Does anyone care about rural Mainers?

Stock photo by Unsplash.

March 3, 2026

While I understand there are costs and other logistics that make local; blood drives untenable, I feel like, once again, rural areas are being neglected (“Red Cross ending local blood drives”).

Rural Maine and other rural states are feeling the pain from a lot of changes. The number of people showing up at food banks continues to grow at a rapid rate. Rural folks can’t afford housing or to pay their taxes on what may be a homestead that has been in the family for generations. Rural schools are suffering from declining enrollment, but the cost of education keeps rising. Vouchers are allowing kids to leave their schools much too easily, which is helping to dismantle the state of public education. Health care and care for the elderly is a joke for rural people, with a lack of doctors, nurses, specialists, hospital beds, and affordable insurance.

It leaves rural folks thinking no one cares about us. What do we do?

Sylvia Tapley

Penobscot

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