25 years to break it in
Bangor Daily News, Thursday, October 22, 2015 OpEd, A7
Question 1 We all have a responsibility to call out racism won’t serve everyday people
O
I
n an editorial published Wednesday, the Bangor Daily News called for the passage of Question 1, saying the referendum’s passage will “keep politics the domain of everyday people.” Giving politicians tens of thousands of dollars in hard-earned, taxpayer money and requiring virtually no effort to get it gives power to “everyday people” in politics? News to me. Here I thought it was a gift to the political aristocracy in Maine that they will use to dramatically increase the number of robocalls, junk mail pieces, and radio and MATTHEW television commer- GAGNON cials used to harass me every election season. To say nothing of free laptops and “ election parties.” The argument that we are somehow ruled by a group of oligarchs, and that so-called “Clean Election” laws — including a dramatic increase in funding for those laws — will somehow return our politics to the hands of “the people” has always been a fabrication. The 118th House of Representatives in Maine was sworn in Dec. 4, 1996, the year the Clean Election law passed. According to the House’s own records, the members consisted of 20 teachers and three education administrators, 16 businesspeople, seven lawyers, seven self-employed, four farmers, three social workers, two lobstermen, five health care workers, five workers in pulp and paper, three who worked in forestry, three homemakers and 32 retirees. Ninety-six had previous legislative experience for a combined legislative service of 340 years, and the average age of members was 50.1 years. So, two decades later, what have we gotten for our investment in Clean Elections? Well, the current membership of the State House is composed of 19 businesspeople, 13 educators, six education administrators, 10 health care workers, seven self-employed, six lawyers, three farmers, three carpenters, three consultants, two photographers, two workers in pulp and paper, two in logging and forestry, and 26 retirees. Ninety-eight members had previous legislative experience — more than in 1996, and that is with the institution of term limits! They have a combined experience of 453 years in the Legislature and an average age of 54.2 years. So, the Legislature has gotten older, with more politicians serving a lot longer (term limits!) in total and with fewer teachers and blue-collar workers, and fewer people born in Maine or the communities they represent? Public financing of politicians sure did help bring politics back to the people, didn’t it? And they want more of your money to run campaigns? The truth is, political fundraising at the local level has always been not only small, but a vehicle for engaging your community. Local state representatives are not getting giant checks from billionaires trying to buy off votes. Almost to a person, they are from small contributions given to local candidates that come as a result of networking, bean suppers, church dinners, doorto-door campaigning and engagement with the community. I challenge you to go to the website for theMaineCommissiononGovernmental Ethics and Election Practices, actually search through the campaign filings for House and Senate candidates, and look at what contributions they are getting. I can save you the time, if you like. You will find a House candidate getting checks for $25, $35, $50 or $100 from people who are in the community. Occasionally you might see a donation from a fellow state legislator. From time to time, you might see a small contribution from the local Democratic or Republican town committee, which raises its money locally in the community as well. No state legislator is selling his or her soul for $50. More importantly, though, the practice of networking and talking to constituents, trying to get their support and speaking to what they care about so they can be engaged enough to invest in your campaign is a vitally important part of local politics. Fundraising isn’t evil, it is actually an expression of how hard a candidate is working to reach the people, and how much their message is resonating with the public. That is the scourge that public financing attempts to snuff out and that proponents of Question 1 want to ensure is utterly destroyed. To do it, they have sold you a lie and created a false mythology, trying to scare you into shoveling millions of dollars of your own money down your own throat every election day. As the editorial I mentionedearlieritselfmadeplain,“Question 1 won’t excise money from politics.” It will make it worse, and it won’t make the Legislature any better in the process. So let’s not bother.
Matthew Gagnon of Yarmouth is the chief executive officer of the Maine Heritage Policy Center, a free market policy think tank based in Portland. A Hampden native, he previously served as a senior strategist for the Republican Governors Association in Washington, D.C.
vert racism is having its heyday in politics. Oh, sure, most politicians stick with code words — “dog whistles,” they’re sometimes called — to thinly disguise racist comments meant to appeal to white voters while offering a bit of deniability. But the code has been broken, and racism is right out in the open. Amazingly, its practitioners seem deaf to the sounds of their own words and the hatefulness of their actions. Or maybe they just don’t care. The anger and the political advantage are too great for them to be held back. Joe Dunne, the Lewiston property owner who hung racist signs attacking mayoral candidate Ben Chin, doesn’t care what anybody else says. He’s mad, and he’ll say what he pleases. Lewiston Mayor Bob Macdonald, one of Chin’s opponents, has made an appalling habit of attacking immigrants and low-income families. He’s as subtle as a brick through a window. He doesn’t care what you think about it. Gov. Paul LePage has stoked the flames of resentment, invoking imagery of race, saying President Barack Obama “hates white people” and that immigrants bring disease to the country. He
says he tells it like it is, regardless of whose feelings get hurt. And he doesn’t care what anyone says. And then there’s “ welfare,” the biggest code word of all. Despite the fact that there are more white people who receive public assistance than Af- DAVID rican-Americans FARMER or other minorities, “welfare” undeniably is wrapped up with racism. As Time magazine wrote in 2012 while covering President Obama’s re-election: “These code words are ancient racial stereotypes in slick, modern gear. They are linguistic mustard gas, sliding in covertly, aiming to kill black political viability by allowing white politicians to say ‘Don’t vote for the black guy’ in sociallyacceptable language.” Dunne’s attack on Chin combines overt racism — with its caricature of an Asian man and by referring to Chin as Ho Chi Chin, presumably a reference to North Vietnamese communist leader Ho Chi Minh — and the clandestine “welfare” dog whistle. (After the attacks, I made a contribution to Chin’s campaign.) And the Maine Republican
Party has added heat to the race, attacking Chin with a website cloaked in racist imagery, trying to play upon fear. So ingrained have appeals to race become even the campaign against Question 1 on the statewide ballot has invoked race. Question 1 would help to get the money out of state politics and increase transparency and accountability in elections. Republican Rep. Joel Stetkis, a leading opponent of Question 1 , used race as one reason to vote against election reform. And the entire opposition frames the question as “welfare for politicians,” using their all-purpose, go-to attack on election reform, trying desperately to weaken an overwhelmingly popular effort. When asked about it by WGME-TV, Stetkis said he didn’t mean any harm. Support the referendum — which I do — or hate it, the appeal to racism by its opponents is the worst of politics. While the modern day practitioners of race politics reside mostly in the Republican Party, not all Republicans play along. In a recent op-ed in the Portland Press Herald, Lance Dutson, a highly respected Republican operative, called out members of his party for using race to try to win elections. It’s very easy for me to call out Republicans for their misdeeds.
I’m a partisan Democrat. But it takes real courage for other Republicans to take on the issues within their party. As Dutson wrote, “The vast majority of Republicans I know in Maine are not racist, and they aren’t swayed by race-based politics. However, as a longtime Republican activist, I’m deeply disturbed by a growing pattern of race baiting emerging from a small but highly visible group of Republicans that threatens to tarnish the reputation of our party.” I believe Dutson is right. Most Republicans aren’t racist. But his call to action is on the money. “As the party of Lincoln and in a state known for the courage and moral clarity of our past Republican luminaries, it is our responsibility to speak out against the moral ugliness of race baiting, regardless of the political consequences.” Republican, Democrat, Green or independent, we all have a responsibility to speak out against ugliness and racism when we see it in our opponents and when we see it in our friends.
David Farmer is a public affairs, political and media consultant in Portland, where he lives with his wife and two children. He was senior adviser to Democrat Mike Michaud’s campaign for governor.
TODD NELSON
I
New school year with new car smell: 25 years to break it in
t’s October, but it’s still a new school year for us all: teachers, parents and students. For some of us, it’s also a new year in a new school — or the very first school year ever. At any rate, we’re all driving “this year’s model” off the showroom floor. Here’s a school principal’s metaphor to help us think about what comes next: Thank you for making [Insert your school name here] Motors your family’s car company. Yes, we are your new car. However, we are actually an old car, with millions of safe miles behind us and thousands of (mostly) satisfied customers. But for you, we are brand new. We smell great. We’re still under factory warranty: tuned up, driving every bit like the car you imagined, getting the gas mileage you hoped for. You haven’t even checked the owner’s manual, nor filled up your second tank of gas. Your kids have not yet put their muddy feet on the back of the seat. You haven’t changed the oil — yet. You look marvelous in your new car. But I must prepare you for the following fact: There is going to come a day when your new car will get that first ding. Someone in the proverbial parking lot will let a shopping cart hit your driver’s side door and chip the paint. A bird will poop on the hood. You’ll park under a tree that drops sticky sap on it. You’ll hit a bump in the road and jostle the passengers. You’ll spill something on the front seat and lose gummy bears down the defroster vent. Your children will change the preset radio station buttons.
OP ART BY GEORGE DANBY
Try as we might to control your total driving experience, here at Your School Motors, there are many, many factors of this ride that actually are forces beyond our control or that we will have to analyze together to understand and mitigate. And appreciate. Mostly appreciate, because the fuel and momentum here is the mojo of childhood and learning. And a sense of joy for the ride. This is a driving experience, after all. We are going somewhere. I expect that you are going to suddenly realize that maintenance, steering, navigating,
washing and vacuuming are required to keep this car looking shiny and new. Your new car is going to get dirty. Don’t be disappointed. Be prepared. Don’t despair. This is normal. And hopefully your friends will say, “That’s a great car! You’re going to get 250,000 miles out of it — easy.” Fact of life and law of thermodynamics caveat: There’s a break-in period for anything new. The time and distance between being smitten in the showroom, kicking the tires or starting the real driving relationship under actual road conditions will vary for each driver.
Don’t worry if you are unaccustomed to manual transmission; it’s standard with this package — you don’t want automatic. You have made an informed and intelligent purchase and are paying a fair price for your new education vehicle. Your new school experience can give you years of trustworthy, loyal, wise service. Hopefully you and your children or students will come to feel like the luckiest of passengers and drivers — that your new school will get you where you want to go. Life offers very few such commitments to product and process. The break-in process should be concluded by the time your car is, say, 25 years old, and miles away from school. So it goes. Did I mention that you got the model with the turbocharged 6.0 litre V8, chrome rims, sunroof, moonroof, leather upholstery, satellite radio, mini-fridge, sound proofing between front and rear seats, seat warmers, deluxe racing paint job — at no additional cost — and a million-mile warranty? And a trailer hitch! But please remember it’s really about the drivetrain: the power plant, transmission, gearing ratios, torque for all of life’s experiences — the open road ahead. You will be “good to go” on any road. Full speed ahead. Well, not full speed — actually, watch the speed bumps, stay alert, do not attempt to drive when tired and cranky. Keep it under 15 mph on our road during school hours. Change the oil every 3,000 miles. Look both ways twice when you turn left out the driveway. See you further on down the road.
Todd R. Nelson is principal of the Brooksville Elementary School.
ARIELLE GREENBERG
Denying rights to prisoners undercuts liberties for all
I
moved my family to Maine several years ago largely because I see it as a place where humane treatment of all beings is a shared value. I’m appalled to think our state’s prison system might adopt unjust and detrimental policies that would greatly restrict inmates’ communications with the outside world. I am a poet and a professor of literature and writing. I have taught in colleges and other settings for many years. I’ve had the opportunity to teach through the University College-Rockland program in the Maine State Prison, and I have taught creative writing as a volunteer to the women at the Southern Maine Re-entry Center. At both facilities, my students were bright and thoughtful, making enormous effort to change their lives for the better. One of the ways they were doing that was through education — specifically, writing. They universally reported that writing is a deeply nourishing, helpful, constructive activity for them. Any English professor will tell you that writing is a vital means of expression, of developing critical thinking, of learning. And many argue writing also can be a tool for healing, recovery and personal
growth: The 90-year old PEN America Center works “to ensure that people everywhere have the freedom to create literature, to convey information and ideas, to express their views, and to make it possible for everyone to access the views, ideas, and literatures of others.” Founded in 1971, its Prison Writing Program “believes in the restorative, rehabilitative power of writing” and actively encourages and helps prisoners to write and publish their work. My own fifth-grade daughter and children around our nation read Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” a landmark essay on civil rights written on scraps of paper while King was incarcerated. Schools teach “Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau about his own arrest and imprisonment. When I taught literature in the prison, we read from Eldridge Cleaver’s “Soul on Ice,” written while Cleaver was in Folsom State Prison in California. These are considered vital American texts, groundbreaking treatises from the front lines of American politics and society and excellent pieces of thinking in writing. So it seems incredibly unwise — and unAmerican — to change the disciplinary policy in the Maine prisons
to prevent and punish prisoners for writing for publication. The new News Media policy disallows prisoners from publishing, posting or offering any news of their lives or situations, “directly or indirectly.” Furthermore, the new policy that makes it a Class B offense to write to anyone on the outside — to “solicit a pen pal or communicate with a pen pal” — is downright inhumane. Being able to have some contact with the outside world, the chance to communicate with another soul through writing, is healthy. As social justice journalist Maya Schwenar writes, “My conversations, correspondences, and relationships with prison-torn families have taught me that separation breeds more separation, that the coldness and isolation of prison breed the coldness and isolation of violence. [Whereas] letters between pen pals are almost always exchanged for the … purpose … of connection.” Aren’t we trying to make a more connected, empathic, articulate population? A more aware, better educated citizenry? Aren’t we trying to help prisoners rejoin society in positive ways once they are out? And don’t we want to know what goes on for those living inside our jails and prisons? Isn’t it our right
as Americans to know how our justice systems are working? How will we know that if prisoners are not allowed to tell us? We pride ourselves on freedom of speech in this country and on freedom of the press. When we hear of novelists and poets being jailed in other countries for their political work, we as Americans are horrified — and rightly so. So why would we want to follow in the footsteps of fascist and fundamentalist governments here in Maine? Aren’t we a democracy? By denying these rights to Americans in prison, we are severely undercutting the liberties of all. Instead of punish prisoners for writing about their experiences, let’s continue to encourage them to do so, as so many national and local programs do all over the country and have done for decades. Please, let’s not further strip our prisoners of their humanity and their self-expression. These are the tools that keep them sane, productive and on the right path. I urge the state of Maine not to implement these policy changes.
Arielle Greenberg Bywater is a poet and author of creative nonfiction who lives in Belfast.
Question 1 We all have a responsibility to call out racism won’t serve everyday people
O
I
n an editorial published Wednesday, the Bangor Daily News called for the passage of Question 1, saying the referendum’s passage will “keep politics the domain of everyday people.” Giving politicians tens of thousands of dollars in hard-earned, taxpayer money and requiring virtually no effort to get it gives power to “everyday people” in politics? News to me. Here I thought it was a gift to the political aristocracy in Maine that they will use to dramatically increase the number of robocalls, junk mail pieces, and radio and MATTHEW television commer- GAGNON cials used to harass me every election season. To say nothing of free laptops and “ election parties.” The argument that we are somehow ruled by a group of oligarchs, and that so-called “Clean Election” laws — including a dramatic increase in funding for those laws — will somehow return our politics to the hands of “the people” has always been a fabrication. The 118th House of Representatives in Maine was sworn in Dec. 4, 1996, the year the Clean Election law passed. According to the House’s own records, the members consisted of 20 teachers and three education administrators, 16 businesspeople, seven lawyers, seven self-employed, four farmers, three social workers, two lobstermen, five health care workers, five workers in pulp and paper, three who worked in forestry, three homemakers and 32 retirees. Ninety-six had previous legislative experience for a combined legislative service of 340 years, and the average age of members was 50.1 years. So, two decades later, what have we gotten for our investment in Clean Elections? Well, the current membership of the State House is composed of 19 businesspeople, 13 educators, six education administrators, 10 health care workers, seven self-employed, six lawyers, three farmers, three carpenters, three consultants, two photographers, two workers in pulp and paper, two in logging and forestry, and 26 retirees. Ninety-eight members had previous legislative experience — more than in 1996, and that is with the institution of term limits! They have a combined experience of 453 years in the Legislature and an average age of 54.2 years. So, the Legislature has gotten older, with more politicians serving a lot longer (term limits!) in total and with fewer teachers and blue-collar workers, and fewer people born in Maine or the communities they represent? Public financing of politicians sure did help bring politics back to the people, didn’t it? And they want more of your money to run campaigns? The truth is, political fundraising at the local level has always been not only small, but a vehicle for engaging your community. Local state representatives are not getting giant checks from billionaires trying to buy off votes. Almost to a person, they are from small contributions given to local candidates that come as a result of networking, bean suppers, church dinners, doorto-door campaigning and engagement with the community. I challenge you to go to the website for theMaineCommissiononGovernmental Ethics and Election Practices, actually search through the campaign filings for House and Senate candidates, and look at what contributions they are getting. I can save you the time, if you like. You will find a House candidate getting checks for $25, $35, $50 or $100 from people who are in the community. Occasionally you might see a donation from a fellow state legislator. From time to time, you might see a small contribution from the local Democratic or Republican town committee, which raises its money locally in the community as well. No state legislator is selling his or her soul for $50. More importantly, though, the practice of networking and talking to constituents, trying to get their support and speaking to what they care about so they can be engaged enough to invest in your campaign is a vitally important part of local politics. Fundraising isn’t evil, it is actually an expression of how hard a candidate is working to reach the people, and how much their message is resonating with the public. That is the scourge that public financing attempts to snuff out and that proponents of Question 1 want to ensure is utterly destroyed. To do it, they have sold you a lie and created a false mythology, trying to scare you into shoveling millions of dollars of your own money down your own throat every election day. As the editorial I mentionedearlieritselfmadeplain,“Question 1 won’t excise money from politics.” It will make it worse, and it won’t make the Legislature any better in the process. So let’s not bother.
Matthew Gagnon of Yarmouth is the chief executive officer of the Maine Heritage Policy Center, a free market policy think tank based in Portland. A Hampden native, he previously served as a senior strategist for the Republican Governors Association in Washington, D.C.
vert racism is having its heyday in politics. Oh, sure, most politicians stick with code words — “dog whistles,” they’re sometimes called — to thinly disguise racist comments meant to appeal to white voters while offering a bit of deniability. But the code has been broken, and racism is right out in the open. Amazingly, its practitioners seem deaf to the sounds of their own words and the hatefulness of their actions. Or maybe they just don’t care. The anger and the political advantage are too great for them to be held back. Joe Dunne, the Lewiston property owner who hung racist signs attacking mayoral candidate Ben Chin, doesn’t care what anybody else says. He’s mad, and he’ll say what he pleases. Lewiston Mayor Bob Macdonald, one of Chin’s opponents, has made an appalling habit of attacking immigrants and low-income families. He’s as subtle as a brick through a window. He doesn’t care what you think about it. Gov. Paul LePage has stoked the flames of resentment, invoking imagery of race, saying President Barack Obama “hates white people” and that immigrants bring disease to the country. He
says he tells it like it is, regardless of whose feelings get hurt. And he doesn’t care what anyone says. And then there’s “ welfare,” the biggest code word of all. Despite the fact that there are more white people who receive public assistance than Af- DAVID rican-Americans FARMER or other minorities, “welfare” undeniably is wrapped up with racism. As Time magazine wrote in 2012 while covering President Obama’s re-election: “These code words are ancient racial stereotypes in slick, modern gear. They are linguistic mustard gas, sliding in covertly, aiming to kill black political viability by allowing white politicians to say ‘Don’t vote for the black guy’ in sociallyacceptable language.” Dunne’s attack on Chin combines overt racism — with its caricature of an Asian man and by referring to Chin as Ho Chi Chin, presumably a reference to North Vietnamese communist leader Ho Chi Minh — and the clandestine “welfare” dog whistle. (After the attacks, I made a contribution to Chin’s campaign.) And the Maine Republican
Party has added heat to the race, attacking Chin with a website cloaked in racist imagery, trying to play upon fear. So ingrained have appeals to race become even the campaign against Question 1 on the statewide ballot has invoked race. Question 1 would help to get the money out of state politics and increase transparency and accountability in elections. Republican Rep. Joel Stetkis, a leading opponent of Question 1 , used race as one reason to vote against election reform. And the entire opposition frames the question as “welfare for politicians,” using their all-purpose, go-to attack on election reform, trying desperately to weaken an overwhelmingly popular effort. When asked about it by WGME-TV, Stetkis said he didn’t mean any harm. Support the referendum — which I do — or hate it, the appeal to racism by its opponents is the worst of politics. While the modern day practitioners of race politics reside mostly in the Republican Party, not all Republicans play along. In a recent op-ed in the Portland Press Herald, Lance Dutson, a highly respected Republican operative, called out members of his party for using race to try to win elections. It’s very easy for me to call out Republicans for their misdeeds.
I’m a partisan Democrat. But it takes real courage for other Republicans to take on the issues within their party. As Dutson wrote, “The vast majority of Republicans I know in Maine are not racist, and they aren’t swayed by race-based politics. However, as a longtime Republican activist, I’m deeply disturbed by a growing pattern of race baiting emerging from a small but highly visible group of Republicans that threatens to tarnish the reputation of our party.” I believe Dutson is right. Most Republicans aren’t racist. But his call to action is on the money. “As the party of Lincoln and in a state known for the courage and moral clarity of our past Republican luminaries, it is our responsibility to speak out against the moral ugliness of race baiting, regardless of the political consequences.” Republican, Democrat, Green or independent, we all have a responsibility to speak out against ugliness and racism when we see it in our opponents and when we see it in our friends.
David Farmer is a public affairs, political and media consultant in Portland, where he lives with his wife and two children. He was senior adviser to Democrat Mike Michaud’s campaign for governor.
TODD NELSON
I
New school year with new car smell: 25 years to break it in
t’s October, but it’s still a new school year for us all: teachers, parents and students. For some of us, it’s also a new year in a new school — or the very first school year ever. At any rate, we’re all driving “this year’s model” off the showroom floor. Here’s a school principal’s metaphor to help us think about what comes next: Thank you for making [Insert your school name here] Motors your family’s car company. Yes, we are your new car. However, we are actually an old car, with millions of safe miles behind us and thousands of (mostly) satisfied customers. But for you, we are brand new. We smell great. We’re still under factory warranty: tuned up, driving every bit like the car you imagined, getting the gas mileage you hoped for. You haven’t even checked the owner’s manual, nor filled up your second tank of gas. Your kids have not yet put their muddy feet on the back of the seat. You haven’t changed the oil — yet. You look marvelous in your new car. But I must prepare you for the following fact: There is going to come a day when your new car will get that first ding. Someone in the proverbial parking lot will let a shopping cart hit your driver’s side door and chip the paint. A bird will poop on the hood. You’ll park under a tree that drops sticky sap on it. You’ll hit a bump in the road and jostle the passengers. You’ll spill something on the front seat and lose gummy bears down the defroster vent. Your children will change the preset radio station buttons.
OP ART BY GEORGE DANBY
Try as we might to control your total driving experience, here at Your School Motors, there are many, many factors of this ride that actually are forces beyond our control or that we will have to analyze together to understand and mitigate. And appreciate. Mostly appreciate, because the fuel and momentum here is the mojo of childhood and learning. And a sense of joy for the ride. This is a driving experience, after all. We are going somewhere. I expect that you are going to suddenly realize that maintenance, steering, navigating,
washing and vacuuming are required to keep this car looking shiny and new. Your new car is going to get dirty. Don’t be disappointed. Be prepared. Don’t despair. This is normal. And hopefully your friends will say, “That’s a great car! You’re going to get 250,000 miles out of it — easy.” Fact of life and law of thermodynamics caveat: There’s a break-in period for anything new. The time and distance between being smitten in the showroom, kicking the tires or starting the real driving relationship under actual road conditions will vary for each driver.
Don’t worry if you are unaccustomed to manual transmission; it’s standard with this package — you don’t want automatic. You have made an informed and intelligent purchase and are paying a fair price for your new education vehicle. Your new school experience can give you years of trustworthy, loyal, wise service. Hopefully you and your children or students will come to feel like the luckiest of passengers and drivers — that your new school will get you where you want to go. Life offers very few such commitments to product and process. The break-in process should be concluded by the time your car is, say, 25 years old, and miles away from school. So it goes. Did I mention that you got the model with the turbocharged 6.0 litre V8, chrome rims, sunroof, moonroof, leather upholstery, satellite radio, mini-fridge, sound proofing between front and rear seats, seat warmers, deluxe racing paint job — at no additional cost — and a million-mile warranty? And a trailer hitch! But please remember it’s really about the drivetrain: the power plant, transmission, gearing ratios, torque for all of life’s experiences — the open road ahead. You will be “good to go” on any road. Full speed ahead. Well, not full speed — actually, watch the speed bumps, stay alert, do not attempt to drive when tired and cranky. Keep it under 15 mph on our road during school hours. Change the oil every 3,000 miles. Look both ways twice when you turn left out the driveway. See you further on down the road.
Todd R. Nelson is principal of the Brooksville Elementary School.
ARIELLE GREENBERG
Denying rights to prisoners undercuts liberties for all
I
moved my family to Maine several years ago largely because I see it as a place where humane treatment of all beings is a shared value. I’m appalled to think our state’s prison system might adopt unjust and detrimental policies that would greatly restrict inmates’ communications with the outside world. I am a poet and a professor of literature and writing. I have taught in colleges and other settings for many years. I’ve had the opportunity to teach through the University College-Rockland program in the Maine State Prison, and I have taught creative writing as a volunteer to the women at the Southern Maine Re-entry Center. At both facilities, my students were bright and thoughtful, making enormous effort to change their lives for the better. One of the ways they were doing that was through education — specifically, writing. They universally reported that writing is a deeply nourishing, helpful, constructive activity for them. Any English professor will tell you that writing is a vital means of expression, of developing critical thinking, of learning. And many argue writing also can be a tool for healing, recovery and personal
growth: The 90-year old PEN America Center works “to ensure that people everywhere have the freedom to create literature, to convey information and ideas, to express their views, and to make it possible for everyone to access the views, ideas, and literatures of others.” Founded in 1971, its Prison Writing Program “believes in the restorative, rehabilitative power of writing” and actively encourages and helps prisoners to write and publish their work. My own fifth-grade daughter and children around our nation read Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” a landmark essay on civil rights written on scraps of paper while King was incarcerated. Schools teach “Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau about his own arrest and imprisonment. When I taught literature in the prison, we read from Eldridge Cleaver’s “Soul on Ice,” written while Cleaver was in Folsom State Prison in California. These are considered vital American texts, groundbreaking treatises from the front lines of American politics and society and excellent pieces of thinking in writing. So it seems incredibly unwise — and unAmerican — to change the disciplinary policy in the Maine prisons
to prevent and punish prisoners for writing for publication. The new News Media policy disallows prisoners from publishing, posting or offering any news of their lives or situations, “directly or indirectly.” Furthermore, the new policy that makes it a Class B offense to write to anyone on the outside — to “solicit a pen pal or communicate with a pen pal” — is downright inhumane. Being able to have some contact with the outside world, the chance to communicate with another soul through writing, is healthy. As social justice journalist Maya Schwenar writes, “My conversations, correspondences, and relationships with prison-torn families have taught me that separation breeds more separation, that the coldness and isolation of prison breed the coldness and isolation of violence. [Whereas] letters between pen pals are almost always exchanged for the … purpose … of connection.” Aren’t we trying to make a more connected, empathic, articulate population? A more aware, better educated citizenry? Aren’t we trying to help prisoners rejoin society in positive ways once they are out? And don’t we want to know what goes on for those living inside our jails and prisons? Isn’t it our right
as Americans to know how our justice systems are working? How will we know that if prisoners are not allowed to tell us? We pride ourselves on freedom of speech in this country and on freedom of the press. When we hear of novelists and poets being jailed in other countries for their political work, we as Americans are horrified — and rightly so. So why would we want to follow in the footsteps of fascist and fundamentalist governments here in Maine? Aren’t we a democracy? By denying these rights to Americans in prison, we are severely undercutting the liberties of all. Instead of punish prisoners for writing about their experiences, let’s continue to encourage them to do so, as so many national and local programs do all over the country and have done for decades. Please, let’s not further strip our prisoners of their humanity and their self-expression. These are the tools that keep them sane, productive and on the right path. I urge the state of Maine not to implement these policy changes.
Arielle Greenberg Bywater is a poet and author of creative nonfiction who lives in Belfast.
