a good read

I copied this from a citizen who attended the oxford town hall meeting last thursday where the gov. amd company attended.
It’s a tough job to be Governor of Maine, whether Republican or Democrat. How to address the plethora of issues that concern our Maine citizens is a job for a Wizard. Yet, my jaw dropped last night at the “Town Hall” forum when our current Governor Paul Le PLe Pageiped a chubby hand across the most crucial issues facing the Oxford Hills.

When Jerrold Mason, from West Paris, stood up to speak about the well-known death of his daughter Rebeca, who was the victim of a drunk-driving accident, the crowd fell silent. Without remorse or acknowledgment, Le Page cleanly shifted the conversation to recent rumors concerning his own drunk-driving adventures. To get everyone laughing as Jerrold Mason sadly took his seat, Le Page created a fantastical tale about handcuffing his security guard, taking the wheel of the car, and “swerving to avoid Bigfoot and Elvis Presley” as he did 100mph down the highway. Somewhere in the disconnected and uncomfortable silence, he incited the Easter Bunny (that is not a joke).

When the best of our local educators, Doris Ray, stood up with a question about adult education and the loss of funding for MPBN, Le Page again joked his way out of responsibility and credibility by pointing his hammy hand of guilt at “welfare.” His old, tired line was that he had to cut funding for adult education because he had to “pay for welfare.” There was no discussion of the systematic oppression of minorities, or the poor working class of Mainers (the majority). As an 11th generation Mainer with a college education, and still poor, standing up alongside retired Naval Veterans, educators, and ministers, all of who also wanted policy change, boy did I feel the pulse of Republican classism coming from the welfare son himself, Paul Le Page.

I am all for reforming welfare. As a social worker, I have personally watched junkies buying flat-screen televisions and video games from their welfare and unemployment checks. I get it, and so do you. But that does not represent all of us, the working class majority, who still need support during tough times, who are not able to afford adequate health care, who are not trying to get rich by exploiting our children’s land, but are actually planning for a sustainable future for our children. Le Page clearly doesn’t give a fraction of interest about the real Maine working class, and certainly not those doing the hard work towards sustainability with little or no funding at all.

At this “Town Hall” forum I sat one row down from cigar-drenched belly-laughs, and when Le-Page mentioned General-Assistance offices in Maine that were being unexpectedly closed by his order, I got a full whiff of condescension. As the forum ended, one of these same well-dressed attendees, who had identified themselves as politicians, mentioned to his colleagues, “that was fun.” Were they referring to Jerrold Mason standing to speak about his dead daughter? Were they talking about me, sitting in front of them, in my own threadbare jacket as I endured abuse about not having a real job? Were they talking about LePage’s intention to cut our own well-loved superintendent Rick Colpitt’s job, along with all other superintendents in Maine? I was unsure what the belly-laughs were about, but no doubt that they were well-funded belly-laughs. And that’s why we can’t afford welfare.
My heart goes out to the parent who lost a child to a drunk driving accident. And I can relate to the author when she brands the governor as the poster child of welfare. But childhood memories flash back as I remember Dads words "no matter what you do,where you go ,or what you accomplish never forget your roots" otherwise it was all for naught!(nothing to you younguns)
Of course we have a small percentage of welfare fraud! Of course we have more demand than we have resources! But do we need lack of respect? do you realize how many millionaires we have in this state? I mean how many of you have ever put a $100 in the salvation army xmas bucket? I have ! many times! and I'm far from wealthy! and this is the first time I have made that donation public.
LA Pepe Needs a tudor to teach him how to express himself so as not to alienate those he is suppose to represent. He is course ,callous, and to into himself to be sucessfull... if he fails the state fails.. this is not a game of I win! this is real life with real people who expect a leader not a blowhard!