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Posted on 05/08/2005 5:18:59 PM PDT by rpage3
Stephen King exhorts UMaine grads to stay Boston Globe ORONO, Maine -- Delivering the commencement speech at his alma mater, the best-selling author Stephen King counseled University of Maine graduates yesterday to be voracious readers, to donate a tenth of their earnings to worthy causes, and to carve out their careers in Maine. May 8, 2005 -->
ORONO, Maine -- Delivering the commencement speech at his alma mater, the best-selling author Stephen King counseled University of Maine graduates yesterday to be voracious readers, to donate a tenth of their earnings to worthy causes, and to carve out their careers in Maine.
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King, a member of the class of 1970, spoke twice, because rain forced officials to move the 203d commencement to Alfond Arena. No indoor facility could accommodate all the graduates, friends and family members, and staff, so two ceremonies were held.
After he was introduced by Robert Kennedy, the university president, King joked that if he faltered on the first speech, he would be the one introducing Kennedy in the afternoon ceremony.
King said he remembered speaking to the same class in the fall of 2001, when they were ''freshpeople." He had told them he would be back when it was time for them to graduate.
''I never thought you would make good on your word -- I guess Kid Rock and Donald Rumsfeld were busy," he said.
When the time came for King to impart advice, he rattled off a ''top 10" list, urging students to hug and kiss whoever had helped them get to this point, to read as much as they could, and to give away a dime for every dollar they make.
''If you don't, the government is just going to take it for you," said King, who is known for his own generosity to the university. ''You go out broke. . . . You're not an owner in this life, you're just a steward."
The last four points of his list were the same: Stay in Maine.
Despite his celebrity, King has chosen to live in his native state for most of his life. He makes his home in nearby Bangor.
''This can be home if you want it to be," he said. ''If you leave, you will miss it, so you might as well skip the going away part."
The university awarded honorary doctorates to journalist Douglas Kneeland, a Lincoln native and University of Maine graduate whose career included work at The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune, and Andrew Shepard, president and CEO of the Maine Winter Sports Center.
King and his wife, Tabitha, received honorary doctorates when he addressed Maine graduates in 1987.
This year's commencement was the university's largest, with 1,923 graduates, including 33 at the doctoral level.
I hadn't heard about that. What was he referring to with the "not one damn dime" business?
Take my word, it was painful to read. Just my opinion. The Stand was good, but Insomnia was not.
I am a fan of SK and have his full collection (pre-1995). I'm a Mainer too for that matter. God Love Maine!
The thing about the stand was that the villain, Flagg, was part of the '60s counter-culture while the heroine was a black, female religious Republican and Reagan voter.
I would actually like to take my family on a vacation to Maine sometime in the future, during the fall when the leaves turn. My parents went on a vacation to New Hampshire a couple of years ago around that time and the pictures they took of the fall leaves turning were simply stunning. Beautiful country.
Meanwhile, up here in Vermont . . . (I'll let my rant end here).
I loved "The Stand" The only book that ever "really creeped me out": First read it at the runup to the first Gulf War, and during a really rough, weird time in my own life; I was beginning to think that maybe King was a Prophet ;-)
His writing got really weird after his being run-over and nearly dying; I always figured it was the drugs at first, then the withdrawal from them. "DreamCatcher" sure seemed really drug induced to me. By the end of "The Dark Tower" series, he seemed back to "normal" (Stephen King normal, that is.)
I read Insomnia, but don't remember a thing about it. Beyond that, I haven't noticed any "flaming liberalism" in his books, and I'm usually pretty sensitive to that sort of thing, even when it is subtle.
Too bad he is a liberal in his personal life, but at least he apparently puts his money where his mouth is.
I read Insomnia and I didn't think it was pro-abortion at all.
Dogs are to Cats as Bumblers are to Dogs... ;-)
"He tends to keep his politics pretty low-key, from what I've seen."
I read his book about the 2004 Red Sox season and it was filled with rants against Bush and the war on terrorism. It was totally out of place in a baseball book.
Taxes in Maine are considered by some measures to be the highest in the country.
Re: Stephen King - he puts his money where his mouth is. He grew up as a poor working kid, hit it huge and while I cringe at some of his politics I have enormous respect for the man, and deep appreciation for what he has done for Maine.
"not one more dime of mine" ping
"An April report by the Tax Foundation, an organization that compiles rankings of tax burdens, showed Maine residents with the nation's highest state and local tax burden, 13 percent of income, while Alaska enjoyed the lowest, 6.4 percent. But the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a tax-policy think tank, said the foundation's rankings are flawed because they are based on estimates of state and local tax revenue, not actual collections, and overstate residents' tax burdens."
http://www.stateline.org/live/ViewPage.action?siteNodeId=136&languageId=1&contentId=28297
Are you a disgruntled resident ready to go postal on the ladies at the town office because they refuse to lower the property tax on your trailer?
What is your basis for your view?
This will undoubtedly surprise you, but somehow I graduated from a public high school in Maine and now have a job in a non- local gov't, fisheries, timber, tourism industry. Many of my classmates are also braving this "hell-hole" after stints living away because they value the quality of life we have. None of us consider ourselves lucky to make enough to pay for our own food.
Are rural areas depressed economically? Sure, but I'm guessing they're no worse than the rural parts of whatever state you call home.
Wait... what am I doing trying to change your mind?
You're absolutely right: this is a great place to visit, but you wouldn't want to live here. Please plan your next vacation to Maine, spend lots of money, drive politely while you're here, then leave us be.
Oh, and buy whatever Steven King publishes next.
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MAINE VOICES: Mary Adams, Mainetoday.com, 10/27/04
Maine's high taxes break up families
Government overspending in Maine is hurting each of us personally.
The Taxpayer Bill of Rights initiative petition, which voters can sign on Election Day, will put a simple referendum question on the ballot next year that gets at the heart of our high taxes: excessive spending. The petition has three goals: setting a rational spending limit for all levels of government, returning money to taxpayers when revenues exceed that limit, and letting taxpayers vote on all tax and fee increases.
People who want to stay in their homes are being forced to sell because of taxes which are based on what someone else would pay for it. I have an 84-year-old friend who bought a house in Camden when he retired in 1971. The taxes were $1,000 a year.
Last year he paid $13,000 in taxes for the same house and this year, after revaluation of the town, his tax bill is $26,000.
Variations of this story are being lived by thousands of households, and have given rise to Question 1 (the property tax cap) and angry taxpayer associations all over the state.
Even if you can afford your property taxes (Maine is No. 1 in the nation in property tax burden as a percentage of income) you've probably seen many of your children move away because the Maine economy can't support them.
If you've lost your children to other states with more robust economies, it means your bonds with those grandchildren aren't as strong as if they lived down the street or within driving distance. Not having you near by means that those grandchildren have lost a chunk of their family cheering section.
If your children have gone out of state to work, you've lost a major component of your old age security system. "I'll stop by and see how the folks are doing" is part of the conversations of children who did not have to move away from family.
We can all afford to do without a few things in order to pay reasonable taxes, but we should not have to do without family, especially if the cause of their departure from us is government- induced.
And who hasn't lost dear friends to lower-taxed states? These are people whose friendships and functions in our lives cannot be replaced, especially as we grow older. It takes a network of associations to keep people in their homes in their senior years and neighborhood friendships are part of that network.
When paying taxes stops being a benefit to people and starts to be a burden out of proportion to our ability to pay (we're No. 2 in the nation in per capita state and local taxes), then we have to take matters into our own hands.
That reasonable response is the Taxpayer Bill of Rights. We've got an impressive, dedicated unpaid army of volunteers, but we also need citizens to assure that every person who votes on Nov. 2 has a chance to sign the petition.
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