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Massachusetts and New York have cut similar deals. And Chavez’s motivation is no secret. He has a running feud with President George W. Bush and sees an opportunity to embarrass him on the world stage by offering discounted oil to states struggling with inadequate federal heating oil assistance.

Chavez is not a dictator in the purest sense. He was elected. But since taking office, he has cracked down on the media and political opponents and has made a career of rallying struggling Central and South American countries away from the United States.

Our biggest hang-up, however, isn’t Chavez’s politics. He’s no worse than the totalitarians running Russia or Saudi Arabia, other large oil-producing countries. It’s that while he plays politics with oil discounts for the world’s richest and most powerful country, his own countrymen suffer. The per capita income in Venezuela is just $5,800 a year. Unemployment is more than 17 percent, and 47 percent of the population lives in poverty.

The United States has the resources to make sure nobody freezes to death because of having to choose between heating oil and food or medicine. We don’t have to rely on help from Venezuela. It’s a choice that’s been made in Washington.

Given the choice between Hope Haven standing cold and accepting help from Chavez’s Venezuela, we’d make the same decision as the governor. You’ve got to help your own people if you can. But taking money from a country where almost half the people are poor feels slimy.