Smudging our way to good vibrations

The smudging ceremony performed by Penobscot Nation elder Butch Phillips and tribal governor Barry Dana to clear the air of negative vibrations before John Baldacci was sworn in as Maine’s 73rd governor at Augusta Wednesday night seemed to have worked just fine, judging by Baldacci’s subsequent positive nuts-and-bolts inaugural speech. (The speech was so good, that “even Republicans liked it,” proclaimed extreme Democrat and legislator-for-life John Martin of Eagle Lake, undisputed master of the back-handed compliment wherein it pertains to members of the unenlightened opposition. So there you are.)

Taking the bull by the horns in his first address to his constituents, Baldacci shunned generalities in favor of specific proposals to get Maine back on track from the sorry diversions of a billion-dollar deficit. It was a blue-collar working-man approach that stood out in contrast to the somewhat showier tendencies of his predecessor on such occasions, and one that figures to stand the man in good stead during the traditional “honeymoon” period all newly sworn governors are accorded with the masses.

“John has a lot of good will as a person,” Republican analyst Judy Foss observed in a post-speech critique on Maine Public Broadcasting, and it was difficult to dispute the point.

The smudging ceremony, in which Phillips wafted smoke over the new governor and family, platform guests and 4,000 of Baldacci’s newest best friends at the Augusta Civic Center as Dana intoned a tribal chant and banged a drum, is considered by Native Americans to be the catalyst that sets in motion a sort of spiritual cleansing prior to moments of such import.

In theory, according to my Native American friends, the smoke attaches itself to any negative energy that may be present. As the smoke clears, it takes the negative energy and releases it into another space, where it is regenerated into positive energy.

In the case at hand, I suppose the game plan calls for that newly minted positive energy to be channeled to the incoming Legislature which, in cahoots with the new governor, would then smoke out Maine’s current ills before leading the natives in a rousing rendition of “Happy Days Are Here Again.”

On Wednesday night, before a packed civic center and a statewide television audience, Baldacci seemed to be doing his part to speed up the process. Waxing poetic about the attributes of this great state and its resilient people, the former 2nd District congressman allowed as how making a living in our corner of God’s country is no picnic in a mythical north woods national park. Still, he concluded, “we live in Maine because we choose to live in Maine. We could live anywhere, but who would want to?”

Certainly not any authentic native whose head is screwed on straight, that’s for sure. Unfortunately, many who would remain are forced to leave, of economic necessity. The thought of the state’s youngest and potentially brightest natives taking that final gander at Kittery in their rear-view mirror on the way to opportunity and a decent wage beyond the Piscataqua River clearly pains Baldacci. “It leaves Maine a grayer state,” he said, and it saps our spirit and vitality. Thus, he will soon call a youth summit to address the sad situation.

Among other negative spirits the governor hopes will have disappeared with the smoke of Butch Phillips’ smudge when the spiritual house-cleaning kicks in is the mutually destructive “Two Maines” competition matching The Real Maine east and north of the Kennebec River against The Other Maine to the west’ard. Us vs. Them. The alleged Have-Nots vs. the supposed Have-Plentys.

Sure, we have our regional differences, the governor declared, “but it is our similarities, not our differences, that define us.” And because we’re such common-sense all-around good hardscrabble people who buckle down when tough times are upon us, there is no question that one day We Shall Overcome and make Maine truly The Way It Should Be.

“The set of values we share are the same, whether you live in Kittery or Madawaska, Calais or Fort Kent, Lewiston or Lubec,” Baldacci admonished. (The jury presumably is still out as to whether this values-sharing business passes muster if you live in Falmouth or Frenchville, Brunswick or Brewer, Casco or Caribou.) The sound bite was gussied up as a Page One color highlight in Your Favorite Daily Newspaper and displayed above a screamer headline officially proclaiming Baldacci our newest Head Beagle.

However many Maines there are, they must smarten up and all hang together, was the 73rd governor’s message, or surely each will hang separately. And he wasn’t just blowing smoke.

NEWS columnist Kent Ward lives in Winterport. His e-mail address is olddawg@bangordailynews.net.