When I was a little girl growing up in Bangor, I remember my father scribbling a few words on a piece of paper and handing it to my mother, asking what she thought of using his poem as the slogan for our family’s men’s retail business. She replied, “That’s really corny. Try something else.” And so, “Short or tall, big or small, John Paul fits ’em all” was born.
I share this with you because I learned at an early age to respect and nurture creative thinking. If we are ever going to solve problems that are becoming increasingly more complex, we must surround ourselves with leaders who have the courage to think outside the box, push boundaries and build strong, capable teams that will work tirelessly to solve old challenges by breaking new ground.
Eliot Cutler, a Bangorian like me, is just such a person. And he came along at exactly the right time, because unfortunately, both establishment political parties have let us down by offering a choice of two seriously flawed candidates.
Now, we only have to hope that Mainers are strong enough to not buckle under the weight of political manipulation, with supposed “gurus” telling us to “follow the polls,” because the polls know what’s best for us. Polls don’t vote; we do. And if we’re not careful here, we will get what we don’t want and definitely don’t deserve.
Mike Michaud is a nice man. Great! But as someone who has spent the better part of my professional life in leadership roles in job training and nonprofit management, I can tell you that we have too many people in Maine who are hurting, and being a “nice guy” doesn’t mean you have the know-how or leadership skills to think outside the box or reinvent old and dated systems that are no longer working.
And then there’s our governor — leader of my party. (Yes, I am a long-time registered Republican. I have even had the honor of working professionally for several of our distinguished Republican leaders.) Paul LePage has a compelling personal story, one that’s hard to hear without admiring his courage, determination and commitment to public service.
Somewhere along the line, though, when he was taking all those night classes and working his way up by the bootstraps, he forgot to enroll in leadership 101. He gets confused between bringing people together to move agendas forward and cramming mandates down everyone’s throat, often in the crudest manner possible. Then he complains when he can’t get his pet projects through, blaming everyone but himself. Didn’t anyone ever tell him that you can’t be a leader without followers?
The Democratic word on the street is “Don’t be a spoiler. A vote for Cutler is a vote for LePage.” I say this to the Democrats: Shame on you for giving us a candidate who is not up to the job! I will vote for the best person to unify this state and lead us forward, and you did not even come close to nominating that person.
The Republicans would have us believe that it’s OK to be crude, obnoxious and insensitive to those who are honestly struggling to make their way in this tough economy, as long as you continue to lower taxes. That’s just an excuse for a party that did not look long and hard enough for a candidate with the intellect, vision, experience and leadership to move Maine forward.
Maine is hiring a governor, and we have three applicants: the first brings to the table a mediocre and undistinguished record of public service; the second offers us a history of uncontrolled temper tantrums with questionable results; and the third has a well-documented, long and distinguished career, succeeding at ever-expanding challenges in both the public and private sectors. Maine needs help, and I wouldn’t take a chance on anyone who did not have a history of past successes. That narrows the choice down pretty quickly.
My vote goes to Cutler because he presents what both our parties failed to give us: a keen intellect, outside-the-box thinking, bold and innovative ideas and a solid base of experience from which to draw. In my dad’s words, he “fits ’em all.”
Betsy Paul Levenson of Windham is a retired executive director of the Training Resource Center, a job training program in Cumberland County; a former member of the Maine Economic Growth Council; and former chair of the Maine Commission for Women.