I am always reading articles about families that move to Maine looking for the way life should be, but I question their definition. I believe the true Mainer is a simple person just trying to scrape out an existence with what resources are available. We work hard trying to have something to pass onto our children. We work hard for what we have and look forward to the time we can retire to sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labors.

But here comes new people looking for the way life should be. They come with pockets bursting at the seams with money. They buy up our land, driving property values so high that we natives cannot afford to keep what we have. They demand all of the amenities they enjoyed in the big cities, such as full-time police and fire departments, weekly curbside rubbish pickup, and top-of-the-line roads. This costs all of us a lot of tax dollars to provide.

They also want to change our way of life by restricting shore access, the days and hours we can work, the amount of noise we create and even the type and size of vehicles we use to operate our small in-town businesses. This, by the way, adds to the local tax base. When people come to Maine looking for the way life should be, they should be aware of their impact on those of us who made it that way.

Dennis Ford

Lamoine