Nancy Oden
on North Coast of Maine

April 21, 2008
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Nancy Oden
PO Box 1
Jonesboro, Maine 04648
207-434-6228

 

"Only when the last tree has died,
the last river been poisoned
and the last fish been caught
will we realize that we cannot eat money."
— Cree Proverb

Nancy Oden's Response to 9-11
Tips for Hard Times
Where inmates can grow free
Prisons, garbage, pesticides, and more
Public hearing on toxic dump
"Do right, and risk consequences"
Working with what we have
Easy Tips for Saving Energy

The following piece was Nancy Oden's response to 9-11, and was printed in the Bangor Daily News on September 14, 2001. It is still, perhaps even more so, relevant today.

JUST & POSITIVE ALTERNATIVES:
What We Could Do Instead

by Nancy Oden

All good people abhor the death and destruction of this past week [September 11, 2001].

People of the world want peace. But they also want justice.

Looking past today, we need to learn how to stop terrorism, how to break the cycle of hatred and revenge. We need to come up with JUST AND POSITIVE ALTERNATIVES.

Clearly, the way countries now deal with one another isn't working. The world needs leaders who will set good examples for Earth's peoples.

Can we not use this latest Disaster as a starting point for working together towards peace? There is no security in revenge, only a continuous escalation of killing once the hatreds are solidified.

What can we do so people do NOT feel they have to attack others?

WHAT DO PEOPLE IN THE THIRD WORLD WANT FROM THE UNITED STATES?

  1. Stop interfering. If American-based corporations choose to take risks by attempting to steal another country's natural resources, do not support these corporations with American military or in any way. In fact, corporations should be actively discouraged from taking advantage of poor regions of the world, including in the U.S.A.
  2. Stop U.S. military incursions and blockades of needed food and other goods anywhere in the world. These anti-human acts, being engaged in by U.S. military every day, kill many civilians and engender permanent hatreds towards Americans.
  3. Stop selling arms to the world, which enables many, who would not otherwise have the means, to attack and kill others.
  4. Bring all American troops home from all over the world. We do not need far-flung bases whose only purpose is to protect U.S. businesses. Let U.S. corporations, so busy using up Earth's resources and beggaring Earth's life forms, protect themselves. "Defense" should mean only that; defending ourselves when necessary against harm.
  5. Stop the manufacture and sale of most pesticides and industrial toxic chemicals; especially stop shipping hazardous chemical wastes to Third World nations. Have full public disclosure and debate before the creation and/or use of any toxic chemical, with citizens wherever there might be exposure having the right to make these decisions.
  6. After we've stopped the military and toxic incursions into people's lives, then begin working on how to share and help one another. Each country is bound to have expertise or goods that others need or want.
     
    Share whatever we can in emergencies, and work out FAIR TRADE among nations so that no one is cheated and no country's people are enslaved or, despite working long hours, kept in extreme poverty.
  7. Send helpers to all corners of the Earth to:
  • Bring health care, which should be available to all no matter their monetary situation;
  • Clean up environmental messes and assure clean water supplies for all;
  • Encourage people everywhere to live lightly on Earth, not buying or consuming goods they do not need, so as to leave some resources for the future;
  • Assist in growing food crops suitable for each climate. Ensure control by the people of that region over what's planted to assure their needs are met.
  • Build/rebuild houses and necessary social structures (schools, hospitals), especially where the U.S. military has done them harm;
  • Work to relieve suffering of all kinds, wherever it may be. The U.S. has a lot to answer for to many peoples of Earth.

Only by helping others and encouraging other countries to do the same, and by working to undo the harm U.S. corporations and military have done, can we hope to achieve peace, cooperation, and genuine democracy amongst human beings on this Earth.

— Nancy Oden, Jonesboro, Maine - September 2001

Do right, and risk consequences.
— Sam Houston

The following piece appeared on January 28, 2008, in Counterpunch.

Do Right, Risk Consequences

Survival Tips for Hard Times

by Nancy Oden

Our country has been bankrupted by wars, corporate and political corruption, and tax breaks for the rich. Times are getting harder and harder. We know all this. What can we do to survive?

States can help their people by:

  1. Eliminating all corporate subsidies and tax breaks. Corporations complain, but they pay fewer taxes than they did 25 years ago. This would give us billions nationally every year.
     
  2. Saying "yes" to new taxes if they benefit people, not corporations. Tax luxury boats, expensive cars, jewelry, furs, and heavy taxes on personal and corporate income over $500.000, no taxes on personal incomes below $25,000.
     
  3. Eliminating 2/3 of state universities' administrators, which would free up millions in every state for tuition breaks and more teaching faculty.
     
  4. Building community gardens and driving able-bodied people on welfare and their children to the gardens regularly to grow their own food, saving us money and teaching self-reliance.
     
  5. NO tax rebates because they do NOT help the neediest. In order to qualify for a tax rebate, one must make enough money to pay taxes. Millions of people do not. Instead, allocate grants so that every adult has at least $1,000 a month to live on.
     
  6. Social Security tax stops being taken out of people's paychecks after they've grossed $102,000. in any given year. I propose states start taking the same amount at that point, then start again after the $102,000. mark is reached each year. No one making that kind of money will even notice.
     
  7. Eliminating control of pesticides from state agriculture departments, which never saw a pesticide they didn't like. Put pesticide control in with other hazardous chemicals departments where they belong. This should save millions of dollars in each state and provide better oversight of these too-ubiquitous poisons.
     
  8. Encouraging people to share their homes, and give willing homeowners grants to make separate apartments, either to save fuel in winter or year-round.
     
  9. State could lease large homes so several women on welfare and their children could live together. Single moms can then share household costs and chores, grow gardens, and get jobs because they'll be sharing child care.
     
  10. States set example on energy conservation:
     
    --Turn off room lights in all State building rooms with windows, letting the sun provide natural light;

    --Encourage public agencies to set thermostats at no more than 60-62 degrees in winter and 75-78 in summer; encourage people to dress for the weather, not the latest half-naked fashion. I say this as I sit here in my 56 degree farmhouse wearing three pairs of socks, long underwear, turtleneck with two wool sweaters on top while the thermometer outside reads 5 degrees. Here in Maine we dress appropriately or freeze to death;
     
    --Turn out streetlights nearly everywhere. This alone would result in huge energy savings and taxpayers' money throughout the country;

    --Do not encourage more methane burners as at certain older dumps or manure piles, since methane is a key greenhouse gas;
     
    --Do not support the importation of LNG, since burning LNG also leads to global warming;
     
    --Break up the big power grids, build more local power generators-wind, solar, small hydro, etc.--so we aren't all power-less when one little squirrel gets into a generator three states away. Also, rural people should not have to pay for huge, energy-generating facilities to keep heedless cities' air conditioning and lights on all night;
     
  11. Any new prisons should be large, organic farms so inmates can grow their own food and be taught useful life skills. More on this at http://www.counterpunch.org/oden08182007.html.
     
  12. States should purchase all the oil used in their state at best possible price using their superior buying power (from Venezuela, most likely), pass those savings along to oil dealers, who will pass the savings on to customers.
     
  13. State should buy efficient wood stoves and sell them at cost to low-income people who need them, along with a safety course. Everyone should have backup for when the power goes out, as it does, and will more from now on as we move into more frenetic weather events.
     
  14. "Economic Development" (read "I want to make money from this") people bemoan the fact that there are too many older and retired people. Having many older people should be cause for rejoicing. Older people spend locally, are involved in virtually no crime or drug dealing, have no small children to raise our school taxes, have low accident rates, and are good citizens. Retired people should be treated as a precious resource, full of knowledge, who can be called upon to help guide local affairs and mentor younger people.
     
  15. Health care: let's pool our money and self-insure. Already insured: Social Security and disability recipients, prisoners, current and ex-military, federal and state employees, federal and state legislatures, governors, university employees, people on welfare, Indian tribes, homeless and others in total penury (it's called "emergency room," and we end up paying for it, as most of the above), and some fortunate corporate employees whose health care packages haven't yet been shredded. With so many already health-insured, it should be a rather simple matter to turn health care into one, big, all-inclusive system, thereby saving billions in corporate insurance companies' "overhead" and bloated profits.
     
  16. Stop allowing our natural resources to be wasted by simply dumping "garbage" into pits. Re-use all reusables, compost food waste, recycle everything possible, take buildings apart carefully so still-good materials can be re-used. This will save tipping fees and help keep our woods and waters clean.
     
  17. Banks should be leaned on to provide low interest rates to lower-income people struggling to pay their mortgages. This is an important task for states' governors.

But, in order to effect Real Change, we need to have Real Democracy where We, the People, make the decisions that affect our lives.

This country has been disgraced by the actions of a few in the eyes of the world. We. the People, can help restore the respect of the world by our good works.

Do right, and risk consequences.

 

Nancy Oden is an environmental and political activist. She lives in Jonesboro, Maine and can be reached at .

Her website is www.cleanearth.net.

She welcomes your ideas for how we can survive the coming difficult times.

Bangor Daily News, August 9, 2007

Where inmates can grow free

by Nancy Oden

Drug- and alcohol-related crimes, plus mandatory, lengthy sentences have caused serious overcrowding of Maine's jails and prisons.

Simply locking inmates in cages, where they loll about, eating, sleeping and watching TV, is terribly expensive and does not help them get ready for the outside world.

Our idea is to create a 100-acre-plus organic farm where inmates grow their own food (saving us money), as well as food for the needy.

On this organic farm, called Clean Earth Farms, inmates can learn organic farming and gardening, carpentry, plumbing, electricity using solar and wind, building with sustainable materials, first aid, and other survival
skills.

Since virtually all inmates are going to be released, they can use these skills to start small, independent businesses or organic farms in their communities. Maine needs thousands more small farmers to grow enough food for our food security.

We want them to be good, productive members of society, not in-and-out-of-prison career criminals.

The inmate residents of Clean Earth Farms can help prepare us for the economic and environmental problems we'll soon be facing: extreme weather, shortages of food, oil, clean water, wildlife, fish and so on.

The expectation is that these inmates, mostly young males, former drug addicts and alcoholics, will go back into the communities and live the life they've learned, passing their newfound skills to others so we can live mostly free of big oil and pesticide-poison agriculture.

Inmates can, as part of their community service while at Clean Earth Farms:

  • Build raised garden beds for older and disabled people so they, too, can grow some of their own food.
  • Plant community gardens so people on welfare or disability can also raise their own food.
  • Help build fish hatcheries to restock the coastal fisheries and inland waters.
  • Install windmills and solar arrays on community buildings to save taxpayers' money on energy.
  • Raise bees to pollinate crops and supply (only) organic blueberry growers with local bees, instead of the sickly migratory bees which bring in the diseases attacking our native bees.
  • Turn discarded clothing and other recyclables into useful items such as rugs, blankets, toys, etc., making "new from old."
  • Compost food garbage into garden soil, thereby saving taxpayers' money on tipping fees and re-using natural materials.
  • Recycle waste wood from construction sites into firewood for local people.
  • Plant trees where they've been stripped from the land, including fruit and nut trees, hardwoods and softwoods, so we again have enough firewood, building materials and food for us and wildlife, wildlife habitat and trees to keep us cool and slow down strong winds, enough woods to slow down and absorb floodwaters, provide us with much beauty and enjoyment and absorb many pollutants from our air.

Clean Earth Farms should have a 24-hour hotline for people overdosing or panicking while on drugs or alcohol, and they should be taken in immediately, if that's what is needed. The point is to help both the addicts and the community at the same time.

There should also be a section for veterans so they can be with others who will understand their particular problems.

There could also be a section for long-timers (those who committed more serious crimes) who are not problem inmates, most of whom would jump at the chance to do something useful instead of simply rotting away in a cage.

We might also consider having inmates build simple, plain, low-cost housing for poor and homeless people, and for themselves when they're released. Since prisoners often have a difficult time finding jobs and housing, they could live there and earn their keep by doing continuous community service for others in need.

Clean Earth Farms' buildings could be of concrete with greenhouses attached to the entire south walls to help heat the buildings and grow seedlings for the farm and community gardens. Solar and wind arrays could provide most of the energy needs, along with the energy-efficient buildings' use of natural light.

Gardens would be raised beds, which are worked by hand, so that no machinery would be needed.

The facility should be easily reachable by workers, who could also grow and gather food for their families. This should minimize boredom, the bane of prison guards.

Work would not be optional at Clean Earth Farms. Everyone works, everyone eats.

Many inmates do not know how to work, never having done so. If we teach them how to read and how to work and give them the skills to survive out in the world, then we will have lessened the number of inmates who come back, and we will have created productive citizens who are a credit to their families and the community.

This facility would create many good jobs, especially since it could be built to handle as many inmates as necessary.

We probably won't save them all, but we will have tried, and I'm confident we can help many lead healthy, good lives.

Let's not let the private, for-profit prison corporations take over. To them, more prisoners equal more profits at taxpayers' expense.

No, we want fewer prisoners, lower taxes and people with needed skills coming out of our jails and prisons.

Time to do what's best for Maine people, not wealthy corporations. These are our young people; it's up to us to help them as best we can.

Nancy Oden lives in Jonesboro.
Her e-mail is
www.cleanearth.net.

Bangor Daily News, May 2007

Prisons, Garbage, Pesticides, and More

by Nancy Oden

"Economic development, " indeed!  Washington County is treated like a Third-World country.  That is, stripping and extracting natural resources, along with poisoning the land and waters-and thereby poisoning all creatures who live here--are what opportunistic self-servers call "economic development" for Washington County.

            Here are current and proposed so-called "economic development" projects for Washington County:

  • a large prison to bring in prisoners for private profit (we've put in a counter-proposal to help our young people with rehabilitation, see BDN story May 19, go to www.cleanearth.net to read it);
     
  • a large dump for other people's toxic trash in Township 14, some of which has been coming into Washington County for years, including from Canada (we're counter-proposing recycling, composting, re-using materials to lower tipping fees);
     
  • LNG terminals, which would ruin the area and bring in huge ships full of explosive gas to be piped to cities, not to us (we're counter-proposing wind, solar, tidal energy, and eco-tourism);
     
  • an expensive, DOT boondoggle bridge which should have been built in a straight line farther North instead of taking people's homes for a roundabout, an overpass, and extensive roadwork through the Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge, which will disturb the eagle's nest on Route 1;
  • clearcutting of woods by (1) tree-burning incinerators which sell electricity to cities, (2) paper companies, (3) wreath-makers who then spray poisons to kill hardwoods we need for firewood and building materials, not to mention wildlife habitat, and (4) greedy, strip-and-run logging companies;
     
  • poisoning of Washington and Hancock counties with aerial pesticide spraying on so-called "wild" blueberries, which drifts poisons onto our children, wildlife, organic gardens, domestic animals, and anyone out of doors.
     
  • Pesticides are a primary agent in the death of honeybees, so crucial for food production.  This poisoning of Nature, going on today as I write, will continue into July.
     
  • DOT having our railroad tracks, which belong to the people of Maine, torn up and sold for salvage.  A "rails to trails" group wants to take over our railroad beds for snowmobiles and 4-wheelers.  Some of these people have suggested the "trail," which runs right along Route 1 and through some woods, should ban hikers, people on bicycles, and horseback riders.  They say people walking or bicycling or riding horseback might get in the way of snowmobiles and four-wheelers, as if the loud, noisy machines owned the people's right of way on our railroad tracks.
     
    Stunningly stupid as it seems, they are serious since, they say, walkers, bicyclers, and horseback riders complaining about machines running them off the trail might complain, which might make the machines slow down.
     
  • Proposing casinos or racinos which don't mean good, productive work, only money pouring in for the sponsors, who don't even want the gambling dens on their own properties, but would put them somewhere about 50 miles out in other people's backyards.  Gambling dens aren't about jobs; they're about raking money off the top without doing much work;
     
  • DOT involvement again:  a jetport proposal for a totally wrong place, and without coming up with a single entity which would actually use it (we've proposed alternative places, even though we still don't need another airport, since we have Trenton Airport to the South and Princeton Airport to the North, both of which accept jets now);

So, is this "economic development," or is it self-serving on the part of some State bureaucrats and the same "good old boys" crowd?  You decide.

Better to expend our energies saving our natural beauty and natural resources, rather than letting opportunistic self-servers destroy what's left.

We need to change society's (actually, corporate) priorities from "anything for money" to "what's the best way to solve this problem" and then figure out how to do what's best, what's right, without considering who's going to get rich.

If we keep on this path, we'll get where we're going.  None of us will like that future.

We can slow down climate catastrophes, but only if you and you and you speak out and keep speaking out until we get it right.

Please enter the fray against corporations' creed of "money over all."  Either We, the People, take over and start making good decisions, or we will get where we're going - faster than anyone thought.

Nancy Oden of Jonesboro, is coordinator of Clean Water Coalition.
(207)434-6228, , www.cleanearth.net.

PUBLIC HEARING on TOXIC DUMP

Should TOWNSHIP 14 become a SACRIFICE ZONE for from-away Toxic Trash?

Clean Water Coalition had a great Public Hearing in front of the Maine Land Use Regulation Commission on Thursday, November 9. (Read the Clean Water Coalition intervenor testimony to LURC.)

Over 100 Washington County citizens came to speak out against a huge toxic dump proposed for beautiful woods and waters in Township 14, Washington County. We got their geologist to admit, on the record, that ALL DUMPS LEAK!

Now we wait for LURC's decision whether they'll re-zone 190 acres for a dump within an 8-square-mile parcel.

We will keep you posted. You can call 434-6228 or email .

www.cleanearth.net

NANCY ODEN

"Do right, and risk consequences."

We need to work for Real Democracy, where We, the People, not corporations, make the decisions that affect our lives: decisions regarding our woods, waters, wildlife, fisheries, as well as major projects and anything else which might affect our peace and quiet should be decided by us.

Clean Water Coalition has been working to keep other people's garbage and nuclear waste out of Washington County, stop pesticide spraying, and keep corporations and get-rich-quick developers from turning Downeast Maine into a place where we wouldn't want to live.

(Read the Clean Water Coalition intervenor testimony to LURC.)

Positive alternatives have always been offered, and some have been put in place, but we're still being threatened by harmful schemes (see below).

Severe international crises loom: economic meltdown, climate change, shortages of clean drinking water, and more. We in Downeast Maine can survive these crises if we:

  1. stop corporations and state agencies from using pesticides, which poison our drinking water, the fish and wildlife, and get into our bodies causing long-term health problems. For clean alternatives to pesticides, see www.panna.org or www.getipm.com.
  2. encourage our young people to start farming, chemical-free, so we have healthy, local food and food supply security; work to get out of debt and buy fewer "things" we don't need to have economic security; teach our young people traditional skills and crafts, etc.
  3. be more conservative using fossil fuels while building solar, wind, tidal, and small hydro energy generators for our use.
  4. plant millions of trees in clear-cuts and around our homes for cooling shade, food (fruits and nuts), flood control, wildlife habitat, creation of oxygen we need to breathe, absorption of greenhouse gases, wood for buildings and woodstoves, and wind breaks to protect us from high winds and bad storms. Planting many, many trees is critical to our survival.

Some ideas for good, clean, satisfying livelihoods are in the piece right below.

Our woods are stripped and shipped away, wildlife decimated for lack of habitat and pesticide poisoning, Maine's fish are not to be eaten due to poisons in their flesh, even the oceans have been taken over by foreign boats over-fishing and corporations growing sickly fish in cages so that we cannot throw in a line and catch supper anymore.

These destructive acts have taken place without citizens' knowledge or consent.

Several harmful proposals are now in process. We have time to stop them (call 434-6228 to help) with concerted efforts, and we need YOU:

  • Large dump in Township 14 for other people's garbage, including toxic construction and demolition debris from away;
     
  • Ruination of Eastport, Pleasant Point, Perry, Robbinston, Cutler, Red Beach, and Calais shores with destructive, ugly, liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals, which would encourage oil refineries and other dirty industries to move in, too, with loud noise, 24-hour bright lights, unbelievably large LNG ships which are simply huge bombs, death of fishing in the area, and contamination of ocean and air with natural gas off-gassing;
     
  • Jetport in Jonesboro (pop. 540) for no reason at all except that there is "free" taxpayer money from Maine DOT and the FAA to build it. Trenton jetport is less than an hour from Jonesboro. If such a project is ever actually needed, there are better places.
     
  • Maine DOT proposal to tear up most of Washington County's railroad tracks and sell them for scrap. This proposal, initiated by some self-serving "economic development" people who want an ATV-snowmobile trail for those with time and money to waste, would pollute our air and create a lot of noise. Not a popular idea here. We need DOT to repair our railroad tracks so we have, again, reliable pubic transport for ourselves and our goods.
     
  • DOT plans a bridge across the St. Croix to New Brunswick in the wrong place, ruining more wetlands, taking people's homes, and costing millions more than the proper, logical place: where Route 9 meets Route 1. The wrong site means DOT would build a 4-lane highway through the Moosehorn Wildlife Refuge right where the eagles nest on Route 1 in Calais. Shouldn't happen.

Other problems: need more decent, affordable housing, curtail drug use amongst our young (keep them busy with good projects), health care for all, no more poison spraying, too high property taxes for low-income people, etc.

Being too pessimistic is not healthy; we can survive if we do what needs to be done. We need to elect those who will work for PEOPLE first, rather than corporate profits, people who know what they're doing and who cannot be bought.

Many more good, knowledgeable, brave people will be needed to change what is into what should be. We hope you will join us in that formidable, but necessary, task.

Democracy: we want the real thing.

—Nancy Oden

Published in Bangor Daily News, October 29, 2006
Modified November 13, 2006

Working with What We Have

— by Nancy Oden, Jonesboro, Maine

Enough hand-wringing over Washington County. We live here because we want to, and no one is starving in the streets. If they were, we'd help them.

Yes, salaries are lower here, but if that's what people care most about, they can move to the cities where pay is higher. So is rent, and traffic, crowds, and noise are rife. They would miss the wild beauty we share Downeast.

However, anarchy rules as our woods, waters, wildlife, and fisheries are looted and poisoned by paper mill corporations, chemical-dependent growers, and thoughtless individuals.

Since these natural resources are necessary for our lives and livelihoods, we have to save them.

Here are some ideas for good, productive, satisfying livelihoods for Washington County. to the Maine Senate, I would promote legislation to do the following:

  1. Short timetable (2-3 years) for agricultural and other pesticide sprayers—DOT, city parks, apartment owners, lawn care companies, hospitals, etc.—to switch to easily available, clean methods of keeping unwanted species at bay;
     
    The state should help pay for the changeover because clean water in our lakes, rivers, coastal waters, and groundwater aquifers is critical for everyone's existence here;
     
  2. Help our young people start up small, organic farms so they can have satisfying, productive livelihoods, and we can have food security. Many small businesses serve farmers, so the economic ripple effect of several thousand more small farms in Maine would be widespread;
     
  3. Eliminate the need for incinerators and most dumps by:
     
    1. setting up a collection system for food waste so it can be composted back into garden dirt;
       
    2. collecting other throwaways--clothes, toys, books, tools, housewares--into recycling centers so jobs can be created making "new from old" (quilts, floor pillows for children or pets, etc.) out of used clothing, fixing mend-able objects, recycling construction throwaway wood into firewood, and re-using whatever else can be salvaged, all to be sold at cost locally;
       
    3. re-use paint and other hazardous materials as much as possible so we aren't disposing of poisons into our woods and waters, and require factories to neutralize their toxic chemicals before releasing them into our air or water;
       
  4. Hire our young people, and/or require school community service, to plant millions of hardwood, fruit, and nut trees wherever we can, especially in industrial clearcut; Trees absorb greenhouses gases helping slow climate change, provide wildlife food and shelter, building materials and food and firewood for us, as well as shade to keep our houses cool and act as windbreakers. Parts of the world are becoming tree-less deserts; we can't let that happen here. Trees also add great beauty to our lives;
     
  5. Require industry and government to conserve fuel, hire people to install solar, wind, small hydro, tidal energy systems which should be locally owned and controlled, and tighten up people's homes, our public buildings;
     
  6. Do NOT remove Washington County's railroad tracks and sell them for scrap, which is a stunningly stupid idea of the Maine Dept. of Transportation and "economic development" people who have money and time to waste.
     
    Fix railroads throughout Maine, so that people and goods can travel comfortably and safely, while creating much less pollution than from trucks and personal vehicles.
     
    Also, hire people for all Maine borders to see what's in trucks or trains coming in so we can stop radioactive and other hazardous materials from being dumped in our woods and waters. 
     
  7. Health care for all. Plan: fire all the insurance companies. Pay what we're paying now into one big pot (over 25 percent of Maine people are already on federal Medicare, so they're taken care of), elect regional boards to run the plan, hire qualified people to help make decisions and payments, and be accountable only to ourselves. We can do this, save money, and provide health care - including natural methods - for all Maine citizens.

All of the above ideas would save taxes, create good, satisfying livelihoods, keep Maine clean, and give us food, energy, and health independence, especially Downeast Maine since we seem to be on our own most of the time — and we like it that way.

We need to fight for our woods, waters, wildlife, and fisheries against the monied interests who would use them all up for their own selfish gain, leaving us to feed the blackflies.

— Nancy Oden lives in Jonesboro. She can be reached at 434-6228 or e-mail . Her website is www.cleanearth.net.
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