Maine’s Stolen Valor Bill
Joining the recent spate of legislation from States in supporting the troops by making trying to be one illegal is Maine. Since several of our readers come from Maine, I thought you’d like to know;
Responding to a question from a committee member, the bill’s sponsor, Rep. David Johnson, R-Eddington, said he was not sure how widespread a problem bogus military claims are in Maine, but Maine National Guard officials say fake claims are spotted from time to time.
“I’d like to know that we’re solving a problem” before passing a law, said Sen. Stanley Gerzofsky, D-Brunswick, a committee member. Other committee members expressed coolness to the bill’s mandatory minimum jail sentence of nine months in some cases.
I guess Mr. Gerzofsky doesn’t believe in making stolen valor illegal BEFORE there’s a problem. With a new generation, there’s a whole new batch of potential pretenders. What’s the problem with a preemptive measure?
Category: Phony soldiers
Gerzofsky is from the next town over. I’ll send him an email and ask him nicely to get onboard with this.
I’ll also ask my own reps and senators to support it.
Stanley Gerzofsky, D-Brunswick seems to be on the wrong side of a lot of things that would be good for Maine.
Oh, and since when does the Maine legislature need a reason to pass a law? Never stopped them on the past. Can you say Nanny State really loud?
The family homestead has been in Maine since the 1670’s, but I’m a NH resident (Snowe and Collins are enough to keep me from residency). I sent Rep. Eddington an e-mail of support with the pownetwork.org link so he can answer the question regarding it being a problem or not.