The Honorable Janet Mills
Governor of Maine
1 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333
Dear Governor Mills,
After vacationing in Maine
pretty much every year since 1991, I moved to Bath in 2015 and I've been
unknowingly practicing social distancing since. My background is unique in that
I have a BS in physical science and a MBA. I started my investment business in
1995 and I have to confess I've made money during this crisis. Besides my wife
having a PhD in linguistics and speaking seven languages, my oldest daughter is
a Army Captain, Chemical Corps, taking graduate classes in California and my youngest daughter
lives in Sweden.
One could say I'm uniquely
positioned with the educational background, wife, kids and the time needed to
really dig into what the country's response has been thus far and what we
should be doing going forward.
First of all, thank you for
doing what you are doing. I can't imagine the stress resulting from your
decision process. Governor Mills, please error on the side of liberty and take
the Constitution and the Bill of Rights into consideration with every order you
sign. This crisis will pass and we don't want to look back and realized we
tossed out our founding principles to save lives when the truth is our state
and country has countless graves of men and women who died earning and
protecting those rights.
Having our police officers stop
and question folks with out of state license plates is smart on one hand but
absolutely not constitutional. Telling folks from "away" they must
self quarantine for 14 days or be subject to a thousand dollar fine and up to
six months in jail makes a law abiding citizen like me angry. America is unique
in the world in that we can travel from coast to coast, from Canada to Mexico
without papers. That's something you don't give up without a fight.
A few weeks ago you shut down
Fort Baldwin, Fort Popham and Popham Beach? Have you ever been to Fort Baldwin?
Fort Baldwin covers six acres and has a ten car parking lot that I've never
seen more than six cars visit at one time. I was at Popham Beach the
weekend before you shut it down. It was as busy as I've ever seen it during the
off season but even if the parking lot was full (and it wasn't) it's still
incredibly easy to practice social distancing. Install a hand sanitizer station
at each outdoor toilet and put up a sign reminding folks to use it and practice
social distancing and we will be fine.
Governor, give us the
information we need, treat us like adults and trust us to follow directions. A
virus doesn't give you or anyone the right to violate our inalienable rights. Quarantining
the healthy for weeks and weeks to protect the sick and elderly is not
constitutional. I hear over and over that this virus is more lethal than the seasonal flu, and I believe them, but how can anyone know lethality if we
don't know the number of infected? That should be your first and most important
clue to guide decisions based on what we know and not what everyone keeps says
over and over as fact.
Rural states, like Maine, have different needs than say Boston. It's pretty obvious that mass transit,
airports, concerts, sporting events, school, etc... are vectors that spread the
virus. It's also now proven this virus is NOT as deadly as we once thought,
especially to healthy people, yet you haven't changed our approach with this
new information. Matter of fact you seem to be doubling down. Contrary to what
one might think this could be a great summer for Maine because people will want
to flee the cities and Maine has the room for them to spread out and be
safe.
America must get back to work,
if for nothing else than to honor those who gave their lives founding and
protecting this nation.
Sincerely,
David Beemer
Bath, Maine
Former Naval Officer
Small Business Owner |
| Fort Popham on a busy day... |