I found the article about the racial transformation of Lewiston’s schools depressing and disturbing (Dec. 10). It’s sad that a working-class city was destroyed, in a very short time, by people with no roots in the community.

The State Department provided taxpayer-funded grants to organizations like Episcopal Migration Ministries and Catholic Charities USA, to dump poor, mostly unskilled migrants into unsuspecting cities around the country. Lewiston won that lottery. Without doubt, the refugees themselves are grateful to have gotten out of their godforsaken, Third World dystopias and are appreciative of the relative order and normalcy of even a ruined town like Lewiston.

The unseen and unmentioned victims were the working-class people of the town, who were never asked if they wanted a demographic transformation of their community. They were never given a voice, or presented an open opportunity to vote at the ballot box. But they evidently did vote with their feet.

So, the article is really about how rich people dumped poor black foreigners into a poor town so they could feel good about themselves, and the white folks left. Where’s the uplift in that?

More important, how can Maine people make sure something like this doesn’t happen again? What will be the next community wrecked by “refugee” resettlement? We know for certain it won’t be Kennebunkport or Falmouth.

Charles Day

Arundel

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