As you probably know by now, Governor LePage was invited to speak at the naming of the Theodora J. Kalikow Education Center at the University of Maine Farmington yesterday. One of the reasons the Education Center is such a celebrated building is because it’s so eco-friendly. LePage is obviously known for being anti-environment.
To compound the irony of the location, he’s also atrocious on the issue of education. He has openly insulted public schools and said that they don’t provide as good of an education as private schools and he has on several occasions threatening to withhold education funding as a way of gaining leverage on other, unrelated issues. The man clearly doesn’t acknowledge the importance of education in Maine.
Those underlying reasons and his recent, inappropriate comments about drug addicts and immigrants are why I decided to protest his presence at my school. This was not simply a matter of partisan politics, but about standing up to a governor who doesn’t come anywhere close to representing the values of his constituents.
The other protestor in attendance, Nick, apparently had some similar thoughts. We actually decided separately to make the signs and happened to meet up at the event.
We stood near the back so as not to disrupt anything. Our purpose was to bear silent witness and make LePage aware that he was not welcomed by the vast majority of the student body.
When LePage saw the signs, he seemed to stumble on his words and appeared uncomfortable. He shook his head and held eye contact with me, and I nodded my head in response. That was when he said “I’m done,” walked away from the podium, and said, “Thanks, idiots! With the signs in the back!” He left the campus and the ceremony continued as planned with little reaction from the crowd.
Nick and I both stayed and enjoyed the rest of the event.
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