It was most gratifying to read in the newspaper that Pratt & Whitney will add 400 jobs to its North Berwick plant. Naturally, these new employees will all be physicists and engineers, won’t they?
Or will they be mostly skilled blue-collar workers? The kind of talented, hard working technicians and craftworkers that were once the heart of Maine’s economy in industries such as lumber processing, paper mills, cotton mills, woolen mills, shoe factories and machine shops whose once thriving remains we see along our rivers every day.
Where will these new craftworkers come from? I would hope from a new generation of those Mainers who justifiably took great pride in their skills and abilities, and in the products they helped produce.
We still have examples of these skills and dedication. We see them, among others for instance, every time a BIW ship or Kittery submarine goes out to sea.
I have profound respect for those who go to college and on to their achievements. I wonder too, however, if we should not also look to provide more training and job opportunities for those whose interests, talents and abilities lie in more hands-on activities.
I believe that, with vision and effort, Maine could once again be a great state of industry and production.
Ash Gilmore
Albion
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