I write in sympathy with the letter from Marilyn Burgess, May 31, titled “Raving mad.” She writes: “I see my country disintegrate into a pretense of morality, while those in power appear to have no sense of morality.”

At 83, I have reasonably clear recollections of 13 presidencies, from Herbert Hoover’s onward, but I’ve never before witnessed on the part of our government such thoughtless arrogance in international affairs and such blatant disregard for the needs of our less fortunate citizens. George W. Bush and his administration are leading us toward an oligarchy, a government where a consortium of the very wealthy, seeking more wealth and more power for themselves, control the destinies of everyone else.

For the first time in my life, I fear for my country. More than ever I see the need for all of us to put aside prejudice and party affiliation, and to inform ourselves. Too many seem not to know what’s happening here and abroad.

When a corporation can manipulate legislators into accepting its terms in opposition to the well-being of the state’s inhabitants (I refer to the debate over clean water standards for Androscoggin River), I fear that our state government has been infected with the same disease that afflicts our federal government. We must demand that our elected officials in Augusta and in Washington serve the people who elect them and not the backers who finance them.

Maurice C. Fillion, Lewiston