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Maine GOP Governor Uses Shady Fax To Justify Removing Labor Mural
Another Right-wing, Republican Governor is getting into trouble, this time in Maine. Governor Paul LePage is ordering a mural at the state Department of Labor (DOL) taken down because it is biased against business. Yes, a department that is supposed to look after the interests of the working man/woman has to take down a mural that celebrates the working man/woman.
LaPage has intensified the storm because he not only wants the mural gone, he wants the names of conference rooms, which are named after such luminaries as Frances Perkins (secretary of labor for President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the first woman to hold a Cabinet post) and César Chávez, in the DOL building changed. Yes, you heard that right. He’s taking micro-managing to the extreme.
You may have noticed LaPage, who became Governor with only 38% of the vote in a three-way race, isn’t the first Republican Governor to declare war on working people. It appears he’s jealous of the attention that other Republican Governors (Scott Walker of Wisconsin, Mitch Daniels of Indiana, John Kasich of Ohio, Rick Snyder of Michigan and Chris Christie of New Jersey) are getting, even if they are getting it for all the wrong reasons.
According to The Lewiston Sun-Journal, LaPage’s spokesperson Dan Demeritt said the administration felt the mural and the conference room monikers showed “one-sided decor” not in keeping with the department’s pro-business goals. I don’t know about Maine, but most states have a Department of Labor (DOL), and a Department of Commerce. Usually the way it works is that the state DOL stands up for the rights of workers while the Department of Commerce is responsible for the business agenda the Governor wants to promote.
If you are thinking that a lot of this is shady, you are far from alone. Via The Portland Press-Herald, they quote another LaPage spokesperson, Adrienne Bennett, who provided the newspaper with one fax in support of the Governor’s move. It said:
“In this mural I observed a figure which closely resembles the former commissioner of labor,” the person wrote. “In studying the mural I also observed that this mural is nothing but propaganda to further the agenda of the Union movement. I felt for a moment that I was in communist North Korea where they use these murals to brainwash the masses.”
It was signed “A Secret Admirer.” As the newspaper also notes, it appears the supporting fax was sent from the DOL building lobby.
The mural in question was erected in 2008 following a jury selection by the Maine Arts Commission and a $60,000 federal grant. The 11-panel piece, done by Maine artist Judy Taylor, depicts several moments, including the 1937 shoe mill strike in Auburn and Lewiston, “Rosie the Riveter” at Bath Iron Works, and the paper mill workers’ strike of 1986 in Jay.
One wonders where the protests were before now. It’s a sign of extreme Republican hubris that they think they can get away with this attack on workers and their rights. People are pissed off at big business and their stooges because of the economic mess they caused. It appears the breaking point has been reached, at least in some states. One hopes that Maine fights back against this arrogant Governor and reaffirms the rights of workers.
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18 Responses to Maine GOP Governor Uses Shady Fax To Justify Removing Labor Mural
Sarah Jones
Mar. 23rd, 2011 at 6:17 pm
Kill the art! Kill labor! Must not appear to have any compassion or appreciation for either, lest the Tea Party comes after him….So sad. Little men.
Karen
Mar. 23rd, 2011 at 6:28 pm
the Ministry of Truth™ at your service, ma’am.
We’ll take care of those murals and drop them down memory holes so you won’t ever have to be troubled by the memory of the privileges you or your ancestors use to have.
move along… nothing to see here…. move along
Phil Perspective
Mar. 23rd, 2011 at 6:34 pm
You are so right. As the Maine AFL-CIO director was quoted in one newspaper, corporate people never go to the DOL. They proably go to the Department of Commerce, if Maine has one.
Scott Rose
Mar. 23rd, 2011 at 6:31 pm
People should react to this with sarcasm. Hold a rally outside the building, waving placards with the Koch brothers’ pictures, and bearing slogans like “We demand lower wages and longer hours now!”
Phantom
Mar. 23rd, 2011 at 6:37 pm
Holy Crap! $60,000 for THAT?? Ridiculous! I, and many others, could have done it for far cheaper, and saved tax-payers a bundle.
Phil Perspective
Mar. 23rd, 2011 at 6:56 pm
I haven’t seen where it says the actual size. My guess is that it is pretty big. Also, are you that good a painter/artist?
Sarah Jones
Mar. 23rd, 2011 at 7:01 pm
And yet some will justify 6 billion for someone who drove a company into the ground and required a bail out. Hmmm……
Phantom
Mar. 23rd, 2011 at 7:21 pm
Yeah, about bail-outs:what’s up with THAT?? Straight out THEFT of tax money. But,back to the mural, that cost is freakin’ ridiculous! Mr. Perspective, I am a cartoonist, and that mural is a cartoon.(Not saying it’s badly done, but $60,000???)
Shiva (Moderator)
Mar. 23rd, 2011 at 6:59 pm
I admit I have a real soft spot in my heart for corporations who get big tax breaks and then are cut to the deep by a mural.
I admit once again that I just don’t know why the Republicans in tea party are trying so hard to shun the working people of America. Either the fix for 2012 is in or they just don’t care
Sarah Jones
Mar. 23rd, 2011 at 7:01 pm
It breaks your heart doesn’t it? LOL.
Shiva (Moderator)
Mar. 23rd, 2011 at 7:02 pm
Sent you an interesting tweet
Sarah Jones
Mar. 23rd, 2011 at 7:07 pm
Speechless.
Phantom
Mar. 23rd, 2011 at 7:23 pm
Thank God.
(KIDDING!!!!!!!!!)
Phil Perspective
Mar. 23rd, 2011 at 7:21 pm
Because corporation want to kill the golden goose. They want to take us back to 1840, or even 1890.
novenator
Mar. 23rd, 2011 at 7:58 pm
Yet the Republicans want to permanently etch “in god we trust” on public buildings, violating the separation of church and state!
Sally
Mar. 23rd, 2011 at 10:29 pm
So the GOP trusts in God, but not women’s ability to manage their own bodies (I think birth control will be the next thing they attack!) They trust corporations, but not the workers who make them profitable. They trust tax breaks for billionaires to create jobs, but not the 100 years of history that says that’s a lie. And they trust Boehner, who cheats on his wife, but not the President, who has a beautiful, loving family. They’re jealous, aren’t they? And they think that these regressive attitudes will do what for them? Lose them the entire House, all the contested governorships next year, and the Senate and WH, if you ask me. Who will be dumb enough to vote for turning this country into Haiti?
Anne
Mar. 24th, 2011 at 2:20 am
Another Tea Party nutcase makes his presence felt. I believe he was one of Palin’s endorsees in 2010, and he seems as nutty as she is. I guess that mural is too much a reminder of the people of his state that he wants to deprive of rights, so he doesn’t want to look at it.
Abeer Foamy
Mar. 24th, 2011 at 7:44 am
This is reminiscen t of the Taliban destroying the ancient and historically significant Buddhas of Bamiyan carved into the hills of Kabul Afghanistan. International communities rebuked their actions, as an extreme example of intolerance. The destructio n of irreplaceable antiquity, on a scale commensurate with the Sphinx in Egypt, made the world aware of just how dangerous they really are before they took down the Twin Towers.
The Tea Party strikes me as a Christian derivative of the same ignorant following as their Muslim brothers. They have the same disdain for women and children and stubbornly shove their brand of religion down everybody’s throat. Their real religion is greed, and the Christian pretense is but a Union that they manipulate to stay in power and keep their pockets full. They are intolerant of any body else’s Union.