Line in the sand

Re: Sears Island cargo port.

The hardworking families of loggers, woodworkers and paperworkers who built Maine’s forest-based industries are in the best place to know the true condition of Maine’s woods. We depend upon these men and women to sound the alarm if the situation is getting dangerous.

That alarm has been sounded by Gary Cook of the paperworkers’ union and Stephen Perry of the carpenters’ union (see “Union leaders oppose cargo port,” BDN, Nov. 2).

I pray the rank and file of these two unions will follow their courageous and farsighted leaders, and vote to save our forests, fishing grounds, jobs and communities from the disaster of a Sears Island cargo port.

Wassumkeag — known to many as Sears Island — is a Penobscot term for “land of the shining beach.”

The line in the sand has finally been drawn on this little island, and drawn by those who will be hit first and hardest when the multinational corporations have stripped Maine and gone on to greener pastures.

It has been fascinating to watch the swelling grass-roots movement against the cargo port. When the Maine Green Party and the paperworkers’ union work together, hope is born. We are fighting side by side for the land we love.

Never give up! Jane Livingston Veazie