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Sandra Lynn Hutchison is a writer, teacher, and the editor of elixir-journal.org She lives in Orono and teaches in the Wilmette Institute and the Bahá’í Institute for Higher Education.
This is the first time I have had a dental appointment cancelled because of gun violence – yes, the mass shooting in Lewiston. My husband and I live in Orono, but we were supposed to travel to Portland on Thursday so he could be treated by a specialist. A minor inconvenience you might think – why write about it when there has been so much loss of life? Yet I do because this minor inconvenience shows just how pervasive the effects of gun violence are, with a way of seeping into every aspect of our daily lives.
Today I am grieving. We all are. But I am also thinking of the state of Maine as it was when I arrived here 23 years ago. My husband and I spent the first years of our marriage in New York City, in a neighborhood in which you did not go out at night. Then we moved to Hong Kong, a safer city, but one in which a pregnant woman (me) could easily be crushed by surging crowds in a subway station. We arrived in Orono after a year-long stop in one of New Jersey’s bedroom communities — that was not for us.
To live in a small New England town – it had long been our dream. And here we were, on I-95 heading north. We passed a sign that read: “Welcome to Maine — The way life should be.” Then we came to a toll booth. “Good morning,” the attendant said, “how are you?” This place was definitely different from New Jersey, my husband observed. Not long after, we stopped at a gas station, and as I walked into the women’s bathroom, I noticed a red rose in full bloom, in a white vase someone had placed on the window sill. Sunlight poured through the panes. The restroom looked like it had been cleaned by someone’s very meticulous mother. The way life should be — maybe it was true?
In all the places in the world I have traveled and lived — and there are many — I have never found myself in such a large community of consistently courteous and caring people. We do things differently here in Maine. We have a strong sense of community. We know one another, which is why I ask what we are all asking: How could this happen here?
Like all of us, I am searching for answers. How did this person, with an identified mental illness, slip through the cracks? How was it that he was able to own the gun he used to end all those precious lives?
I ask and we must ask. And we must pray, too, for those whose lives have been forever changed by the horrific and completely unexpected loss of a beloved family member or friend. As urgent is the need to gather and discuss how this could have happened.
I am writing to ask our legislators to convene a special session devoted to taking a fresh look at the problem of gun violence in our state and, as they do, to seek, in the spirit of true consultation, a solution that serves the common good.
Let us all step down from our own personal hobby horses, let us abandon our long-held and fiercely-defended positions, and let us look dispassionately at what would serve us all best, not as individuals or as special interest groups but as a whole community.
