Dear Editor:

Congratulations to Sens. Angus King and Susan Collins for working with the “Common-Sense Caucus.” Moderation and common sense sound good. How do you apply “moderation” to the impact of decisions made by a body of people whose income far exceeds the average citizen’s income, whose access to healthcare is unquestioned, including rights to birth control medicine, and who are not negatively affected by most decisions they make?

Collins replied she appreciated the concern about conflict of interest in a federal scientific evaluator (former employee of the product’s company) they had to hire someone with scientific expertise. Does she mean there isn’t a scientist in the United States with that expertise without a conflict of interest or was this a moderation vote?

King often shares thinking processes, which is helpful for others to understand, but where is moderation or “common sense” when he wants to keep punishment accountability in the military when it comes to rape by the very officers in charge of the court panels and attorney assignments to the victims?

It is not easy to define moderation for all topics. Either public education is a good investment for a country or it is not. Either financial institutions should be accountable through regulations for activities that resemble fraud (selling of indeterminate mortgage values), or not.

“Moderate” sounds mathematical locating the “middle” or “average” or “median” ground from a spectrum of data. Ideological overlap ignores the value of facts. What are the results? A game changer is when hard work is not enough without welfare.

What is “common sense”? Does it require facts that demonstrate that the military does not punish their own for crimes of rape of a young girl taken from the arms of her sleeping mother or does it recognize that being in the military should still carry civilian court assessment and judgment criteria?

I am concerned when moderation and common sense lead us away from the best solution for the most people. Without empathy, neither common sense nor moderation work.

Jarryl Larson
Edgecomb