Letters to the editor have gained a lot of attention from our online audience in the past week.  

Donna Helwig’s letter titled “Stop Promoting Envy” saw 17 lively comments. Helwig, of Auburn, argued in part …  “If (President) Obama really cared about women, he would be creating good jobs with higher wages so women would not have to worry about how they were going to feed, clothe and house their children.”

Jillian Campbell of Wilton responded with a post titled, “Just Saying”: “I would just like to point out that 4.1 million private-sector jobs have been added since Obama took office. The problem is obviously not fixed, but it’s a damn good start. Considering how long it took for things to hit rock bottom … it’s probably going to take a while to get things back to normal.”

A letter from Dr. Edward Walworth of Lewiston titled, “Embrace national health plan,” saw 33 people comment.  

Walworth wrote, “Whenever I hear the label ‘socialist’ applied to ‘Obamacare,’ I wonder if those people using those terms realize that all other industrial First-World countries that have universal, government-supported health care are democracies.” 

Among those writing in response was Al Pelletier of Norway.  

In part, Pelletier wrote: “Well said Dr. Walworth, I couldn’t agree more. Malpractice suits, obscene profits, more then obscene costs for medical procedures, health insurance company rip-offs and on and on describes what we have now. It’s time for more than Obamacare; it’s time to overhaul our whole, out-of-control, health care situation.”

Meanwhile, a Sun Journal editorial titled, “Accepting a higher good in overflights,” which argued the occasional disturbance from the noise of military jets training over Western Maine was justified in the name of national defense, earned a long stream of responses online.

“Just the other night I woke to the sound of a large, deep buzzing overhead. It was the LifeFlight helicopter returning to Central Maine Medical Center,” wrote Jason Theriault of Auburn. “I wasn’t annoyed by the noise, I said a quiet little prayer for the people being helped by it. You know, they did a study about the health effects of wind turbines and found that most of the stuff reported could be attributed to the people being annoyed by the windmills, not the windmills themselves.

So stop being annoyed … “

But Bert Lambert of Phillips disagreed with Theriault and the editorial, writing, “The veracity of your entire editorial is exposed by this ignorant iteration of falsehoods. Modern air warfare is conducted by smart bombs. The pilot only needs known coordinates of the target and can be miles away from the target (out of harm’s way) and going in the opposite direction at safe high altitudes, fire the bomb and hit the target within three feet. He might not even see the explosion …”

Fans of the Sun Journal’s Facebook page were also weighing in on stories in the news this week. 

A story about local actor and TV doctor Patrick Dempsey helping rescue a teenager involved in a real-life car wreck fetched kudos and congratulations on the social media site. Jaric Fontaine of Auburn posted: “He’s a Mainer. What else would you expect?” 

Pat Malcolm of Lewiston agreed: “No surprise here, the man is a class act, as anyone in the Lewiston area can tell you,” she posted.

Have your say and get your voice heard on the Web and in print. Register to comment online at www.sunjournal.com.

Some comments have been edited for length, grammar and spelling.

sthistle@sunjournal.com

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