Much ado about less than nothing has been brewing in Maine over the past two weeks, especially since Governor LePage followed up on his threat to remove a pedestrian mural called “The History of Labor in the State of Maine” that hung in the lobby of the Maine Department of Labor. LePage claims business people found the mural offensive, comparing it to North Korean propaganda; the AFL-CIO is calling the removal of it “akin to actions of totalitarian regimes.” We suspect the truth lies somewhere in between. 1. Maybe it doesn’t look like North Korean propaganda but it sure does look like propaganda of some sort, perhaps Soviet Era, which had a more gloomy tenor than Kim Jong-il generally allows. The Maine mural does have a Commie varnish to it with its downtrodden workers freed from capitalist oppression dancing under the banner of collectivism. But it’s most definitely not North Korean or there would be a lot more blue skies and flowers. 2. The mural does indeed make the Maine business community look lousy, as the only employers in the piece are exploiters, profiteers and head-busters. Apparently, were it not for the sweet mercy of that union vote in panel four, Maine businesses would still be sending kids into mines clutching their little lunch pails and lashing teenage mill girls to their looms. 3. The mural itself isn’t history and its slanted marginalized portrayal of history is served with one walloping dollop of artistic license. It’s also only a few years old and has most likely gone largely unnoticed until a month ago. (It did hang in the Maine Department of Labor after all!) So taking the mural down or even setting it on fire doesn’t destroy history, or rewrite it or erase it or slap it or Frances Perkins in the face. It’s a piece of art that some people don’t appreciate and people in power have been sending art they don’t appreciate to the world’s basements since the dawn of, well, history. 4. Sure it was bad timing and perhaps petty to take it down, but it wasn’t criminal and it wasn’t the end of Democracy as we know it. The governor didn’t destroy it, he moved it and once Democracy is restored to the State of Maine the next governor can move it back. Unless DePage cancels elections – THEN Maine has a problem!
