I wish I was a cartoonist. I would draw a cartoon showing Paul LePage and Mary Mayhew standing on the edge of a cliff, stomping on hands and kicking at the immigrants, poor people, and those without jobs, as they struggle to reach safe ground. Also, I’d have our Janet Mills, our attorney general, wielding a sword, trying to push back against LePage and Mayhew to help those in peril.

Then, I’d draw another cartoon of LePage on the Ship of State, this time with him wielding a sword, forcing some of our best people off the gang plank into the sea. Leading would be Dr. Dora Anne Mills, widely respected director of the Maine Center for Disease Control, fired in 2011. Then Dale McCormick, highly competent director of the Maine State Housing Authority, also, a great leader and advocate for women in the workplace, forced out in 2012. Then Robert Martin, the very capable and innovative president of the Maine Technology Institute, fired in 2014. And finally John Fitzsimmons, our longtime president of the Maine Community College System, revered as a visionary and considered exceptional by those in his field, forced out in January.

I’m sure others could come up with similary scenarios. We would all laugh at the cartoons, but in a deeper sense, they really aren’t funny at all.

Susan Suchar, China