As a veteran, I am no less than thrilled to see that a Veterans Administration clinic will be built in Lewiston. My enthusiasm was extinguished when I read that the $20 million construction project was awarded to a Wisconsin-based builder, as was a similar Bangor project.

Surely there is a Maine-based construction firm that can perform identical work.

The system is broken and that just represents one of the latest examples of what is wrong.

Nov. 2 cannot come too soon.

Joseph Wax, Oxford