Editorials from around New England

Excerpts of recent editorials of statewide and national interest from New England newspapers:

The Day (Conn.), Aug. 25, 2016

Are all of you who rallied to support Donald Trump because he finally took a tough stand on immigration feeling used? You should be.

Trump outflanked his many opponents in the Republican primary in large part on the immigration issue. No one was tougher or more straight forward on that issue than The Donald.

Trump dismissed as soft candidates such as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Ohio Gov. John Kasich who called for strict immigration enforcement moving forward, while providing a path to legal status for the many millions of immigrants who came here illegally but have otherwise been law-abiding in their conduct.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who had once participated in bipartisan negotiations on such an approach, tried to run away from it, but not fast enough. Sen. Ted Cruz tried to out tough Trump on dealing with those “illegals,” but couldn’t quite get over a policy wall that Trump constructed very high.

Trump promised a “deportation force” to round up all those in the country without documentation and ship them back to their lands of origin. They were keeping jobs from good Americans and driving up crime, roared Trump.

And he would build a massive, “beautiful wall” to keep them out.

It was absurd, nasty and impracticable, but boy did it work as Trump won primary after primary.

Now the Trumpster, needing to expand his base for the general election, is having second thoughts, hinting at a plan that sounds quite similar to those promoted by vanquished foes. He’s open to “softening” his position on immigration.

Perhaps they all don’t have to go, instead “we get the bad ones out” but, as for those otherwise non-criminal undocumented immigrants, “we work with them,” Trump told Fox News hard-right conservative talk show host Sean Hannity. As people have told him, he said “to take a person who’s been here for 15 or 20 years and throw them and their family out, it’s so tough, Mr. Trump.”

“It’s a very, very hard thing,” he told Hannity about his formerly ironclad plans.

None of us has any idea what the country would get with a Trump presidency on immigration or any issue. He has no ideological core. As a businessman he has said he would financially support any politician of any political stripe if it would help him.

And for over a year now he has been saying anything he thinks can get him elected.

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Online:

https://bit.ly/2bOc3xb

The Portland Press Herald (Maine), Aug. 26, 2016

Dear America: Maine here. Please forgive us- we made a terrible mistake. We managed to elect and re-elect a governor who is unfit for high office.

He has a gruff exterior and blunt way of talking that some of us find refreshing, but he has shown again and again that he governs by grudge, and uses his power to beat up on people who cannot fight back.

You probably heard about the latest episode. He was asked about the toxic racial environment that he created in the state with insensitive statements about people of color. The questioner, an entrepreneur from New York, wondered how he could ever bring a business here.

This should have been an easy one for the governor: Maine is a state where more people hit retirement age than graduate from high school, and our traditional industries are shedding jobs. We desperately need new businesses and young people- of all races -who would be willing to move here to work.

The question was an opportunity for the governor to undo some of the damage that he has caused by giving members of minority groups around the country the impression that Maine is a white state where no one else is welcome.

Instead, the governor repeated one of his worst libels: That Maine’s drug crisis is the fault of black and brown transient thugs who come here not only to sell their poison but also to take advantage of “white Maine women.” It’s a matter of fact that heroin comes to Maine from other states- they don’t produce it here -but the governor is adamant about identifying the drug runners by race, leaving it to his audience to fill in the blanks of why that might matter.

This was not a slip of the tongue. He has said the same thing before, denied saying it, and then said it again before the latest incident. This time, he offered it as proof that the racial divide in Maine was not his fault- that it was the fault of black and Hispanic criminals that he keeps track of in a three-ring binder on his desk.

LePage knows that his words are widely understood to mean that he thinks that the color of their skin makes some people more likely to commit crimes. Rather than clarify or withdraw those statements, he repeats them.

We wish we could say that he is the only one in the state who feels that way. When LePage makes these comments, some of our fellow Mainers applaud him for defying what they consider to be oppressive political correctness.

But as a famous Mainer once said: “Rejecting the conventions of political correctness is different from showing complete disregard for common decency.”

Those words were written by Sen. Susan Collins in her denouncement of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. Like Trump, LePage is a repeat offender.

It would be nice to think that LePage would reflect on what he says and learn from these incidents, but he appears to be completely incapable of change. He will probably blame the media again for any embarrassment he suffers, but everyone has heard the tape and knows what the governor said.

On the bright side, America, LePage isn’t going to be governor forever, and when his successor takes office in 2019, Mainers of all political parties will have to work together to fix the damage he has done to our reputation. We hope that this person will be a leader who will welcome people of all races to live in Maine, and invest in our wonderful state.

Until then, please accept our apology. We’ll try not to do it again.

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Online:

https://bit.ly/2cfALK0

The Berkshire Eagle (Mass.), Aug. 25, 2016

Empowering Medicare to negotiate drug prices with manufacturers is a good way to reduce drug prices. Addressing federal market protections may be a better one.

Three Harvard-affiliated doctors asserted this week in an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association that branded drugs enjoying federal market protections are driving the bulk of US spending on prescription drugs. They point to studies showing that brand-name drugs make up 10 percent of prescriptions filled but account for 72 percent of spending on drugs.

The doctors argue that long, government-approved market exclusivity periods are the main reason prescription drug prices in the US are more than twice as high as in other Western countries. Less expensive generic pills cannot be sold until these exclusivity periods expire, which can be as long as a decade.

The major pharmaceutical companies offer their usual argument that shortening exclusivity periods will discourage investment and stifle innovation. No one is arguing the companies should not make back their investment and earn a profit. Dr. Aaron S. Kesselheim, one of the study’s authors, told The Boston Globe that drugs are priced according to what the market will bear, not on a company’s research outlays. This indicates profiteering. The companies also extend their market protection by winning patents on “new” drugs with slightly different formulations than their predecessors.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump actually agree on the need to allow Medicare, the largest U.S. health insurer, to negotiate drug prices. That should happen, and the next big step is reforming market protection and patent regulations related to drug pricing.

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Online:

https://bit.ly/2boWDzv

Concord Monitor (N.H.), Aug. 24, 2016

It may seem like New Hampshire is a long way from the white sand beaches of Florida and the Zika virus, but no place on earth is more than a few days and a credit card away.

Florida, as of Tuesday, had 42 cases of Zika. The state’s mosquito season is year-round, particularly in the semi-tropical south.

In a few short months, falling temperatures will begin sending the first of the state’s many snowbirds south. They will be followed by tourists who want to spend a few weeks where it’s warm and then by college kids on spring break. Some of them will be bitten by the mosquitoes capable of transmitting the virus, which in humans can also be transmitted by sexual contact.

Earlier this summer, Congress continued its do-nothing record by refusing to pass a bill that included $1.9 billion requested by President Obama to combat the growing Zika crisis.

The virus has caused some 270 birth defects in Puerto Rico and begun its spread across the Gulf states of America.

The Senate passed the bill, but when House Republicans got their hands on it, they did their obstructionist duty and pared the bill to $1.1 billion and added amendments they knew Democrats could not support. The cuts included money for Planned Parenthood and the Affordable Care Act.

Congress then left for vacation, leaving the National Institutes of Health and Florida’s Republican governor, Rick Scott, to fend for themselves. That is not governing, nor is it responsible.

New Hampshire’s junior senator, Republican Kelly Ayotte, supported the blackmail effort and joined fellow Republicans in blaming Democrats for not swallowing the pill. It didn’t matter, apparently, that Planned Parenthood would have used some of the money for family planning services for people at risk of contracting the disease.

The Zika virus was first discovered in Uganda in 1947, before the age of commercial air travel. It spread very slowly, but once a disease capable of causing an epidemic or pandemic gets up a head of steam it can be difficult to stop.

Speed is crucial in combating a potential epidemic. With time, the number of people and mosquitoes infected can increase exponentially.

Congress has already wasted precious time- time that guaranteed that more children would be born with abnormally small heads and brains.

The blockade also put off the day when Zika can be prevented with a vaccine and slowed research into creating an Ebola vaccine.

The discovery and spread of the Zika virus has drilled another hole in Puerto Rico’s economy by killing tourism. The southern United States could be next. Louisiana, as flood waters recede and leave standing pools, could suffer a mosquito explosion that could spread the virus even faster.

Florida’s Zika problem was worsened by the thousands of people from Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands, some of them already infected, who fled the disease.

As it spreads through the U.S. South, the same thing will happen.

Meanwhile, Congress dithers while members raise money and campaign.

Passing Zika funding legislation, minus poison pills, should be the first thing on the agenda when Congress returns. It will be another test of whether Republicans, Ayotte included, have learned to govern.

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Online:

https://bit.ly/2bmUMKl

The Providence Journal (R.I.), Aug. 24, 2016

Nobody expects a presidential campaign to be conducted by Marquis of Queensbury rules. It has long been clear that there are areas in the backgrounds of both major party candidates that lend themselves to attack advertisements. And there are plenty of issues to be exploited.

But the ridiculous campaign that the Donald Trump forces have been running about Hillary Clinton’s health is sleazy even by the low standards of politics.

On social media and through such outlets as Fox News, Trump’s surrogates have been busy suggesting darkly there is something seriously wrong with Hillary Clinton’s health- though her participation in a grueling presidential campaign schedule, including nationally televised debates and constant appearances before the public, would seem to offer rather strong proof to the contrary.

The idea seems to be to make a poisonous suggestion and hope that it sticks with low-information voters.

In particular, Trump’s advocates have focused on a clip of Clinton’s visit to a muffin shop in Washington, D.C. in June. The video shows her swarmed by reporters, thrusting microphones in her face and asking questions about her choice for vice president. She responds with an exaggerated, jerky motion of her head, holds up her cup, and responds, smiling broadly, “You’ve got to try the cold chai.”

This exchange has prompted a preposterous round of tut-tutting from Fox News personality Sean Hannity, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Trump himself, who declared Clinton “lacks the mental and physical stamina to take on ISIS.” Helpfully, his campaign spokeswoman diagnosed Clinton as suffering from dysphasia- a condition in which a person’s ability to communicate is impaired by a brain injury.

To boost their arguments, they ignore statements from Clinton’s physician, who declared her healthy. They ignore the Associated Press reporter who was present during Clinton’s visit to the muffin shop, who wrote “where I saw evasiveness, they see seizures.”

In another ridiculous ploy, a Fox News medical analyst suggested a picture of Clinton being helped up a flight of stairs months ago after she stumbled could indicate dehydration, arthritis, back pain or a fall. Of course, Clinton has jogged up countless steps since that incident.

Clinton has not been without medical problems. Three years ago, doctors used thinners at a New York hospital to dissolve a blood clot in her head, in the vein between the brain and the skull behind her right ear. Before that, Clinton had reportedly suffered from dehydration and fainted, causing a concussion. But, as doctors predicted, she seemed to have come through the procedure with no complications.

This is thin material with which to weave a conspiracy of a health crisis. Clinton fought back this week with humor, appearing on the “Jimmy Kimmel Live” TV show and opening a jar of pickles to demonstrate her sound constitution. She called the use of health rumors against her part of the “wacky strategy” of her opponent. Given the facts before us, it is hard to argue with her description.

The health of a prospective president, of course, is of legitimate public interest. Voters have a right to know whether Clinton, 68, or Trump, 70, are up to the rigors of the presidency.

But trading in mere rumors on both social media and television networks is outside the pale, and should only make growing numbers of voters conclude, as we have, that Trump lacks the character, including basic decency, to be president.

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Online:

https://bit.ly/2borCZZ

Brattleboro Reformer (Vt.), Aug. 26, 2016

Anyone who has suffered from depression or knows someone who does, has struggled with the stigma attached to the imbalance.

In 1999 the U.S. Surgeon General labeled stigma as perhaps the biggest barrier to mental health care, noted Michael Friedman Ph.D. Michael Friedman in Psychology Today. “This stigma manifests particularly in a phenomenon known as social distancing, whereby people with mental issues are more isolated from others.”

The myths that are associated with depression are numerous and, as myths go, inaccurate. They include people with depression are just feeling sorry for themselves and need to snap out of it, or that depression is nothing more than sadness. Or that depression is a sign of mental weakness, is brought on by traumatic life events or that it’s not even a real illness. Men are particularly susceptible to the myths of depression, because around the world they have been raised to believe they can’t show any weakness and are often ridiculed if they do.

One of the most distressing things about these stereotypes is that people with depression often internalize them, and fail to get the help they need to survive and thrive.

“This self-stigma will often undermine self-efficacy, resulting in a ’why try’ attitude that can worsen prospects of recovery,” noted Friedman. “This stigma doesn’t just worsen outcomes on a personal level, but also complicates the care and resources available to people with mental illness.”

And to make matters worse, people with depression are often ostracized, victims of social distancing, by friends and family members that also fall victim to the stereotypes related to the disease. “It has long been understood that social isolation is associated with poor mental and physical health outcomes and even early mortality- ’the lethality of loneliness,’” wrote Friedman.

Many people who get help require a combination of drugs and cognitive therapy, but for up to one-third of people who suffer from depression, medication has no positive effects. But recent research has shown there might be new hope for those people and all people who suffer from depression.

“Recent history is telling us if we want to make therapeutic breakthroughs in an area which remains incredibly important in terms of disability and suffering then we’ve got to think differently,” Prof. Ed Bullmore, the head of psychiatry at the University of Cambridge, told the BBC.

Bullmore’s focus is on a malfunctioning immune system causing inflammation in the body and altering mood. “Depression and inflammation often go hand in hand, if you have flu, the immune system reacts to that, you become inflamed and very often people find that their mood changes too,” he told the BBC. “Their behavior changes, they may become less sociable, more sleepy, more withdrawn.”

Inflammation is part of the immune system’s response to danger, noted the BBC. “If inflammation is too low then an infection can get out of hand. If it is too high, it causes damage. About one-third of depressed patients have consistently high levels of inflammation.”

Researchers are coming round to the notion that inflammation is more than something that is found in depressed patients, and is actually causing it. Doctors and researchers who focus on mental health are now working in conjunction with those who study the diseases of an overactive immune system, such as Rheumatoid arthritis. Drugs that are given to alleviate inflammation in patients has also been shown to elevate mood.

“When we give these therapies we see a fairly rapid increase in a sense of well-being, mood state improving quite remarkably often disproportionately given the amount of inflammation we can see in their joints and their skin,” Prof. Iain McInnes, a consultant rheumatologist, told the BBC.

When it comes to depression and other mental illnesses, we need to discard the tired tropes that have not served anyone, especially those who suffer and their loved ones. This new research indicates what many of us already know- mental illness has a biological basis and with the right kind of attention, it can be treated effectively.

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Online:

https://bit.ly/2bsIdeN