We the People of Fryeburg Maine

Mike Corthell

It's good to remember and learn from the past but do we want to live in it?

ECONOMICS AND EMOTION: MEETING ON POSSIBLE SCHOOL CLOSING TAPS INTO BOTH

This Daily Sun headline refers to Conway's school situation but it applies to Fryeburg as well. It says much about our economic dilemma: We need more MONEY to run our town – period.

Money is an emotional issue, it's hard to come by and there is a finite amount of it available. (that statement - '' finite amount of it available'' is untrue, more on that later) What makes this issue ramp up a bit higher than other costly town issues it that it concerns our children and rightly so.

But generally speaking, budgetary issues at their core have their contentiousness rooted in residential property taxes. People always have a problem with both increased governmental spending and the higher taxes need to pay the governments bills.

We the people really, and I mean really need to come to terms with 'who' the government is. I'll quote a man that I admire and have come to know through my study of him, Abraham Lincoln. It's from the Gettysberg Address, ''...that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

The above cannot be any clearer. It is America, the great political experiment that has endured for over 200 years, sometimes at a terrible cost. The red stripes on our flag symbolize it - in the blood sacrifices that have kept us free.

What does this have to do with Fryeburg taxes you ask? A lot. All of us here in Fryeburg 18 years of age and over have the civic duty and obligation to vote. We are the legislative body. We can also run for office, we can sit on committes, we decide the course and destiny of our town. We have opinions. We have want, need and our own budgetary issues.

I have questions for all of you:

• Is Fryeburg on the right 'track' economically?
• Is Fryeburg a better place to live today than in the past?
• Is our town government working well?
• If you think not, will you step up and volunteer to make Fryeburg a better place to live, work and play?
• Will you, in that spirit of civic pride, add your voice to mine and others?

Remember the 'government' is us. We need to solve the problems that beset us. We are the government and we are sovereign.

Please join me in support of all things good in our town and make them better. I don't expect everyone to have the same level of involvement or interest as myself. But any time that you can give is invaluable to Fryeburg's future and I have to say our children's futures as well.

When I stated that money in not finite, that is absolutely true because money, capital is created. We can create more money for Fryeburg. AND it's not hard to do. It just takes three(3) things: A plan, some time and a sustained effort. That effort is an economic plan to expand the tax base.

Finally, do you want to know how Edison invented and perfected the incandescent lamp, how Ford developed the V-8 engine or how thousands and thousands of people succeed in life? They all knew what they wanted, they absolutely believed that they would succeed in getting it, and they never took no for an answer. Simply, persistence pays off.

We the people my fellow citizens of Fryeburg, WE THE PEOPLE are responsible for our town's governance.

I'll leave you with two quotes:

“To win the big stakes in this changed world, you must catch the spirit of the great pioneers of the past, whose dreams have given to civilization all that it has of value, the spirit that serves as the life-blood of our own country – your opportunity and mine, to develop and market our talents.”

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“First comes thought; then organization of that thought, into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination.”
― Napoleon Hill