There is a lot of anger in the country today. People are unemployed and underemployed, services are being cut, education is going down the tubes, the states and municipalities are in dire financial shape.

Voting for change would seem to be a good thing. However, it is unhelpful to vote for candidates who promise to cut services even further; to leave health care to the free market when that route has already been proven to ignore, bankrupt and kill people; to run Maine “like a business,” ignoring the crucial difference that businesses are about profit and government is about services; and to deny the need for responsible environmental legislation.

I will vote for Libby Mitchell in November because she understands government as, ideally, a force for good in people’s lives; she listens to constituents’ needs and she understands that this planet is in danger in the absence of responsible stewardship.

Mary Hunter, Lewiston