Let Mayor Robert Macdonald do the job residents voted him to do.
Americans have always welcomed anybody who wanted to live in a free country. By free, I mean, we have freedoms other countries don’t have, not free that we don’t have to pay for anything.
The French Canadians were welcomed here and they contributed so much to this country and this state. They came here and worked hard, and they brought their culture with them. But they embraced the culture here and people here embraced theirs. There was no pushing and shoving; there wasn’t any expectation of "give it to me free." It took some time and hard work on both sides but, after a bit of time, the people blended.
I like learning their history and the stories of hardships they had to endure to eke out a living in a country with strange customs.
Nobody ever handed me a free education, free housing, free food. I wouldn't want everything free anyway. There is nothing more satisfying than knowing what you own is through your own hard work.
Studies have proven over and over again, when people get everything for free they get spoiled and do not appreciate what they have been given. Like a rich man’s child, they just scream and cry for more.
Barbara Harlow, Lewiston
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The French Canadians contributed so much.
We shall never forget little Paulie LePage.....
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It's not all us Canadian Frenchmen who can have a positive influence on our culture, some are as ridiculous as Romney!
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Somebody needs to study a little more. When the French Canadians came here they did endure hardships. When did hardships become a good thing? It was not so great for them. They lived in such grinding poverty that in spite of all the hard work they did they were often obliged to take their children out of school at age 9 or 10 to send them to work in the mills depriving them of the opportunity to learn English or to ever improve their lot. As for the great welcome they received. Their churches were burned, they were ridiculed for their accent, refused employment, not to mention physically attacked. True the government did not help them but the churches had plenty of charity care, two large orphanages for those too poor to feed their kids and there was the poor farm. This was a time when there was no help for anyone from the government including the elderly who often had to rely on their children to take them in when they got too old to work. Neither the children not the elderly made out all that well with that system. Not everyone sees oppression as such a great thing for the community . Yes the French eventually became absorbed but it was in spite of not because of the great welcome they got. And it took a lot longer than it should have. Thankfully some of us want to do it better nowadays.
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What you are saying is that it all worked itself out without government intervention. That sounds like a positive to me.
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