the hole in the sky

Once upon a time, like 6 months ago, there was a steeple on this bell tower - with a codfish weathervane on top. It occupied a big place in the modest skyline of East Boothbay, and it was noticed by all of us here, on land or sea.
But the steeple was struck by lightning this summer, and began to burn. Luckily, the Fire Department - also of modest size - is very near, and they put the fire out before the whole tower was engulfed. But one of the 4 wood struts was completely burned through, and a resident engineer thought we should take the steeple down to fix it.

The insurance adjuster thought otherwise, - at least until Hurricane Earl approached.

At the approach of Earl, the adjuster all of a sudden gave us permission to take the steeple down. But of course, there wasn't time to do that before the hurricane got here, and we got lucky that Earl did not do us any damage.
Now, the steeple has been removed; the insurance company has agreed to pay $42,000 to rebuild and re-install the steeple, but has decided not to pay for lightning rod protection, estimated at $7700. I can't quite imagine the rationale, but it leaves our little Methodist Church with $7700 plus $1000 of the deductible to raise.

If anyone has any ideas about how our small community can raise nearly $10,000, please be in touch with Alan Lewis, 207-633-2510, in East Boothbay, Maine 04544.

taxes and statistics - help!

Right after 9/11, came 9/15, when individuals not affiliated with any institution or corporation, have to pay their income tax. I had a tea party while I wrote my checks. They were not large, unhappily for the state budgets of the world, but they were significant for me, and I wonder if they will be appreciated by the State of Maine and by the United States.

The current public dialogue about taxes drives me crazy. I believe in progressive taxation, to serve the larger needs of the community, and I do not believe we are close to a fair tax policy, either at the State level nor the federal level today. There are three things that governments can raise taxes on:
1. property - which is traditionally a local tax providing local services like education.
2. income - which is traditionally a federal tax, providing for defense and health care.
3. purchases(or sales) - traditionally a state tax for building roads, universities, etc.
Most governments have a mix and match scenario right now, but it helps to think about where we have deviated from traditional patterns when thinking about these things.

The income tax has been the most progressive, beginning with its 90% tax on high incomes in 1914. Today I believe the highest tax rate is 35%, which on an income of, say $500,000 would be around $175,000. I think that's a tad less than it ought to be and think we should not extend the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy, or those with incomes over $250,000.

The sales tax is the least progressive tax by equally taxing those of all different income levels. Often there are exemptions for things like food and medecine. But soda is so much cheaper than milk that the intention of exempting things for health reasons is a bit obscure.

The property tax is somewhere in between the two, with some people choosing to be land rich and income poor, - like farmers, - and others selling land when they need to in order to retire.
California has so skewed the property tax system that it rewards farmers with federal crop and water subsidies, but has refused so far to reform the property tax structure to account for the extraordinary increases in property values. Anyone moving into California now, pays double or more of the taxes that a neighbor who was there before 1978, pays. The farmer pays on the land values of 1978 or before. It is painfully unfair and totally inadequate for paying for the state's very generous pension and health care plans.

If a state like California refuses to provide a fairly progressive tax structure, it borrows and borrows until today happens - when the banks that lend it money, stop lending. We really don't know what happens next. Does the Army take over? acting on behalf of the federal government?
Does the National Guard defend the state? But ooooops. I forgot. Most of our National Guard troops are over in Iraq and Afghanistan, just as they were for Hurricane Katrina and for the BP oil spill.

Congress' refusal to be intelligent and straightforward about the cost of these wars, and the Bush administration's blindness to that cost, strikes me as positively treasonous. And it is what has led directly to the rise in the Tea Party movement. Thinking of the Tea Party as a metaphor for a primal scream for help by the people, I am sympathetic. But they are not very smart about their solutions. Gutting State, local, and federal services - which makes this country habitable and the future livable, does not strike me as smart.

Looking clearly at where we are spending our federal dollars, as well as how we are raising our tax dollars makes more sense. Returning our military toward a more defensive posture, and our dollars to the local services where they are much needed - for infrastructure redevelopment and education, makes more sense, too. Reevaluating and redesigning our tax structures, and returning to a goal of fairness and progressivity, makes the most sense. Let's hope that not only Congress - in whatever shape it occurs, and all our State and local governments, has the intelligence, sense, and yes - courage - to do this, and soon - before the National Guard comes home and has to defend us from the Army!

Here's to water main redevelopment and property tax reform!

nine years later

I had not been paying attention to the date, nor the news, so when the offer came to go out to Damariscove Island to do some shore clean-up, I jumped at the chance. Damariscove is one of those places where people of European and native American descent have been visiting for over 400 years, and you can feel it. It belongs now to the Boothbay Region Land Trust; lobstermen love it that it's mostly public and they can use it as they always have.

Rusty Brewer took the Browns, the Palmers and Al Strauss and me out, and helped us haul over 40 smashed traps off the north shore of the island, off the beach where I went swimming nearly 50 years ago. Later, the traps were piled on the pier to wait for a rubbish barge coming on Tuesday.

And then I realized it was 9/11.

A bonfire had been built to take care of the wood and other burnable trash. Larry Brown and some others had found an old, torn up US flag, and decided we should burn it - the way you should when a flag is old and worn out. So a number of us stood around the bonfire, and shared where we were - nine years ago. Al Johnson and Dick Palmer had gone kayaking out to Damariscove, and hadn't known what happened until they saw their wives waving at them from the shore at Grimes Cove. Others had been glued to the TV, even at their jobs. I was glued, too, while I tried calling and calling my daughter-in-law, a 5th grade teacher at PS 234, the school right next to the Trade Center.

Her husband, Ben, was doing a medical internship in Farmington, NM, and not home in NYC on 9/11. So he'd called right away to me in California when he could not reach his wife, Torrey. We finally got through to her late that day when the computers got going again. Later that year, after many moves with her 5th grade class, she commented that in their writings, the dominant memory these 9 and 10 year olds had, was the sight and sound of the bodies falling from the sky.

Today, these young people are 19 and 20 year olds. I wish that I thought that we as a people could honor their memories in a better way than to fight endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. No amount of rational terror - like a vengeful war - can erase the sight and sounds of those bodies falling from the sky.

Of Finns, hurricanes, and fish at the end of summer

The Finns arrived with friends George and Jane last Friday when Hurricane Earl was supposed to arrive, but did not. Pirkku and Simo, Markku and Raili, are from Helsinki, Finland and love to fish. Markku and Simo fished out of Lynn, Massachusetts, on their first day here. When they arrived in Boothbay, they were to have fished right away, but Earl decided to intimidate us all, and we postponed it until Labor Day. Priscilla came out of the water and then went right back in. So, on Labor Day, MArkku and Simo and George went fishing again, this time with Capt. Dan Wolotsky out of Boothbay Harbor. They caught 10 fish, a mix of stripers and blues; Markku had a battle with a seal over one fish and won the battle but lost the fish; and they brought home 4 stripers.
Later, we went for a brief sail, and then headed up to Castle Island Camps in Belgrade for some fresh water fishing.
Castle Island Camps is an old-style fishing camp - with small cabins and great views, and a dining room with a bull moose head and a big stone fireplace. I took Pirkku and Raili on the Great Pond mailboat while the guys went out on their own to fish. Great Pond is the place that the story and movie, "On Golden Pond," is based , and Capt. Norm of the mailboat was a wonderful storyteller. The guys caught some bass, we had a wonderful picnic and then I came home.

I can't remember when I've had such a wonderful time at the end of summer!