The level our political and public figures go to avoid making sound judgments on behalf of the citizens they represent amazes me.

The governor made a sound fiscal decision to revamp the education system in Maine. Calling for regional consolidation and the elimination of levels of management was an idea whose time had come long ago.

As a boy, I can remember adults around me complaining about the amount of money going into the education system. As an adult, I realize it is not teacher’s pay bankrupting my neighbors; it is the lack of sound judgment in Augusta.

Writers such as Dr. Thomas Shields like to beat the partisan drum. That inability to see the whole picture stagnates us locally, and nationally.

Sound science is telling us our world is in crisis. Global warming is real, yet the nation’s leaders protect special interest groups. My children will have to deal with the lack of sound judgment.

Finally, while exercising their right to assemble and protest a war that never should have happened, the Rev. Douglas Taylor was quoted by the Sun Journal as calling the protesters “un-patriotic” and “acting for the devil.”

Last I knew, we prayed in church to end war, death and violence of any kind, and the Constitution gave me the right to do both. Those are not Democrat or Republican issues. They are human issues; Maine issues.

It’s time for Maine’s leaders to step up or step aside.

David Marquis, Lewiston