This guest column, written by Shannon Meade, was originally published in the Bangor Daily News.
A treatment program or medical appointment two counties away is of little use to someone without a car, gas money or a dependable ride. Employment cannot stabilize a family when there is nowhere affordable to live.
I support Hannah Pingree because her record and her priorities show me an understanding that rural policy must still work after it leaves Augusta.
Raised on North Haven, Pingree has served in the Legislature, run a small business, chaired a school board and led state policy work.
Pingree’s healthcare proposals seek to address rural provider shortages, mental health treatment, substance use recovery, mobile crisis services and crisis centers intended to reduce unnecessary hospitalization and incarceration. Her housing proposals recognize that different regions need different solutions and that stable housing is the foundation upon which employment, recovery and family life depend.
I spend my working days inside a system devoted to deciding what government should do after something has gone wrong. The next governor must give equal attention to what government can do before the damage hardens into a criminal case, a medical emergency, an eviction or another family forced to leave the community it calls home.
I believe Pingree has the experience to run state government. More important to me, she has shown seriousness about reaching people before the state’s only remaining response is coercion. That is difficult, unglamorous work. It is also where much of public safety begins.
From my place as a public defender in Washington County, that is the kind of governor Maine needs. The views expressed here are my own.
Shannon Meade
Machiasport
