Don’t let the blog post title throw you off track.

Not about some shuttered, boarded up industrial factory in Maine that goes belly up. Not about contaminated soil and heavy metals, PCB’s. And in the wake of the defunct, rusting status and emptiness, the sea of pink slips, a major hole that is made from the closure vacuum.

No, this toxin, poison can be the public facing appearance of working together.

But out back nothing could be further from the truth. As small groups struggle to adapt to new economies, technologies that take jobs off shore. And the consumer’s spending habits swerve to make serious adjustment in the small Maine town necessary. Or else.

What makes a small Maine town great?

The answers don’t come easy for what do we do to keep up?

To create jobs for young people to relocate here, stay here when raised in the small Maine village or burg. When distance away from markets, higher production costs due to heavier regulations than other states, countries force us further back in the pack.

But what adds to the list of the ship, the tilt toward starboard when a small Maine town economy takes a series of blows, is the attitude of people. The small Maine town is the folks in it. Not just empty houses in rows, the schools, library, town office, hospital and down town shops.

The antidote to decline to rise from the ashes is the people searching for solutions together.

And whether you agree wholeheartedly or not in group discussions, shape something together to put into action. And think on your feet. Adapt along the way to adjust the thrusters. Using the resources, creative spirit Mainers born to survive are all hard wired with internally.

But. When to your face the reading is all is well and good in those discussions. But behind the scenes, if you don’t agree, endorse and notarize stamp another’s suggestion, they go behind you.

Fighting tooth and nail to discredit. To alienate. To bash. What’s with that? And at the least let the toxins flow, but get them out in the air, into the light one on one. For the what the heck and why the counter productive character assassination of another in the small Maine town?

There are only so many workers, and one by one you put those folks on a list of undesirables.

To avoid at all costs as if infected with an incurable disease. When their only crime is not agreeing with you wholeheartedly. On the direction the small Maine town is headed. Should be steered over the next year, five years, decade.

What fuels the need to go behind backs and tear another to shreds? To take something personal when it was not your own idea, or credit for it is not spotlighted on the one that has to be in charge. Or heads will roll. Hail to Dorothy.

Best friends has eleven letters but so does backstabber. People who backstab tend to be insecure.

The cure for counterproductive, downright mean spirited backstabbing hatred is an intervention.

Not tip toeing, dodging the elephant’s advance in a crowded room. But confrontation, weeding it out and pouring the antidote for all to drink. Or tapping into the public water system to infuse the elixir. Because valuable time is being wasted in building the future in a small Maine town.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
207.532.6573
info@mooersrealty.com