Letters From Readers
Sean Hall, Charles Sidman
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Memorial Day Is For Remembering The Sacrifices Made
Memorial Day is almost upon us, a day that many say marks the beginning of the summer season. This is anything but further from the truth for a military family, it is a day of remembering the sacrifices made, the ultimate sacrifice by the men and women of our armed forces. Many men and women who fought and died protecting our rights and those oppressed in foreign lands. We enjoy the rights of freedom of speech and expression because of those soldiers who fought and gave the ultimate sacrifice.
People in the United States enjoy unparalleled freedoms seen in no other country in the world, all because we defend those freedoms vigorously. This country allows expression and free speech even at the cost of defacing the very symbols that represent it.
Freedom comes at an extremely high cost, our military has defended it both at home and abroad for decades. This Memorial Day doesn’t mark the beginning of a season, it marks the remembrance of the cost of freedom. Should you need a reminder go to the Cole Transportation Museum look at the flags on the lawn, each represents one Mainer who sacrificed for your freedom, over 3,000 Mainers.
Thank you, Dad, for protecting my freedom, Lt Walter Hall 10JUN1965!
Sincerely yours,
Sean Hall
A Setback But Not the End of the Road
I write this as a report and update to fellow community members. Notwithstanding our respect for Federal District Court Chief Judge Walker and his eminent position, I and many others in Bar Harbor (and elsewhere) were disappointed by his remand decision this past week, apportioning the constitutionality of the Bar Harbor Cruise Ship Ordinance according to the calendar (i.e., constitutional and enforceable during July and August, but not during May, June, September and October.) What was once Chief Judge Walker’s perceptive critique of APPLL’s theory of the case – “build it and they must come” – has become his most recent conclusion. One can have a measure of sympathy for him in his position, as he wrote clearly and candidly that he felt under the gun from his judicial superiors to perform an impossible task. However, in trying to do so, we feel that he got it wrong on at least four major grounds.
First, Chief Judge Walker appears to disagree with himself. He spent three quarters of the decision reiterating his previous reasoning and conclusions in our favor, and stating precisely why the task he was given by the Appeals Court, i.e., to revisit the Commerce Clause-related Pike Balancing test, is inherently nonsensical – “like inquiring ‘whether a particular line is longer than a particular rock is heavy.’” He then tried to do so anyway, effectively resorting to the judicial micromanagement of hyperlocal and properly voter-decided matters that he previously said was improper, based on a grasped-for “pivot point” of “peak and shoulder seasons.”
Unfortunately for this reasoning, the concept of Bar Harbor “peak and shoulder seasons,” even 20 years ago, was more a Chamber of Commerce-type marketing slogan than a factually supported reality. Both then and now, Maine State Sales Tax data show peak economic activity in Bar Harbor during July and August, but June, September and October in 2025 were nearly as busy as the middle months, giving 5 out of 6 months of effectively high season. Hardly a clear problem calling for arbitrary and judicially imposed treatment of two months as radically different from the other four in the cruise season.
Further, the Pike balancing test of Commerce Clause jurisprudence seeks to identify and prevent disproportionate harm to interstate actors. Again from Maine State Sales Tax data, 2025 was Bar Harbor’s busiest and most economically successful year ever, with Acadia National Park estimating a new record of over 4 million visits last year. Don’t these numbers convincingly show that no significant body of interstate (and thus Commerce Clause-governed) or other class of visitors was negatively impacted by the realized cruise passenger limitations in 2025, with the desired local as well as general benefits resulting as intended? It is difficult to see a Commerce Clause-based Pike test as revealing anything other than a fair and successful application of Bar Harbor’s well designed Cruise Ship Ordinance for the majority of all involved.
Finally, the remand decision essentially said that even fair and successful local policy choices must give way to the sheer financial power and aspirations of interstate big business, who only wish to further line their own pockets to the detriment of host communities. If this is to be our new governing principle, how can any town decide and enforce local building codes, marijuana regulations, etc., or any state make its own policies regarding healthcare, environmental protection, education, etc., over the desires of large entities wishing to profit otherwise? The American constitution’s sustaining genius of strictly limited federalism and cooperation between otherwise independent governments is put at risk by this judicially required uniformity of obedience to large commercial interests, whenever they are ready to litigate. This could be another step on a road to ruin for the American Experiment writ large.
Going forward, several avenues of resistance remain for Bar Harbor citizens motivated to protect their independence and local community character, and who do not accept becoming a mere vassal colony of large business interests and greed. Legal options exist and are being evaluated, as well as possible re-legislation via a third vote (on an even clearer Initiative explicitly addressing the courts’ items of concern.) In any case, nothing important is ever easy, and the stakes have just gotten higher with Judge Walker’s remand decision. We cannot let this decision disenfranchise the voters of Bar Harbor (or elsewhere) from deciding for themselves what their town is to become. Until Chief Judge Walker’s decision is overturned, Bar Harbor can expect further years of unsettlement and confusion for all, as well as possible brand destruction for the town that we love.
Charles Sidman
Bar Harbor.
Agreed. Thank you Charles!
Well said, Charles. Bar Harbor residents who want their town to be a community for all, and not just a theme park for large commercial corporations to exploit hopefully will support you in your many years fighting for the people.