Closed flats Down East

I know why when you ask the clam diggers when will the flats open – they shrug. I know why when you ask them when will the fellow from south of Ellsworth be here to check the flats – they shrug.

No more words to argue, ask or hope for some sort of representation, some sort of work on the lands and shores that come with the place.

It has been months since the flats have been closed – months of neglected people trying to find answers, and work and reasoning. I’m sure the folks from south of Ellsworth care for our Washington County clam diggers – especially the Lubec-Trescott men and women – about as much as a fish cares for a bicycle.

I can’t make up my mind if the closed flats here smack of taxation without representation or deep-unmitigated indifference. Too few of us to count.

I know that it makes me sick at my heart to watch young, vibrant, native Lubec and Trescott residents leaving home, going to southern Maine to do what they no longer can do here.

Here clamming and fishing is no longer a way of earning a traditional living. Oh my, it is just too cruel and tragic for more words.

Who will help? Why have they not helped by now?

These men and women are worth keeping and valuing.

Jill Mulholland

Lubec