On Monday, Gov. Paul LePage stated “The French (Canadians) were the slaves of Maine,” something he hoped would show his sympathies with the descendants of real slaves, I suppose.
However, slavery is a whole different thing than discrimination.
Once again, his mouth and brain acted in tandem — he doesn’t know what he is talking about but says things anyway.
That the French Canadians were discriminated against, as well as all Catholics in New England (and probably throughout the U.S.), is certainly true. That the Ku Klux Klan demonstrated against Catholic and Jewish immigrants is well known.
However, slavery is bondage (the governor could look that up). Discrimination is not.
The governor should apologize.
My father was a first generation American. He and his Catholic parents were never slaves. To characterize French-Canadians as such is an insult to the descendants of slaves.
Vickie Rogers, Otisfield
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