By David K. Shipler
This is a
story about high-handed Maine state officials proposing to jeopardize island
residents’ emergency access to mainland hospitals. It is a local outrage, small
in comparison to the sweeping outrages that are uprooting global security and undermining
American democracy. But its significance is immense, because it’s a case study
in how anti-government sentiment can be generated among good citizens who
depend on key services. Nationwide, that disaffection has been a key element in
the country’s dramatic political shifts.
The issue
is straightforward. For 65 years, since the state launched car ferry service,
the boats have docked overnight on four islands, which don’t have hospitals but
are populated year- round and have a surge of summer residents. So, the Maine State
Ferry Service provides sleeping quarters on the islands for the crews, who can
be roused if there’s a medical emergency in the middle of the night. An island ambulance
drives onto the ferry and drives off on the mainland.
That system might be scrapped for
three of the islands in two or three years, if the state has its way. The
commissioner of transportation, Bruce Van Note, and the director of the ferry
service, William Geary, say they’re considering docking the ferries overnight
on the mainland. They are in the Democratic administration of Governor Janet
Mills, whose press secretary, Ben Goodman, did not answer my emailed request
for an explanation of her position.
Under the proposal, there would be no transportation by ambulance between the last ferry run of the day and the first the next morning. I’m biased, because I spend four to five months a year on Swan’s Island: I’ll try to arrange my stroke or heart attack in the daytime.
