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Kudos to a group of Houlton residents for working to end the “from away” attitude that has driven some new residents from the Aroostook County town.
However, it is frustrating that this division — either you’re a Mainer or you’re “from away” — still persists.
Nearly a decade ago, the Maine State Chamber of Commerce and the Maine Development Foundation warned that this divisive attitude was hampering Maine’s efforts to attract and retain the new residents necessary to keep the state’s economy vibrant.
While pride in the Pine Tree State and its amazing attributes is a good thing, that pride must not turn into an attitude that denigrates, and even turns away, people who weren’t born here or don’t have a long lineage of Maine ancestors.
“The common Maine saying ‘from away’ speaks to a sense of pride in our state but also to an unnecessary and damaging division, implying that those from elsewhere can never truly be a part of our state’s social fabric and economy … This does us a disservice as we look to grow our population, our workforce, and our economy,” the two groups said in a 2016 report.
“The simple truth is that we need more people contributing to our economy to their maximum potential, regardless of when or how they got here or where they came from,” the report said.
We continue to wholeheartedly concur.
Last year, Maine was one of more than a dozen states where deaths outnumbered births. In addition, Maine is falling far short of its goal of attracting 75,000 new workers by the end of the decade.
That means new Mainers, whether from other states or countries, are the state’s most feasible path to population growth and economic prosperity. Demographic reality means the Pine Tree State and its residents need to be welcoming of new people and new ideas.
One way to show this acceptance is to drop the phrase “from away” from our lexicon and to bury the notion that being born in Maine is somehow more valuable or desirable than choosing to move here.
In Houlton, a group of local residents is working on such a change.
The group is spearheaded by Cecilia Rhoda, who said she was spurred to act after hearing that her neighbors were leaving town after just two years because they didn’t feel welcome.
“That made me very, very sad,” Rhoda said at a recent meeting of the Houlton Gateway Ambassadors, a group that was an instrumental part of the town’s events during April’s total solar eclipse. Rhoda said that some people who have been in Houlton for as long as 10 years still feel like they are being treated as “aliens, as people from away.”
She and other ambassadors are developing a plan for the community to be more welcoming. It will likely include resources about the town and its services.
As one local entrepreneur noted, sharing such information can also help local businesses.
These are small steps, but they can make a big difference. Because when we tear down artificial barriers between who is a Mainer and who is not, all of Maine can benefit from new ideas, new energy and new people.