Maine GOP responds to mural controversy..

AND a response from Poet and Educator, Lee Sharkey...

"We all need to respond to this with letters to the editor, etc.. It's a timely reminder that, however attractice a target LePage may be, he is not the source of the problem. I've sent the following to the Bangor Daily:


The statement the Maine Republican Party issued today about the Maine labor history mural shows that it’s not just Governor LePage who refuses to recognize the struggles Maine’s working people have gone through to earn a living wage and better their families’ lives. The mural depicts Mainers working in the textile and paper mills, garment factories, shoe shops, granite quarries, and woods. To call it “a waste of taxpayer funds” is an act of disrespect for the generations of Maine workers it depicts and for the labor of the artist, Judy Taylor, who spent a year researching and painting the mural. To call it “a self-honoring monument selected by Baldacci Labor Commissioner Labor Fortman” is an uncalled-for personal attack. Perhaps it is a tactic to keep us from remembering that the Republicans in the state legislature are every bit as responsible as the governor for the legislative program that would eliminate environmental protections, drastically modify child labor laws, cut medical benefits for seniors and low-income Mainers, and give a big tax cut to the richest among us while using the fiscal crisis this contributes to as an excuse to cut essential programs. We need to let our legislators know what we think about their disrespect and the plans they have for us."