CENTRAL MAINE • September 5, 2025
The Aug. 24 op-ed from attorneys Gilliard and Kieser (“Maine beach access case carries huge implications for private property“) was yet another attempt to tell us not to believe what we can see with their own eyes — our beaches and coastline are under attack in ways our Supreme Court, in 1989, surely didn’t intend. Today, families need permission slips to hold a sandcastle contest. Today, lawyers squabble about whether scuba diving counts as “navigation,” whether seaweed is a fish and whether clammers can continue doing what humans have done for thousands of years. Mainers won’t let ideologues turn us against each another. We know that letting kids play soccer on the beach isn’t the same as the government taking our trucks. When the lawyers have flown back to California, we’ll still be here, digging each other out of snowbanks, the same way we always have, and always will. ~ Benjamin E. Ford, Archipelago Law, Portland