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When evil came to Maine, it wasn’t driving a fast car with out-of-state plates.
It wasn’t named ” Shifty” or “D-Money.” It wasn’t wearing a hijab, or a burka or a keffiyeh.
It wasn’t speaking a strange language or living in low-income housing. It wasn’t sleeping in a tent in the park or alongside our highways. It wasn’t trying to take our jobs or destroy our culture.
When evil came to Maine, it wasn’t seeking to alter traditional family values.
It wasn’t corrupting children at drag queen story hour. It wasn’t performing gender-affirming surgery.
It wasn’t planting immoral material on library shelves. It wasn’t teaching critical race theory. It wasn’t forcing a “woke” ideology on anyone.
In fact, evil didn’t come to Maine; it had been here all along.
It didn’t care who said what, who did what, who believed what, who looked like what, who lived where, who was from here or who was from there.
Today, we grieve not only for the departed, but for the innocence we so jealously protected, for the naivety we preserved.
And tomorrow is another day, so we will carry on.
Let any lessons learned help us to be better and to be kinder. Let us work to be safer and smarter.
Let us strive, against all odds and amidst a world unraveling, to live our lives the way life should be.
Perry B. Newman
South Portland
