A Clear Vision For A Prosperous Future

As owner of a working farm and fresh food bank, I believe family farms and small businesses are burdened with costly, one-size-fits-all regulations designed to help giant corporations drive us out of business. I’ve managed start-ups, directed human resources, operations, and marketing departments. I’ve been a sole proprietor and a partner. I understand the challenges facing small businesses and workers. I will continue the fight to reform regulations so small businesses and small farms can compete on an even playing field and create the jobs we need right here in Maine.

As a conservationist, I believe Maine must harness the power of the wind and the sun to produce renewable energy and end our addiction to fossil fuels. We’ll protect Maine’s enthralling beauty, jumpstart our economic recovery, and create new jobs.

As an organic farmer, I believe locally grown food is national security. I will continue to fight for greater food self-sufficiency for the state, better infrastructure, and a comprehensive plan to end hunger in Maine once and for all. Access to wholesome food is a right for every citizen. We must not allow a single one of us, especially our children and our seniors, to go hungry for a single day. We have all the natural resources and the hard-working, independent-spirited people to grow, catch, hunt, trap, produce, process and distribute enough food to feed our state and strengthen our rural economies. Let’s stop importing more food per capita than any other state on the continent. Maine food means Maine jobs.

As an artist and author, I’ll leave you with a quote from James Baldwin, one of my favorite American authors. He believed that the role of the artist is to tell us who we are. Given what we face right now, I believe his words are timely. And necessary:

“One must say Yes to life and embrace it wherever it is found—and it is found in terrible places... For nothing is fixed, forever and forever, it is not fixed; the earth is always shifting, the light is always changing, the sea does not cease to grind down rock. Generations do not cease to be born, and we are responsible to them because we are the only witnesses they have. The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other, and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other, the moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us, and the light goes out.”

If the citizens of Winthrop, Readfield, and North Monmouth believe we need to keep a hard-working farmer with a passionate voice and a clear vision for a prosperous future in the Maine House of Representatives, then please go to the polls on November 4 and cast your vote to re-elect Representative Craig V. Hickman of Winthrop.

Thank you. Take care of your blessings.