Rick and Rosemary Osann. Mike Reynolds

Jan 25, 2026

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SUPPORT OF LD1870

Dear Bar Harbor Town Council

We understand that the Climate Emergency Task Force has asked the Council to vote for a resolution to support LD1870, which proposes to create a Maine Climate Superfund, funded by companies that have contributed to pollution and climate-related damages in our state.

We highly encourage you to support this endeavor by the state legislature. As time goes on and our climate continues to warm, the damages to town infrastructure are going to continue happening and costing more and more money. Our town relies heavily upon and is highly dependent upon shoreline infrastructure and the repair costs from climate-related damage would devastate our town budget and force taxes on our residents to shoot up even higher.

This bill seeks to take the financial responsibility for climate-related damages off the backs of small towns and their residents and place it in the pockets of the corporations that have contributed to the pollution that is causing climate change.

Every town along the coast or rivers of our state should be writing to the legislature in support of bill LD 1870 to encourage our senators and representatives to pass this bill before we suffer another devastating storm like two years ago.

Sincerely,

Rick and Rosemary Osann

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What, then, must we do?

As a longtime James Taylor fan, I could not help but turn my thoughts this week to Martin Luther King, recognize there are ties between us of hope and love, and that we are bound together by the task that stands before us. That task is both a simple one and a difficult one—to commit our lives and actions to creating a world forged in peace, love, justice and understanding for all people.

I then turned my thoughts to Renee Nicole Good, and recognized that there is something to wrestle with: that it is much easier, much more fun, and much more lucrative to quote, worship and revere both Dr. King and the Jesus he committed himself to as heroes than it is to live by their teachings as prophets. It becomes impossible to get around Dr. King’s most famous quote, that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Mrs. Good was murdered, pure and simple, by agents acting on the orders of the president of the United States, whose administration has continually attempted to justify it as an act of self-defense by a law enforcement agent against a dangerous criminal – despite vastly overwhelming evidence to the contrary, and is refusing to investigate it. The violence has continued in Minnesota, and is likely to continue here in Maine in the coming weeks.

Should I as a citizen compromise with this injustice and just keep on keeping on? Can I? In good conscience I cannot…not if am to I take Dr.King’s words as anything more than just another cruel joke.

What, then, must I do? What is the “task that stands before me?” I suppose writing this letter is one thing, and to anyone who might agree with me, I suppose it becomes your task as well. We must first call attention to injustice wherever we see it, record it, and call it out for what it is—cruel and unacceptable. I’ve called our Congress people and made my views clear to them, but there is more to do. Several progressive organizations sponsored a national walkout that was held Tuesday, January 20. My wife and I took part in this at 2 p.m. in Southwest Harbor. But that can be just a start. The Minnesota AFL-CIO is urging a general strike for two weeks beginning January 23. Workers not involved in directly serving the public are urged to walk off the job for two weeks, or until Congress halts funding for the Department of Homeland Security until ICE is investigated, reformed, professionalized, and those performing random, excessive violence are held to account.

To this, I would add waging a national consumer strike. My wife and I are committing ourselves to buying nothing for the next two weeks. A general boycott combined with a general strike sends a message that we citizens do not approve of these oppressive actions, and will not materially support them.

Mike Reynolds
Tremont