As you, gentle readers, will remember, every so often there is an uncontrollable urge to just “let it rip” from this “Front Porch.”

Perhaps it has something to do with Maine’s long winters this time, but more likely it results from the convergence of injustices that simply cry out for plain talk. In any case, this piece will let it rip on a few unrelated topics.

Race relations

In the early part of the 19th century, Southern slave holders defended their “peculiar institution” of slavery and tried to reassure the rest of the country that their “Negroes” were happy and well looked after. There was no racial issue, they claimed. They were wrong.

In the 1960s, Sens. Richard Russell, Strom Thurmond and the likes of Bull Connor echoed the same sentiments, assuring the rest of us that Southern whites knew how to take care of their “colored folks,” and there was no racial problem. The rest of the country simply needed to leave them alone. They were wrong.

In February 2005, we read in this newspaper that officials at Edward Little believe there are no racial issues at the school. Yet the same newspaper reports that the two black students who were expelled for beating up on a white student were called “niggers” and repeatedly reported racial slurs to school officials, but received no acceptable response. If the reports are true, this is another example of the denial of racial injustice, which has a long history in this country.

Race does make a big difference in this world of ours. Look at all the data you can find – per capita income, unemployment, incarceration rates, educational achievement, etc. – and African-Americans are still dramatically left out of the American Dream in large numbers.

White folks in the 49th whitest state in the Union have much to learn about racial difference. Race is difficult to talk about, but that does not absolve us of the necessity to enter into discourse. Secure in our homogeneity here in Maine, it is almost impossible to imagine how it feels to be markedly different in appearance, to be looked at differently as you walk through the community, to be followed by security in the store when shopping, to be shunned at social affairs, and to be the object of the absurd myths that spawn hate.

We need to try harder to get inside the heads and hearts of our black brothers and sisters and really try to understand, really try to feel and comprehend how it is to be black in this very white and often unwelcoming world here in Maine.

So, let us all move away from denial.

Where are the focused, strategic educational efforts to help white kids at EL and in Maine begin to wrestle with the complexities of racial and cultural difference? Let us hear about a plan and program by Auburn educators and others to address this issue.

And incidentally, if a white student did call a black student a “nigger,” he or she should be disciplined at least at the suspension, if not expulsion, level. That word has no place in the halls of any high school in Maine in 2005.

Denial of a problem was wrong in the early 19th century, it was wrong in the 1960s and it is wrong in 2005 in Maine.

Federal budget

Switching to state and national politics, there is much to let it rip about.

In March 2001, I attended a Capitol Hill briefing by Sen. Kerry on health insurance – a preeminent moral issue pushed aside by abortion and gay rights.

In the course of wide ranging commentary, Kerry said, ” Look, this is what is going to happen. It has happened before during the Reagan years. There will be huge tax cuts, increases in military spending, and the administration will simply say we do not have the resources for social programs.”

Prophetic, huh?

Look at Bush’s budget. It is just so wrong-headed.

Appreciate what is happening. Bush offers big tax cuts to the wealthy, increases military spending dramatically (in this budget about 5 percent, not counting Iraq and Afghanistan, which brings it closer to twice that amount) and slashes spending for the most vulnerable, the environment, and education. It’s pure mean-spirited nonsense.

Medicaid cuts, environmental program cuts, veterans’ benefit cuts (such hypocrisy), housing cuts, food stamp cuts, vocational education cuts, etc. The list goes on.

Make no mistake about it, George Bush’s ideological drive to the right – and his belligerent foreign policy, except he was pretty mousy with Mr. Putin, his buddy – are being financed on the backs of the poor, the young, the disadvantaged and planet Earth. Welcome to Bush’s America.

Whatever happened to compassion?

Cuts in Maine

Now to Maine. Gov. Baldacci and the Maine Legislature are doing their best to be compassionate in the face of a major structural budget shortfall. Nevertheless, when all is said and done, Medicaid (MaineCare), mental health and foster care, for example, take hits while we provide property tax relief. Bottom line: Property tax relief is being partially funded by cuts in services to the most needy and vulnerable groups in the state.

Is this Maine the way life should be?

Social Security

One more point and I will stop this ranting. The Bush Social Security plans – still incomplete – are wacko.

First, there is no crisis, and people on both sides of the aisle agree.

Second, you do not solve fund inadequacy by removing or diverting contributions to it.

Third Social Security is an insurance program. It was never intended to be the country’s all-purpose retirement program.

Finally, it is one program in which all Americans “hang together” to support each other for some degree of dignity in old age or disability.

Private accounts are meant to unravel this mutual security program, and it would only take lifting the cap on incomes over $90,000 and allow them to be taxed to secure the fund for a very long time.

I applaud the president for raising the issue, but we should find solution within the conceptual framework of the system as it was designed as opposed to putting the most vulnerable at risk of market fluctuations.

I feel better already, and I have not even touched foreign policy.

Jim Carignan is a retired educator who lives in Harpswell. His e-mail address is carignans@suscom-maine.net.

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