For 42 years, I called Maine my home. My two children, both African-American and adopted, spent their childhoods in Maine schools. They made enduring friends. They faced, as all people of color do in our country, some racism. But, by and large, they found people who admired them and believed in them as much as their parents do.

In a largely white state, I felt proud that its state leaders supported racial equality, and, since I’m a gay man, equal rights for others, too.

My children, and grandchildren, go to school in Maine and work in Maine. But now I read in the papers and see on the nightly news coverage of the disgusting rants of Gov. Paul LePage about African-Americans, Hispanics and gays and wonder what has happened to my home state.

I can’t help hoping that legislators will step forward – as Sen. Margaret Chase Smith did with the demagogue Joseph McCarthy, as did Sen. Susan Collins about the hateful invectives of Donald Trump – and say, “No, this man should not be governor. He doesn’t represent who we are and what we value in Maine.”

When an uninformed governor makes complex issues of race, drugs and addiction into a simplistic matter of “we” versus “they” – of an out-of-state enemy versus Mainers – all people of color become at risk. He marginalizes those who are black or Hispanic.

He fails to see that addiction is a problem that demands we come together to support more and better treatment. I worked in the treatment field for years. LePage’s administration has cut funding and gutted addiction services. Now he lambastes people of color to cover his failed policies to help those in need of treatment for their addiction.

Mainers need to speak out in the tradition of Smith and Collins. It’s time to remove LePage from office.

Bruce Spang

Candleer, North Carolina

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