Fool for the city

It’s easy to forget the lessons of history.

It’s even easier to label others, take sides and compartmentalize ourselves within groups that match our own ideals, values or culture.

This trend happens frequently in my hometown of Biddeford, one of Maine’s most frequently maligned communities.

In this town, there is a lot of talk about so-called “elitists” and immigrants, and although those conversations generally remain just below the surface, the tension sometimes escapes into the realm of public policy.

Even talking publicly about any aspect of our community can be a tricky process. It’s sort of like why Chris Rock is allowed to use the “N-word,” but Jimmy Fallon is not.

If you are from Biddeford — and by that I mean your grandparents received their First Communion at St. Andre’s — it’s perfectly okay to disparage the city or make snide remarks about its residents, its challenges or its culture.

But you people from away better watch your step. We carry a mighty big chip on our shoulder, and we’ve been known to swing hard.

Because of its history and immigrant population, some people describe Biddeford as a “diverse community.”

To those of you who blather on about “diversity,” please do me a favor and shut up already.

Most of you only like diversity when it matches your pre-conceived ideas about a utopian state of diversity. True diversity would give equal weight, consideration and respect to differing political philosophies, intellectual and economic capacity and so many other factors.

If you really, truly favor diversity, you acknowledge that Barack Obama and Sarah Palin both have something valuable to offer; that the KKK should be allowed to march down Main Street; that pedophiles simply have a different sexual preference.

In essence, the word diversity is horribly abused and its concept rings like hollow bullshit when used by those who think they will sleep better at night by embracing it.

The way we were

By the mid 1800s, nearly 50 percent of Biddeford’s residents were foreign-born immigrants, according to the Maine Memory Project website.

Although most of these immigrants were Catholics from Canada and Ireland, they seemed to have little in common and enjoyed fighting amongst themselves. In 1855, there was only one Catholic Church in Biddeford: Church of the Immaculate Conception (later Church of the Assumption, then St. Mary’s)

But  animosity between the French and Irish Catholics led to the establishment of  a separate church, St. Joseph’s, established in 1870. Only 30 years later, St. Andre’s was established by a separate faction of French-Canadians.

I generally describe it like this: The Irish went to St. Mary’s and the French went to St. Joseph’s, but the really French went to St. Andres.

I briefly dated an Irish girl from Biddeford in the late ’90s. She told me (without any hesitation) that “the goddamned Frenchmen intentionally built the steeple on St. Joseph’s so that St. Mary’s would remain forever in the shadow of the larger church.”

Today, only St. Joseph’s remains open. So much for diversity.

The immigrants of yesteryear (Canadians, Irish, Greeks and Albanians) were drawn to Biddeford to work in the bustling textile mills, According to historical accounts, many of those immigrants became entrepreneurs in their own right and opened small businesses up and down Main Street. Their businesses included restaurants, groceries, and clothing, paper, and fancy goods shops.

Sound familiar?

Let’s name names

A couple of years ago, I wrote a post on this blog about the people I considered to be the 25 most influential political players in the Biddeford-Saco region.  The Top 25

In that post, I mentioned some folks who are part of a new crop of Biddeford immigrants; people like Tammy Ackerman and Doug Sanford.

I described Doug Sanford (No. 18) as perhaps the best thing to happen to downtown Biddeford since the discovery of the Saco River.

In less than 12 years, Sanford, a  boot-strap real-estate developer, has become one of the city’s largest commercial property owners and today owns a number of mill buildings in the downtown area. He is succesful, and thus…is often the target of derisive commentary and accusations of “elitism” and “political favoritism.”

I described Tammy Ackerman (No. 17) in the following way: “Once you get past the fact that she didn’t go to Biddeford High School or sing in the Thornton Academy chorus, it’s hard not to recognize that this “person from away” is here to stay…and make it a bit more, shall we say…aesthetic?

Tammy is the heartbeat of downtown revitalization efforts, and she’s not afraid to put her money where her mouth is.

Only a few months ago, Ackerman was publicly labeled as an elitist by my arch-nemesis, former Biddeford Mayor Joanne Twomey. (More about that in just a bit)

Although I stand by my previous comments about Ackerman and Sanford, I think that they (and some of the city’s other newer immigrants) sometimes miss the point about living and working in Biddeford.

Maybe, just maybe, Joanne Twomey was just a little bit right when she called Ackerman an elitist,  And maybe, Sanford has gotten so caught up in moving forward that he could benefit from a reflective pause.

Like their predecessors from Canada, Ireland and Greece, folks like Ackerman and Sanford were attracted to the city of Biddeford by its potential and opportunity.

And just like the immigrants who came before, the city of Biddeford is a better place as the result of these new immigrants, their different ideas, their hard work and their investments in our culture and community.

But remember, diversity is, at best, a tricky needle to thread and best served in small, incremental doses.

We’re out of room, but stay tuned for Part II of this segment: Fat Boys, Elements and a Tale of Two Cities.

Note: Please leave comments on this post so that we can archive a larger community conversation that can be limited by commenting on social media links. I look forward to your feedback and input.