As impossible as it seems, it was in high school 30 years ago that I first noticed a quote by Kurt Vonnegut in his classic “Slaughterhouse-Five”: “America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly poor, and poor Americans are urged to hate themselves.”
I can’t help but think of that quote reading news today that President Trump has eliminated the staffing for the federal heating assistance program. This is, of course, a backdoor way of eliminating the program entirely.
President Trump got thousands of votes in rural, poor, cold Maine. There is a very real chance that a lot of those people, their friends and family, will be losing their heating assistance. What will they do? There’s six months to sort things out, and perhaps decency will prevail over DOGE. One thing is, however, guaranteed. To quote a more contemporary classic, “Game of Thrones”: “Winter is coming.”
Jeremy Smith
Old Orchard Beach
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Join the Conversation
We believe it’s important to offer commenting on certain stories as a benefit to our readers. At its best, our comments sections can be a productive platform for readers to engage with our journalism, offer thoughts on coverage and issues, and drive conversation in a respectful, solutions-based way. It’s a form of open discourse that can be useful to our community, public officials, journalists and others. Read more...
We do not enable comments on everything — exceptions include most crime stories, and coverage involving personal tragedy or sensitive issues that invite personal attacks instead of thoughtful discussion.
For those stories that we do enable discussion, our system may hold up comments pending the approval of a moderator for several reasons, including possible violation of our guidelines. As the Maine Trust’s digital team reviews these comments, we ask for patience.
Comments are managed by our staff during regular business hours Monday through Friday and limited hours on Saturday and Sunday. Comments held for moderation outside of those hours may take longer to approve.
By joining the conversation, you are agreeing to our commenting policy and terms of use. More information is found on our FAQs.
You can modify your screen name here.
Show less
Join the Conversation
Please sign into your CentralMaine.com account to participate in conversations below. If you do not have an account, you can register or subscribe. Questions? Please see our FAQs.