With this issue we add to our masthead the Gadsden Flag. We do so in solidarity with the citizens of York whose homes and family lands are at risk of being taken by the Maine Turnpike Authority. The flag will remain as part of our masthead for as long as this fight continues.
The enormous breadth of the potential impact coming to York is outlined in detail in this issue and we encourage you to examine this information closely. For our part, we will continue to do our best to educate and inform you, our readers, as this issue evolves. But we wish to make clear where we stand. We oppose, unconditionally, any plan that results in an involuntary taking of homes and family lands.
Certainly the MTA and the state ultimately have the legal authority under existing law to take these properties if they decide to do so. The standard argument is that these proposals are for the greater good, but the citizens of York are right to ask, whose greater good? At what point does York cease to be included in this greater good? Do we sacrifice towns for the greater good of the state, a state that neither recognizes, appreciates or rewards that sacrifice? If the MTA and the state are serious about being concerned for York, what do they pledge in return for the harm they propose to inflict upon our citizens? "Fair" market value for homes which the owners do not wish to leave in the first place? And what is "fair" market value for destroying a family's life, for removing them from the community to which they have devoted their work and social lives for decades and generations? There is no value that can be measured with money. This is the problem with eminent domain, and it is the reason why those in power need to be challenged, firmly, relentlessly and without hesitation, whenever they speak of exercising that power.
The threat of having homes taken is especially devastating here in York in that those who are forced from their homes will be unlikely to find another home in this town. Additionally, the homes at risk include those of single-parent families, families that in this current climate may not even be able to qualify for another home purchase anywhere, let alone the community in which they have worked so hard to plant their roots. While for engineers and bureaucrats working in a vacuum the removal of these homes is a faceless thing, here in York it works at a drastically different level. This is not simply a matter of exchanging one home within a town for another similar home in that same town, but a forced removal of a significant number of citizens from their entire community.
All appearances are that our state and local representatives have joined in with the citizenry in this fight. We applaud them for it, and look forward to their continued support. The massive outpouring of support from citizens throughout York in this fight ought to be a clear indication as to the depth of feeling which exists, and those at the state level need to understand clearly where we stand. York exists as a town in which our belief grows stronger every year that we have been written off as expendable to the rest of this state, and that our only value is as a resource to be exploited for the benefit of those who grant us nothing in return. The seeds of serious unrest are being planted here, and those in positions of authority need to begin waking up to that now. We are more than simply a herd of cows waiting to be milked down here in York, Maine. We are people, we have names, and the buildings we live in here are our homes.
Above all else, we should understand that we are far from powerless. The decision makers, at the MTA and other state agencies and powers that are involved in this process, are neither infallible nor unassailable. Their decisions, and the competence and basis on which they have made them, are open to question and opposition by us. In other words, they work for us, and their decisions still, ultimately, require our consent. And in the involuntary taking of these homes and family lands here in York, we should not consent. We can and should fight. This is not the way life should be.
