Thursday, October 27, 2005

I Cut Down Trees, I Skip And Jump, I Like To Press Wildflowers

Maine is really an amazing state. And yes, we’re just saying that because that’s where we’re from.

But the Pine Tree State – the 12th smallest, third poorest, and number one whitest in the union – really is pretty unusual politically. Its two women Republican senators, Olympia Snow and Susan Collins, have a history of progressively voting away from party lines, and the state Green party is one of the country’s most powerful. And right now the state is facing an unusual referendum: whether to repeal anti-discrimination legislation that protects gays.

"Mainers are very tolerant people by and large," said Michael Hein of the Coalition for Marriage, a group opposing the law. "They fear not the persecution of certain groups, but being overburdened by legislation."

This, we think, is very true. In a state that has enough huge problems (poverty, the decline of the lumber industry, closed military bases, shitty ski conditions), Mainer’s don’t want to have to worry about another rule they might be breaking. But we’re very confident that the tolerance of a people will win out. After all, this is a state full of citizens who live in frigid conditions, without professional sports teams, on unfarmable land, and uncomfortably close to Quebec. Not being able to beat up gays is the least of their problems.

And besides, you think they invented the hypothermia drill in Hawaii?


(A hug and a kiss to whoever can identify who that is in the picture, and why it is relevant here)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Didn't a man on the show get naked and go in a sleeping bag with one of the kids or something to cure his hypotermia?

Anonymous said...

Your damn right the wrinkly old guy jumped in the sack with some young'uns. And it is probably Affleck, too. Love, Big Piney