Day 4 of my review of the images on exhibit at the Glickman Family Library in Portland through May 29. I featured this image in an earlier blog post about Benedict Arnold and his ill-fated journey to try to capture Quebec City titled “They Ate What?”

This place symbolizes so much that continues to be wrong today. People in positions of power who need to make decisions which impact many and benefit few often take the advice from those who intend to cause harm or need to benefit monetarily from the advice they give. And the people making decisions don’t do their due diligence and research all the information presented to them in order to make the best-informed choice.

That’s why Benedict Arnold chose to have Kennebec River Bateaux built of heavy green wood rather than  swift, lightweight canoes. That’s why his troops lost most of their provisions as they were forced to carry these heavy bateaux, making several trips up and down the mountains to transport their gear.

And today our legislators are following the advice of those who are acting in their own self-interests. They passed the legislation which caused the debacle we are now facing with Great Northern Paper in Millinocket. They are the ones ready to choose to continue to relax our mining laws, to ramp up the clear-cutting of our public lands, and to allow global corporate interests to poison our waters.

I ponder that when I look at this image. I also wonder if Benedict Arnold is the only person to have two gravesites. One for him and one for his leg.