We Mainers should get ready to take down our iconic turnpike sign that declares: “Welcome to Maine, the Way Life Should Be.” Why? Because of the big, beautiful building proposed for Portland, perhaps to be followed by more.

“Mommy, can we go to the beach?”

“I’m sorry, honey, but we can’t afford it. There’s no place to park. The big, beautiful buildings crowd the coastline; the state parks are private, and it’s too expensive. But we can go to a museum and see the ocean from a window.”

“But why did this happen, Mommy? Grandma told us about the fun she had on the beaches, hiking, and fishing.”

“There’s no more balance on Earth.”

“What’s balance, Mommy?”

“That’s when everything relies on each other for existent, and respects the order of nature. That’s gone now; wetlands, marshes, estuaries for fish, game, piping plovers, terns, upland birds, the insects they eat and more. A woman named Rachel Carson once said, ‘But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself.’”

“Honey, see the sign over the exhibit? Many years ago, we had a sign on the Maine Turnpike that said ‘Maine, The Way Life Should Be.’ We took it down. Now we go to museums to see ‘Maine: The Way Life Used to Be.’”

A Native American saying: “We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our grandchildren.”

We must ask ourselves: How do we envision Maine for our descendants?

Norma Fox
Kennebunk