Letter to the editor: Sen. Collins aligns herself with America’s past against its future

Two hundred years ago, Maine celebrated its first July Fourth as the newest member of the United States of America. It did so as a so-called Free State with its own constitution, which recognized Black Americans as citizens with the right to vote.

However, Maine’s admission to the Union was a quid pro quo for the congressional imprimatur of the expansion and entrenchment of slavery in the South – a political compromise that sacrificed individual liberty and endorsed state-imposed racial inequality.

Today’s Maine congressional delegation has an opportunity, indeed a duty, to stand up against those states that seek to constrain the fundamental right of their citizens to vote by imposing rules that disproportionally affect citizens of color and those descended from the enslaved peoples who were disenfranchised by the Compromise of 1820. Today Susan Collins aligns herself with such discriminatory rules.

Today Susan Collins resurrects arguments that propelled the states’ rights assault on the Union, a threat once vanquished by Mainers who died in defense of color-blind suffrage. Today Susan Collins subscribes to the same premise that congressional partisans used in 1820 to compromise Black Americans’ freedom in parts of the country whose dedication to white supremacy led to secession and Civil War.

Today Susan Collins stands on the wrong side of history – both the history of Maine and the history of the United States. But more importantly, today Susan Collins stands on the wrong side of America’s future.

Richard Riese
Wiscasset