It seems that Steve Collins, proprietor of the Oak Hill General Store in Standish, is a bit ahead of his time. A while back he began selling bright red shirts emblazoned with the logo “Peoples Republic of Standish.”

On Monday morning, April 28, calls began coming to me from startled Standish residents reporting and complaining about a Chinese flag flying over the former Sylvania plant on Northeast Road in Standish.

On my way to Augusta I drove by and, sure enough, there it was, flying at an equal height to the American flag.

I believed, like several callers, that the flag of another country had to be flown lower than the flag of the United States. Further inquiry revealed that a foreign flag is flown on a separate pole and at an equal height to our flag unless we are in a war with that country, in which case the foreign flag is flown in a lower position, if flown at all.

Sensata, as the plant is now known, announced months ago that it was pulling out of Standish and moving to China. With it will go the hundreds of jobs that local residents have filled there, some of them for several decades.

Communist China, as you may know, is a country that oppresses the Tibetans, runs gigantic forced labor camps, pollutes to high heaven, exports nuclear technology to our enemies, and sends us poisoned food and drugs and even poisoned pet food. And don’t forget the toys for little American kids we get from China, sometimes packed with lead and covered with the “date rape” drug.

And this is a country that was granted “most favored nation” trading status by former President Clinton.

The flag of this brutal communist dictatorship now flies in the face of former Maine workers who are in unemployment lines – or expect to be there shortly. I and other military veterans in our community are appalled to see a communist flag flying brazenly over our community, especially those of us who fought the Chinese in Korea and other places.

Congratulations to Steve Collins. At least he had the Maine ingenuity to see the handwriting on the wall. But I can’t say much for the Washington politicians who have cheered as our industrial base has been packed up and moved to a communist country.

Rep. Gary Moore (R-Standish)