Dear Dear Lewiston
Lewiston Maine
At last. Allen takes control of the B-52 (joke) from me, and follows the turnpike around toward Auburn in the Cessna 152. The pass over Lewiston . . . . Relieved, I look down on Lewiston's fringes. On the white, white houses with their crisp green flowered yards. The yellow falls of the Androscoggin sit like thick cream over rock candy. In my great relief and exhilaration, I feel a silly warm fondness for the town just below. I want to have a date down there.
Here's healing! When we first came to Maine, broke and broken, trying to get a foothold, briefly homeless, we stopped for a short time in this town. How I hated the place, its empty behemoth factories, its building-encrusted concrete hide. Not until I spent time in its library, and drank its coffee, visited a church, could I begin to loosen up a little toward it. Yes: a date down there in Lewiston. Down.
The quotation above is from Maine Metaphor: the Green and Blue House.* The first book I wrote sometime after arriving in Maine. It took awhile to become situated, earn enough to fly a plane. The tenderness for Lewiston has remained, and now increased owing to mass shootings in the bowling alley and restaurant. Lewiston/Auburn are known as the Twin Cities coupled by bridges over the Androscoggin River. Like all siblings they argue, sometimes even arguing about uniting as one town. We stock up for winter there, and get hardware across the road in the big-box sometimes known as Home Desperate.
The last update on the massive manhunt for the alleged shooter shows him still at large. He was a member of the military who, hard of hearing, was reportedly using hearing aids which he told family members were giving him insights into these venues mentioned above. He had to do something to deal with them, and he chose to use domestic assault weapons supplied by manufacturers who pay representatives to keep assault rifles legal through lobbying our Congress. A true-hearted representative in Congress, Jared Golden, a resident of Lewiston, was in the military himself. Here's what he had to say about his recent positions on banning such weapons:
Ask yourself if the man in the alleged condition of the alleged shooter had no assault weapons available to him. Would those 18 murdered people still be alive? Thirteen injured safe and whole? The answer is yes. The manufacturers have a high level, higher than anything else including mental health, a higher level of responsibility for these deaths. Were it not for these manufacturers garnering millions of dollars for investors,, perhaps billions? — would the Twin Cities be in lockdown? Would the woodlands and rural communities in two counties surrounding them be advised to stay sheltered in place?
Look at that term: domestic assault. You know what that means. The military is not in charge... not until they're called on to look for dangerous suspects who have committed mass murder. The domestic assault weapons belong in the literal hands of the military. Not the citizenry whom they are bound to protect. Protect people, invest in ordinary American lives, legislate.
I'm hoping Jared Golden will assume the role of Dirigo in this case, and call for cessation of manufacturing for domestic purposes. Call for donation to the military—from the citizenry —of all such weaponry. Legislate for these two things.
And you? What would you do?
Here's what you can do. Every citizen has the right, and in this instance the duty, to ask for legislation from their representatives and senators in Congress. Every citizen has the right to ask the President to do... what ours is now trying to do.
Everyone. Everyone contact those who are meant to be your stewards in this matter. That means you also have a certain stewardship—to lobby, to write, to give voice to what you need concerning this weaponry. Our stewardship of democracy is owed to everyone, especially those families and victims of mass killings in the home free and the land of the brave.
Update Oct 30. 15 hours ago Jared Golden wrote:
© S. Dorman, October 2023
* Wipf and Stock Publishers. All Rights Reserved.
