Dear Editor:

When writing a screed, for it to be sympathetically read, stay close to fact or it will be seen as rant. Which is what fellow reader, Elizabeth Printy, has given us, rant, an unfair and prejudicial portrait in her "Farewell, Barack Obama." letter.

Notwithstanding a premium increase for 2017, Obamacare is more popular than ever with an enrollment increase of 400,000 participants, bringing national participation to 6.4 million enrollees.

And nowhere can it be found that Obamacare premiums have led to financial bankruptcy of 11.2 insured folks. So absurd is this statement one might think it written by Donald Trump.

Yes, the mid-east is a tortured, confused region, where enemies one day are allies the next, and where a super-power, attempting to lure our country into combat and needless American casualties, has rained bombs on Syrian citizens causing death and destruction of cities and homes.

Fellow reader, look to the roots of our predicament, beginning with our "shock and awe" unilateral invasion of Iraq and its baleful outcome, the rise of ISIS, following the toppling of Saddam Hussein. Look also to the cataclysmic failure of our economy when the fox, without fear of regulation, in effect but not pursued, enabled Wall St, money barons to pocket billions as American lost their homes.

Into this entanglement came Barack Obama. Given the problems he inherited, plagued by politics and race, Mr. Obama labored successfully to right our ship-of-state, raising  the nation to a climate of hope rather then the pit of despair. His grace in working through almost hopeless problems deserves our country's blessing.

And Israel? Be real, madam. With American dollars and consent by Harry Truman and the United Nations, Israel in 1948 became a carve-out state in a geographical, specifically defined area in the Mideast. This fledgling creation agreed to two specific terms, accommodate neighbors by forging a two-state nation and remain within the established boundaries accompanying statehood. Forcibly and illegally, under present leadership, Israel has violated its agreement.

Should, then, our president, instead of calling on Israel to remedy these wrongs abet this misconduct while world opinion sees Israeli actions as criminal fraud?

Paul E. McArdle

Boothbay