Dear Editor:

This is a portion of my testimonial from a recent hearing on divesting the Maine Public Employees Retirement System of its investments in fossil fuels:

As the years go on I become more interested in the health of my retirement fund. In 2008 when Wall Street fell under the weight of its own corruption, I called the Maine Public Employees Retirement System and found out that the bulk of our pensions were invested by one company called Blackrock, formerly called Global Investments. I stated then and do now: our pension money should be held and invested here, in Maine, in a state run bank.

The economic and environmental worlds, which are ultimately one and the same, are changing in an increasingly uncontrolled, unregulated way. To my mind, the gloves are off. The way the economic gloves are off is that Wall Street (the 1 percent) are in the saddle and ride mankind. Oil companies are the richest of the rich, though you would not know that looking at the cuts to retirees pensions across this nation. Rather, with their unprecedented wealth they have bought a democracy and turned it into what verges on tyranny. I seek to stop them and so should you.

Environmentally, nature is also taking her gloves off. She cannot contain all the carbon produced by oil, gas and coal. The warning signs are all around us: the disappearing shrimp and lobster; the invasive green crab; the dying coral; the rise in ocean temperature and acidity; the melting glaciers; the growing droughts, floods and fires; the rise in hunger and thirst; the rising insurance rates and healthcare costs; the increased spending on so-called security and defense; the destruction of the remaining forests; the disappearing wildlife; and the sky high profits of big oil and Wall Street.

Every time you hear a warning sign, I want you to remember you have a chance here now to play your part, to put the brakes on — to stand up and count as one for a future that holds not an uncontrolled, unregulated economy and environment but instead promises an economy and environment that work together for the people of Maine.

Jenny Gray
Wiscasset