To the editor:
I have been a Working Waterfront subscriber and an Island Institute supporter for years and plan to continue. I look forward to your publications in the mail to jog my pleasant memories of time spent on the mainland and on the islands off the coast of Maine. I do not own a summer home, a sailboat or a Viking stove. When I come to Maine, I sleep in a tent or in a motel or occasionally in an over-priced B&B. Once, I rented a small cottage on Islesboro for a small fortune where the natives returned my greetings with cold, silent stares. Happily for some, I suppose, I have not returned there since with my family.
I have lived my entire life in a diverse, urban neighborhood of Boston where I have worked as a nurse and raised my three children. On my block alone, my neighbors represent several different cultural backgrounds and speak different primary languages, in addition to English. The “Lost Boys of Sudan” do not need to be imported here because they live here and attend our public schools. Life in my neighborhood is full and satisfying, but carries with it its own stresses and tolls. Sometimes, I wonder what a life lived elsewhere might have been like, which is one of the reasons why I read the Working Waterfront. Sadly, the tone and jabs of some of your articles lately have suggested that it might have been a whole lot poorer.
Marilyn Morrissey
Jamaica Plain, Ma.
