Last month a controversy erupted in Hancock County, fueled by left-wing media and the wokerati whose operational motto is “Obey or be canceled.”

The elected Republican Sheriff of purple Hancock County (most of the inland towns are red, but Bar Harbor, most of the coastal towns, and the College of the Atlantic crowd are deep blue) canceled an agreement with Healthy Acadia to provide addiction and drug abuse recovery services to inmates at the Hancock County Jail. Healthy Acadia is a “non-partisan” non-profit social service agency with a public health focus serving Washington and Hancock Counties. Healthy Acadia’s website states, “We empower people and organizations to build healthy communities.”

The reason for the cancellation was Healthy Acadia’s endorsement of Black Lives Matter, an organization founded and led by three self-admitted “trained Marxists” that has engaged in serial lies (aided and abetted by the Ministry of Truth media)  about police misconduct in Ferguson, Missouri (Michael Brown, “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot”) and Minneapolis, Minnesota (George Floyd, “I Can’t Breathe”) that resulted in “mostly peaceful” protests, riots, arson, multiple injuries, millions of dollars in property destruction and long term damage to the future economic and social prospects of urban communities they supposedly were fighting for. Elsie Flemings, the executive director of Healthy Acadia, stated, “As a public health organization, the issue of racial equity is well within our mission and can and should be considered and prioritized across our program areas.” The Bangor Daily News and the left were outraged by Healthy Acadia’s cancellation (only conservatives are supposed to be so treated), and quickly agitated to have the Sheriff canceled instead. As of this writing, all cancellations have been at least temporarily canceled in favor of “respect” (“just a little bit”, to quote Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin). 

In 2012, Ferguson, Missouri was torched because of the lie that a police officer shot and killed Michael Brown when he was surrendering with his hands up saying, “Don’t shoot”. Both state and federal investigations and grand juries concluded this was an outright fabrication, albeit one that Black Lives Matter, the media, and Democratic politicians, including our Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, campaigned and fundraised on.

In 2020, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and cities across the nation were pillaged and burned based on the lie that a police officer had executed George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for 8 and a half minutes while Floyd repeatedly moaned “I can’t breathe.” Toxicology reports reveal Floyd died of a Fentanyl overdose, which is marked by respiratory distress and failure. In addition, the police officer was following the prescribed procedures he had been trained to use. Black Lives Matter and Democratic politicians campaigned and fundraised over the “I can’t breathe” narrative, and the media buried the toxicology and training reports. It is somewhat surprising that the fentanyl experts at Healthy Acadia were not aware of them. 

Over the last summer of Black Lives Matter’s “mostly peaceful” riots and arson, the BLM website included a “we believe” page attacking the nuclear family as an artifact of white culture/supremacy. In late September, that page “disappeared” as BLM and Democrats continued to lie and fundraise, promoting critical race theory and the fictions of systemic racism and the need for reparations and “anti-racist” discrimination against oppressor whites as a means of promoting “equity” and social justice.

Last week I e-mailed Healthy Acadia with three questions:

1. When Healthy Acadia decided to endorse BLM, were you aware that BLM has advocated against the nuclear family, suggesting that it is part of white culture/privilege/supremacy?

 2. Does Healthy Acadia support the nuclear family as part of its public health mission? 

3. Does Healthy Acadia support cancel culture and the deplatforming/shunning/firing of those we politically disagree with? 

I have not received an answer, and probably should not hold my breath, because Black Lives Matter’s lies do not really matter to the left, especially when they can label anyone who dares to expose those lies a racist white supremacist and likely domestic terrorist.

Jon Reisman is an associate professor of economics and public policy at the University of Maine at Machias. His views are his own. Mr. Reisman welcomes comments as letters to the editor here, or to him directly via email at [email protected].