The abuse of vulnerable Maine people, especially older citizens, is an insidious problem.
 
Good morning, I am Governor Janet Mills, and thank you for listening.
 
Every year, more than 33,000 Maine people over the age of sixty are reportedly abused or exploited. 
 
Every year, between $10.5 million and $64 million in savings and assets are stolen from older Maine people through financial exploitation.
 
Far too often, older citizens are alone and isolated, and they depend on only one or two people, sometimes family members, for their well-being and they are hesitant to ask for help. 
 
Elder abuse has no home in Maine.
 
Eradicating abuse requires state government, law enforcement, aging organizations and financial professionals to work together to protect our seniors.
 
When I was District Attorney and later as Attorney General, I prosecuted many crimes against older Maine people and, in 2014, I convened a Task Force to combat financial exploitation of seniors.
 
We made changes to judicial case management, to staffing, and to specialized training for law enforcement to ferret out abuse and investigate it in a streamlined fashion.
 
And earlier this year, I signed into law “An Act to Protect Vulnerable Adults from Financial Exploitation,” which requires certain professionals who suspect financial exploitation to report those concerns to the Office of Securities and to Adult Protective Services. 
 
These were all important steps, but I think we can do more to help protect Maine people and especially Maine seniors.
 
You know we need to have a multi-agency, multi-sector response — get rid of the silos in communications — to keep older Maine people safe from abuse, neglect and all forms of exploitation. 
 
That’s why this week, I established by Executive Order the Elder Justice Coordinating Partnership.
 
That Partnership brings together many people and it’s the brainchild of Legal Services for the Elderly, the Elder Abuse Institute, the Long Term Care Ombudsman, the Maine Association of Area Agencies on Aging, the Coalition Against Sexual Assault, the Coalition to End Domestic Violence and it’s got support from the John T. Gorman Foundation. 
 
This is not going to cost public tax dollars, but this Partnership is important because it’s going to be formed of state agencies including the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Public Safety and the Maine State Police and statewide organizations and nonprofits.
 
They are going to develop the “Elder Justice Roadmap” in the coming months.
 
I look forward to the work of this Elder Justice Coordinating Partnership and, in the meantime, I look forward to strengthening our processes and actions and strengthening law enforcement — right now, the Department of the Attorney General is hiring a specialist in their investigations division to help train local police officers to ferret out financial exploitation.
 
So, we’re doing everything we can, we’re not going to stop, until we put an end to elder abuse and neglect and financial exploitation.
 
I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

Last week I led the largest delegation ever from the State of Maine to the Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavik.

Good morning, I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening. 

Well, why were we in Iceland you might ask?

Well Maine’s delegation traveled to Iceland this year as it has many times before to certainly renew and reinforce trade relationships with the North Atlantic, that are fortified now by expanding shipping routes, and to encourage exchanges of business, academic, and research information between Maine and North Atlantic countries.

You know Eimskip, the oldest shipping company in Iceland, helped us transform an old facility in the Portland, Maine waterfront into a bustling port, linking our state to worldwide markets.

As a result, trade between Iceland and Maine increased more than four thousand percent over one two-year period as east coast businesses found new opportunities along the Green Line shipping route.

Next year, Eimskip will directly connect Maine to Greenland, expanding opportunities for trade and collaboration between our people in unprecedented ways.

This sea route, forged by the explorers of our past and merchants of the present, is a reminder of how regions can work together in the pursuit of a prosperous future.

Maine is poised to become the hub, the eastern gateway to the Arctic, a region whose allure we have shared since Portland explorer Robert Peary set foot on the North Pole in 1909.

Maine is bathed by the same north Atlantic waters, the same rising, warming waves that lap the shores of Iceland, but it is more than ocean waters that draws us together. 

It is more than the cultural and economic currents of our shared fisheries, our academic institutions, or even our trade in broccoli, mint chocolate, potatoes, lobsters, lumber, blueberries and beer — a lot more than that.

I realized that when I learned that the Gulf of Maine is warming faster than 99% of the world’s ocean bodies. And then when I heard from our fishermen that lobsters are moving north and eastward into colder waters; and when I saw a devastating breed of insects, tics, migrating from warmer climates, and attacking and killing the moose in Maine. 

I knew then we have a lot to talk about with our north Atlantic neighbors. 

We need to talk about a world where we can accept science without polemic, where we work in a solid front, with a common goal, with sometimes uncommon means, to mitigate well-known dangerous effects of greenhouse gas emissions in this common purpose and goal — attacking climate change, on our natural resources, on our economy and on the health and survival of our citizenry.

Our Administration is committed to fighting climate change and mitigating its effects.

In just nine months, we have enacted significant standards for renewable energy in Maine. We are investing in clean energy and conservation, electric vehicles and energy efficiency and community resiliency. We support sequestration of carbon in our soil and forests through sustainable forestry practices.  

While in Iceland I signed an agreement with the Prime Minister of Finland for us to share forest research, product development, and sustainability practices in the face of a changing climate.

Both Maine and Finland depend so much on our forests, I know we can learn from Finland, and I think that Finland can learn from us.

We also now have a Climate Council in Maine to determine what we have to do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. 

This year, Maine also joined the bipartisan “U.S. Climate Alliance,” the coalition that is determined to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. 

A few weeks ago, I stood before the United Nations General Assembly and promised the world that Maine will be carbon neutral by 2045. And we are taking steps every day to get there.

At the same time, we will be expanding our economy, attracting young people to our state, and encouraging young people to stay with good-paying new green collar jobs.

Maine is small, but Maine is fiercely determined. In Iceland they like to say there are no problems, only solutions.

Iceland’s Prime Minister says “It can be an advantage to be small. You can do things bigger and faster. You can actually change everything in a short amount of time.” Well, we know that too.

As a state which has also changed a lot in a short amount of time, Maine knows firsthand that we cannot — and are not — waiting for others to lead.

I am Governor Janet Mills.

Thank you for listening.

Health care saves lives.

That is why one of my Administration’s top priorities is to ensure that Maine families, small businesses, and self-employed people have access to high-quality, affordable health care. 

While we have made significant progress by expanding MaineCare to more than 38,000 people this year, protecting health care for Maine people with pre-existing conditions and passing legislation to reduce prescription drug costs, and supporting treatment to combat the opioid epidemic, we still can do more.

Good morning, I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

This week I announced a statewide campaign called CoverME to help Maine people, individuals self-employed, and small businesses understand their health insurance choices and sign up for the coverage that they need.

Later this month, CoverME will run digital and tv ads across the State of Maine about the importance of health insurance. The campaign will distribute education materials about MaineCare expansion and the upcoming open enrollment period for private HealthCare.gov plans, that runs from November 1 to December 15 of this year. 

The CoverME campaign is supported by a $750,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and it requires no state funding.  

You know health care should not be a luxury, or a privilege reserved for well to do people, and yet more than 106,000 Maine people do not have health insurance. 

That is unacceptable. You know we all get sick, we all need to go to a doctor at some point, and as Governor, my top priority is to ensure that every Maine person is able to see a doctor, to get preventive care and to afford critical prescription medications so they can all stay healthy, and work and care for their families.

I hope that if your family or you are struggling with medical bills in our complicated health care system, you will please visit www.CoverME.gov to find out if you qualify for affordable, quality health care coverage.

That’s www.coverme — c-o-v-e-r.m-e —.gov.

You can also call 1-800-965-7476 for free help.

That’s 1-800-965-7476.

I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

This week’s radio address features Governor Mills’ remarks as delivered to the United Nation’s General Assembly on Monday, September 23rd for the 2019 Climate Action Summit.
 
Distinguished delegates and guests, members of the General Assembly:

Maine won’t wait.

Our small state of 1.3 million people, which juts out of the northeast corner of this country, bordering Canada, bending toward Europe, 90% forested, with clean water, rolling hills, fertile farmlands, mighty rivers and deep ports, about 3,000 miles of bold rocky jagged bold coast.

Our whole state is experiencing climate change — our weather, our iconic lobster industry, our insect populations; the warming, rising fish-rich seas that bathe our shores.

Maine won’t wait.

So we have just enacted the most significant renewable standards in the country. We are investing in clean energy and conservation, electric vehicles and energy efficiency, community resiliency, sequestering carbon in our soil and forests with sustainable forest practices.

We are cutting our appetite for fossil fuels, on which we have come to depend so much for heat, electricity and transportation.

And we have invented the most innovative floating offshore wind platforms in the world.

These investments will not impair our economy; they will in fact improve it and bolster it.

We are doing these things now, because we believe the irrefutable science.

Maine won’t wait.

Will you?

We all have what it takes to combat climate change, to protect the irreplaceable earth we share and care for.

What is more precious than water, air, soil, the health and happiness of our children and our children’s children and yours?

For all of them, today, by Executive Order, I have pledged that the State of Maine will be carbon neutral by 2045.

And if our small state can do it, you can as well.

We’ve got to unite to preserve our precious common ground, for our common planet, in uncommon ways for this imperative common purpose.

Maine won’t wait.

Will you?

Thank you.

It has been a tough week for the town of Farmington and for the state of Maine.

Good morning, I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

At about 8:07 Monday morning, Farmington firefighters responded to a report of a smell of propane in the Life Enrichment Advancing People (LEAP) office building, a brand new building, on the Farmington Falls Road in Farmington.

LEAP maintenance worker Larry Lord evacuated employees from the building. Firefighters were investigating inside when the building exploded moments later. Larry Lord’s actions undoubtedly saved many lives.

We lost a brave firefighter - Captain Michael Bell of Farmington- while others, including Larry Lord, and our Police Chief Terry Bell, brother of Michael Bell, remain hospitalized.

You know, I was born and raised in Farmington, and it’s my home still. I know the Bell family and I have a great deal of respect for every one of them.

Captain Michael Bell served our community with dedication for 30 years. His loss is one that is deeply felt by the greater Farmington community.

In times of tragedy I sometimes think about Fred Rogers, you know Mr. Rogers, who said “....Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”

Firefighters from as far away as Saco are on-site in Farmington to help our community. Office space for LEAP employees has been donated by the Western Maine Development Group. The Red Cross is organizing a blood drive next Wednesday, September 25th at the University of Maine at Farmington from noon to 5 p.m. And, people are fundraising to help the families and the people displaced by the explosion.

I am deeply grateful for all of the efforts to help our community heal and I hope you will also consider helping in whatever way you can.

In the meantime, the investigation into the cause and origin of this explosion is underway. I have directed the Fire Marshal’s office to do as much as they can, as soon as they can to determine the cause of this tragic explosion.

While this was a terrible event for the town of Farmington and for our broader community, I am confident that we will emerge from this as a stronger community, a stronger state, and a stronger people because that is who we are as Mainers.

I hope that you will join me in offering hopes, thoughts and prayers for the full recovery of those injured.

And, by the way, if you see a first responder, please give them a hug and thank them for the service they perform for the people of Maine.

I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

When my husband, Stan, suffered a stroke six years ago and passed away a year later, I got to be all too familiar with the ups and downs of health care and the health insurance industry and system in Maine.

I became the “reassurer in chief” for our five daughters and the “treasurer in chief” for our family finances.

I gave our friends some guarded hope...hope I didn’t always feel myself. But I was the strong one, the advocate, the informed one.

Privately, I tried to figure out what the insurance would pay for and what it wouldn’t.

Good morning, I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

Now, I am a lawyer. At the time of my husband’s illness, I was Maine’s Attorney General.

I am no shrinking violet, but what about other families who are forced to do battle with health insurance companies at a time in their lives when they are least able to cope with a crisis?

And what about the families who don’t have any savings or income to pay the bills, the deductibles and copays and prescription drug costs?

Those families are why our administration has worked so hard to make health care coverage more affordable in Maine.

In the last eight months:

• We’ve expanded MaineCare to more than 36,000 people.
• We put federal consumer protections into state law.
• We named an Opioid Response Director - Gordon Smith - to establish a Prevention and Recovery Cabinet, to distribute 35,000 units of the life-saving, anti-overdose medication Naloxone and to train 250 recovery coaches statewide.
• And we enacted bills to allow for the wholesale importation of prescription drugs, to create a prescription drug affordability board, to increase drug price transparency and to better regulate pharmacy benefit managers.

I am proud of the work we have done with the Legislature, but there is more we can do to reduce health care costs in Maine.

So, earlier this month, I wrote to the federal government to tell them that Maine will pursue creating a State-Based Health Benefit Exchange on the Federal Platform – that’s a health exchange for Maine.

This way, Maine can engage in outreach and marketing and consumer assistance. We can help you, the consumer, and while the federal government will retain the cost of the website and call center for health insurance eligibility and enrollment.

This move will allow us to reach out to communities and small businesses we know who need access to health insurance but who are hard to reach and don’t know where to turn.

Enrolling more people, especially if they are younger and healthier individuals, will improve the market overall and should really lead to lower premiums for all people in health insurance plans.

And, having a State-Based Marketplace on the Federal Platform will protect Maine from the attempts to sabotage affordable health care by politicians in Washington, D.C.

The cost to establish a State-Based Market is minimal. In fact, we may even get back money from the federal government – some of the fees they already take from firms doing business in Maine – and the benefits will be large.

Maine will call the shots on educating and engaging consumers and supporting the navigators for open-enrollment periods.

I’ll be introducing legislation to establish the details of the new State Based Marketplace when the Legislature reconvenes in January.

You know, Stan and I were lucky, we had health insurance. But boy, dealing with copays and deductibles and the high cost of prescription drugs is such a challenge for all of us, and is an even greater challenge of course if you’re not lucky enough to have health insurance.

Health care coverage - I know you agree - should not be a luxury, or some privilege reserved for well to do people - it is a human right.

It is for Stan. It is for every Mainer. It is for you. It is for all of our state.

As governor, my goal is to ensure affordable, accessible health care for every Maine person, every small business, every self-employed person, every entrepreneur and every family across the state. Establishing this State-Based Health Benefit Exchange is one more step toward that goal.

I am Janet Mills, Governor of the State of Maine. Thank you for listening.

It is that time of year again, when slow summer months fade into shorter autumn days and our schools reopen their doors to another year of learning for children in Maine.

Good morning, I am Janet Mills, Governor of the State of Maine, and thank you for listening.

As over 180,000 students enter pre-kindergarten through grade 12 classrooms this year, I would like to take a moment to thank the 40,000 dedicated professionals who help our schools run so efficiently and successfully every year.

As the daughter of a long-time high school English teacher, I know firsthand how much all of you do for our state’s children.

Whether you are a superintendent or a member of the faculty, a cafeteria worker, a janitor, a bus driver, or another member of the staff, your commitment to quality education ensures that school is a place where every Maine student can reach his or her full potential.

From career and technical education classrooms with calculators, laptops, spreadsheets, chalk boards and white boards, to innovative robotics labs, to experiential learning in organic farms and gardens and ocean waterfronts in communities from Freeport to Fort Fairfield, education professionals are sparking our students’ curiosity to create one-of-a-kind learning opportunities and to inspire the workforce of tomorrow.

Our students are our future leaders, our entrepreneurs, our innovators, and our public servants. Teaching them the importance of hard work, of creative thinking and critical actions and building common ground to achieve progress is at the foundation of our strength as a state.

The growth of our economy depends on a skilled and diverse workforce, and that workforce is built every day by our schools’ unsung heroes – those teachers and staff who work every day to help our kids learn.

As Governor, please know that this Administration fully supports our schools, students, staff and teachers.

The biennial budget invests more than $120m additional funds in general purpose aid to education. It paves the way for a $40,000 minimum teacher salary and it allocates $18 million to the School Revolving Loan Fund to help our schools.

The budget also funds initiatives to feed more hungry school children, so they can focus on learning, expanding school lunch programs, so our kids will learn on full stomachs.

Maine is confronting a workforce shortage that will be solved, in part, by making sure that every able adult is working, and every child is getting a good education to allow them to flourish.

While schools across Maine play a pivotal role in that effort, we also have a responsibility…the rest of us, to support students.

Parents can help children succeed by reading to them and ensuring that the kids attend school all rested and ready to learn and helping them with their homework and getting a good night’s sleep.

Individuals and businesses can mentor students and provide internships, they can sponsor academic learning opportunities or volunteer in classrooms, so kids know the opportunities that are available to them across our state.

And, especially in the coming months, all of us can slow down on the roads and stop fully for school buses to protect the safety of students all across our state.

To our students and their families, faculty, staff and superintendents, I hope you have a great school year! On behalf of all Maine people, thank you and good luck!

I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

Two months ago, Republicans in the Legislature said that the price of my original bond proposal was too high. So, I reduced it.

They also said there should be four separate bills instead of one.

So, we broke it into four different bills for them to vote on.

I then personally called lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, invited their questions, and offered to accommodate any objections.

I thought we had arrived at a practical, responsible compromise that should have garnered bipartisan support.

Good morning, I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

Well surprise, surprise, the bonds did not all pass.

The first bond that lawmakers considered on Monday provided funding for equipment for our career and technical centers, for refurbishing and modernizing Maine National Guard facilities and for expanding broadband to rural Maine.

Career and technical education centers haven’t gotten significant funding for equipment since 1998. Our National Guardsmen deserve mission-ready facilities, not aging and outdated ones.

Key areas of our state, as you know, don’t have adequate internet to do things like telehealth and tele-education…to just conduct business. That’s what we need to attract new businesses and young families, and to support existing industries including farms, and fisheries and forest industries, all of whom have to be online. They need internet access.

The second bond I proposed included funds for municipal wastewater treatment, and to remediate hazardous waste sites, and for loans for heat pumps for Maine homeowners.

You know, Maine’s wastewater treatment systems are desperately in need of updating and there are more than 250 hazardous waste sites across the state that absolutely have to be cleaned up.

Heat pumps will certainly lower the costs of heating your home, and if voters were given the chance to approve this bond in November, heat pumps could have been available to homeowners with low-interest loans.

But that won’t happen now.

The third bond invested $20m over two years for the Land for Maine’s Future program, a very popular program, that also draws down at least $80m in matching funds.

That program guarantees public access to open lands for hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation and it preserves working waterfronts and family farms.

Nearly all of these programs had significant matching funds too.

Historically low interest rates put Maine in a very strong position right now – not next year, but right now - to finance these critical capital projects at very low costs.

If we just could have gotten these bonds out to bid as early as January or February, we might have been able to get interest rates as low as two percent or even lower.

I entered Monday’s legislative special session with a good sense of hope you know. I hoped that legislators, regardless of party, would see the value of letting Maine people decide the fate of these bonds. And I certainly had hoped that they would do so at a time when interest rates are so, so low.

Instead, a lot of people in the Legislature, Republicans in the House and Senate, just said no with no real reason given.

No to expanding broadband for our rural areas.

No to heat pumps.

No to conserving working waterfronts, family farms and lands for hunting.

No to repairing our critical National Guard facilities.

No to providing equipment to career and technical education centers to train more people in the trades.

You know in Maine, people expect – and deserve – better than that.

While the Legislature did pass our transportation bond, so we can fix some of our aging roads and bridges, Maine people just won’t have a chance this November to vote for broadband, for land and waterfront conservation, or for the equipment to help young people gain work in the trades.

Compromise is not always easy, and this Special Session reminds us that sometimes it’s not inevitable, no matter what the merits.

While I am disappointed, I will continue to fight for these priorities because they are what Maine people want and what our economy absolutely needs to grow in Maine, all across Maine.

I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

Earlier this week, I issued a proclamation to convene the Legislature for special session to consider infrastructure; wastewater treatment; land conservation; and transportation bonds. 

Good morning, I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening. 

With thousands of households and small businesses struggling with poor internet service, Mainers navigating aging roads and bridges, and with the future of Maine’s farm lands and working waterfronts at risk, Monday’s special session is a chance for the Legislature to pass much-needed bonds that address these issues head-on. 

In June, I proposed a much larger bond package which the Legislature really didn’t have time to consider. This revised proposal, which lawmakers will consider on Monday, is $76 million lower than our earlier proposal. We’ve listened to both sides about breaking the bonds up into four different bills and reducing the total amount.

So, I think this is a fair compromise that ought to garner bipartisan support. 

The first bond that lawmakers will consider would invest $23m in infrastructure. That includes $4m for capital equipment for career and technical centers across the state and $4m to refurbish and modernize Maine National Guard facilities across the state, with $4m in matching federal funds. The bond also invests $15m for capital expenses to expand broadband, especially in rural communities, and that will attract $45m in federal and private matching funds.

Career and technical education centers haven’t gotten significant funding in decades and our National Guardsmen and women deserve mission-ready facilities, not aging and outdated ones. 

And key areas of our state, as you know, lack adequate internet access to do things like telehealth and tele-education and to attract new businesses and new families, and support existing industries, including farms, fisheries and forestries, all of whom have to be online and use the internet.

The second bond would include $15m for municipal wastewater treatment, with $12.5m in matching federal funds, and for remediation of hazardous waste sites as well as loans for heat pumps for Maine homeowners. 

You know, Maine’s wastewater treatment systems are being polluted by old septic systems and more than 250 hazardous waste sites statewide need cleanup.

Heat pumps will drive down the costs of heating a home, and if voters approve this bond in November, heat pumps could be available to homeowners with low-interest loans for this very upcoming heating season. 

The third bond would invest $20m over two years for the Land for Maine’s Future program, a very popular program, that draws down at least $80m in matching funds.

LMF guarantees continued public access to open lands for hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation on these projects and it supports working waterfronts and family farms.

Routinely, Land for Maine’s Future bonds have garnered more than 60 percent voter approval at the polls and I am hoping the same will happen this November.

Finally, the transportation bond would invest $105m in transportation needs with $137m in matching federal funds. We desperately need to upgrade our roads, fix the darn potholes, bridges, ports, rail, and air transportation, repair culverts and a commercial fishing wharf.

You know, fundamentally, historically low interest rates are putting Maine in a very strong position right now to finance these critical capital projects at extremely low costs. 

If we can get these bonds out to bid as early as January, we might be able to get interest rates as low as two percent.

So, the proposal considered by the Legislature Monday tackles our most pressing issues, such as aging infrastructure, lack of rural internet service, the need for improved pollution control, and land and waterfront conservation through the Lands for Maine’s Future program.

Maine voters should have a right to decide the fate of these bonds at the ballot box this November and take advantage of significant matching funds and significantly low interest rates for these very time-sensitive projects.

I’m asking lawmakers on Monday to approve these bonds and send them to the voters, to you, for your consideration this November. 

I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening. 

Maine has a proud and storied history, and our bicentennial offers us the opportunity not only to honor that history, but to recommit ourselves to the values that shaped us as a state and as a people.

Good morning, I am Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.

You know our little state, jutting out of the northeast corner of our country, with a population of only 1.3 million, with four fulsome seasons of the year, and with its secret waterfalls, its forests, and hills and tablelands, its potato fields, its shores and mighty rivers…this place with many ancient eskers and glacial erratics, and kettles, and cirques and moraines, all of which give this state its physical character…there are no straight lines here.

This place is unique, this place we call home, and it offers so much to so many.

Maine is not just its natural resources and natural phenomenon, it is also its people.

For more than two hundred years, sons and daughters of Maine with courage in their souls, kindness in their hearts, an iron resolve, and an unshakeable, independent spirit have built this state and led the nation.

There are so many in this state who are “the unsung” as poet Wes McNair has called them.

They are the Wabanaki people like Joseph Attean, the legendary Governor of the Penobscot nation, a brave, open-hearted and forbearing individual, who guided Henry David Thoreau in his first moose hunt, through the vast and primitive wilderness to Chesuncook Lake.

They are the firefighters and teachers, the techies and hotel workers, the farmers and fishermen, and waiters and loggers, and the barbers and millworkers of our towns all across the state.

They are our friends, our neighbors. They are immigrants. They are laborers. Veterans. People with disabilities. People from away. People we rely on every day. And many who rely on us that make this state as great as it is.

Above my right shoulder in the Governor’s office hangs a portrait of one of those individuals, a farmer and mill worker, who championed our drive to statehood.

One of six children, William King was born to a poor family in Scarborough and worked in the sawmills and in the apple orchards and potato fields, and finally was a major general in the Maine militia.

The General, as he was known until the end of his life, became Maine’s first governor. As we finally shed the bounds of Massachusetts rule and embarked on creating our own destiny, General King spoke to the newly assembled legislature in Portland for the first time.

He said, “These citizens peaceably and quietly forming themselves into a new and independent State, framing and adopting with unexampled harmony and unanimity a constitution embracing all the essential principles of liberty and good government.”

Born out of a compromise that allowed slavery to endure in another part of the country during the darkest days of our nation, Maine’s new constitution enshrined voting rights regardless of race and provided for absolute freedom of religion in the guiding principles of our new state.

That would not be the last time our small state defied expectations and shaped the world because of brave men and women who rose above impossible odds.

A young man from Brewer, the oldest of five children, urged his governor and his classmates to fight for liberty and justice during the Civil War.

General Joshua Chamberlain went on to defend our nation at the Battle of Gettysburg, one of 80,000 sons of Maine who fought for the Union. When ammunition was running low and the fate of his regiment was most dire, General Chamberlain led the bayonet charge at Little Round Top and saved his men and turned the tide of the Civil War.

Another Maine general, Civil War general, also shaped our state.

While the Penobscot River drew thousands of ships every year and while Bangor became the lumber capital of the world, it was on the shores of the Kennebec River that General Thomas Hyde hired seven men to power a small iron business and build steady ships.

That small enterprise ending up being Bath Iron Works.

Now out of the morning mist of the Kennebec, and through the sun, rain, and snow of Maine, men and women of Bath Iron Works build mighty ships, continuing their long-standing tradition of excellence and protecting our country, our interests, and our allies from dangers all over the world.

It is not only soldiers, and it was not only men, that shaped the history of Maine. There was Harriet Beecher Stowe of Brunswick who turned the tide of the Civil War, and it was Cornelia “Fly Rod” Crosby who became the first registered Maine guide, and it was Margaret Chase Smith, Senator Smith from Skowhegan, who was the first woman to serve in both the House of Representatives and the Senate in the Congress of the United States.

As governor, it is my privilege to meet with Maine people from every corner of our state, and leaders are not simply those relegated to history books.

Leaders include people like 8th grader Morgan. She developed a Blood Glucose Test Strip Dispenser that is waiting for a patent and people like Sam who decided to become a doctor after he was diagnosed with a debilitating disease and young Mainers, the students, who chanted outside the State House, “There is no Planet B” when advocating for climate change action.

Some of these people are leaders of tomorrow who, like generations of Mainers before them, will rise above the doubts of others and find a new and better way to do things.

So, on the eve of our bicentennial, as we celebrate this milestone of our state and reflect on our history, let us also take steady, sure steps into our future.

A future where every person can live and work in the state they love with boundless opportunity for themselves and for their families.

Wherever you go, whatever you do, whoever you are with, tell them about the great place you come from. Tell them about Joseph Attean, about William King and “Fly Rod” Crosby and Margaret Chase Smith, tell them of the rocky coast, the rolling hills, the wide farms and clean rivers, the fresh foods, the coolest of lagers, and the jobs, the excitement and friendships we offer here in this state.

You will always be a son or daughter of Maine. Whenever you roam, if roam you will, upon your return, as upon your first arrival, and even if you never leave, we will greet you with a hearty hug and a loud “Welcome Home!”

Thank you for listening and Happy Birthday to the State of Maine.