Tim Sample and other Maine humorists have often portrayed a conversation between an out-of-stater and rural Mainer:
“Excuse me, but have you lived here all your life?”
“Not yet.”
“Uh, OK. So, does this road go to Bangor?”
“Pretty much stays right where it is.”
“But can I take this road to Bangor?”
“Why not? Looks like you got everythin’ else.”
“Alright, so how do you get to Bangor?”
“Most of the time I let my brother-in-law take me.”
“Look, what’s the best way to get to Bangor?”
“You walkin’ or drivin’?”
“Driving!”
“That’d be the best way …”
Maine humor — so logical. And Maine logic — so pure. And hats off to Dwight Murphy, who expressed that pure Maine logic, all kidding aside, in his letter about being “Tired of special interest groups” (Sun Journal, July 21).
He believes and verbalized what many Mainers feel: that, apparently, it’s the long-time residents who are expected to change for the immigrants when it should be the other way around. That if we went to their countries, those countries wouldn’t change. And that, “most of the elected officials in Augusta should be impeached, not the governor,” because they want to give the immigrants carte blanche for two whole years through the taxpayers’ wallets. “Why don’t legislators just give immigrants a lifetime of no taxes and double mine?” he asks.
I thank Murphy for his great example of pure Maine logic and insight. It is high time that elected officials stop this “free” ride at taxpayers’ expense.
David Theriault, Rumford
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