I recently listened to a story on Maine Public Broadcasting Network about Frederick Douglass, the slave who fled to New York and persuaded President Lincoln to allow black troops to fight with the Union.

Now, there is a different kind of slavery – corporate slavery. Corporations laden with pollution enslave communities with half-truths, buy the silence of the sick and dump millions of pounds of toxic material into the atmosphere and rivers for profit, for shareholders who live far away. They press against environmental cleanup. They hire lawyers and get their employees elected to the Legislature in order to debunk the truth and play the game of, “If we have to clean up our mill, we will have to lay off workers.”

But they never have.

The most recent example of their debunking is their claim that the Androscoggin River never had a standard for dissolved oxygen and that their recent bill, L.D. 1899, is an improvement. That’s like passing a law that says it’s OK to eat 10 pounds of candy a day because now there is a standard.

Nonsense, their standard has lowered the present attainability for dissolved oxygen in the Androscoggin and St. Croix rivers. That’s why they went to the Legislature in the first place. Manipulation can be so sweet – like sugar.

People who love the Androscoggin River should not be hoodwinked by mill fairy tales.

People should support Rep. Elaine Makas’ L.D. 99 to take back the Androscoggin.

Jenny Orr, West Paris

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