So now, just a few weeks before the election, our governor has decided he will not buy highly discounted fuel oil from Venezuela for the most needy Mainers just because that country’s president called President George W. Bush “the devil.”

How incredibly noble to make a decision such as this, when he will stay warm all winter.

If this oil sale came with a caveat of support toward Venezuela or its president’s beliefs or ideals, it would be one thing. It does not. None of the major oil companies who have reaped record profits over the last year have stepped forward to match this offer.

I grew up on a grain farm in the 1970s, when every mismove by the U.S.S.R. resulted in a grain embargo – a burden that was born squarely on the backs of hard-working farmers. Many farms did not survive.

To place this burden on our most needy and vulnerable citizens is unconscionable.

Pete Alberda, Lewiston