KENNEBEC JOURNAL • February 16, 2021
By deciding that the public cannot enter the State House legislators have made it so there is no in-person testimony in the committees, no in-person work sessions, no press conferences, no lobbying in the halls by unpaid citizens or lobbyists. Everything is now done by Zoom! That means the segment of the population that doesn’t have the technology to video conference is out of luck. It doesn’t have to be this way. Leaders could choose to slow down the process. We have been told the pandemic will be under control in less than a year. Why not open things up when it is safer and stop fast-tracking the more controversial legislation? ~ David Trahan, former state legislator, Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine