Latest development is we now have nine signatures, moving a long at a snail's pace but I have persistence because this is good policy, which it is unlikely anyone in the political world will suggest. I have been studying the economic development policies of Maine for seven years plus and I was raised in a business in the home. We may be on the verge of losing that business short of a miraculous intervention in the time span of only a few days, It's a long story but I have been looking for support in the system for years, coming up empty because we do not fit, We are manufacturers of ceramics in the USA, an industry which was one of the first to export production overseas. This is a great business. My parent established production as an art form long before Andy Warhol came up with the idea. Its a mind engaging and challenging work process in which one can keep on learning. Fractured Atlas rejected us for fiscal sponsorship because the board, all looking very well to do,said that the word "production" means one is just in it for the money. Little do they know! Being that I have read the Maine economic development statutes many times over, I connected the dots- MTI would be the perfect fiscal sponsor for us- but MTI is not a public charity serving the broad public. Like most of Maine economic development policy, it exists as a channel for the public to subsidize the upper crust of the economy- SOCIAL JUSTICE NOT! Both social justice and the measure of a healthy economy is a thriving middle sector. The policies that followed upon the Longley Doctrine of 1976 robbed the middle sector of its capital to feed the top.. The policy advocated in my petition will return capitalization to the middle. If it existed, this great , unique, and much loved Maine company might not be closing down, or so it looks. Its not over till its over but we need 300,000.00 in a matter of days to save it. We will have to do licensing instead. If we are lucky we will find someone who wants to make the product in America but there are very few ceramic slip casters in the USA, making it less probable to happen. That is why it would have been so news worthy if my ceramic slip casting network had materialized. So I leave you with my latest blog post. Now that my home town of Boothbay Maine is the latest take-over target of the public-private hegemony, I am writing a series of blog posts advocating for a town charter and to create political awareness of the danger posed to freedom and free enterprise in Maine Community where Andersen Design has been located since 1958. my home town. Please Read the Blog and Please sign this petition which is the antithesis to the policies described here in: