The closer one gets to a center of power the more their head tends to expand.  No one would doubt that one’s head far exceeds their hat size when they get to the halls of Washington.  Even here in little Maine, once one begins to accumulate the sort of power that comes with being a legislative hack in Augusta they take on an air of superiority. 

Otherwise decent people can, over time, become some of the worst people you know because they believe they are better than you and me.  These people are also prone to making the most ridiculous claims to further their position.  No one will call them on it either because those around the hacks need their influence, their connections and their recommendations to land their next big gig.   

Still, to find this level of arrogance in a first term town councilor is unusual. But then there is Dan Ankeles, a local member of the Maine Legislature’s House Democratic staff and Brunswick Town Councilor. 

On Wednesday Ankeles took to the cause of the wayward Wayfair employees.  You know the ones who walked off the job to protest their employers having sold goods to the Federal Government.  These goods were reportedly purchased to help furnish places for the newly arrived along the southern border to have a place to lay their heads.   

Apparently, Ankeles would rather stroke his own ego than give a child a place to sleep. 

In a social media post, Ankeles stated all of the normal talking points as if they were delivered from the Maine House Majority Leadership office.  Ankeles talks in an over the top way about the centers being “concentration camps”.  Ankeles and anyone else who makes this comparison should know better.  Using the words, “concentration camps” evokes mass killings and the attempted extermination of millions of people.  To do this is irresponsible.  To do this makes him less credible because it is so over the top and so completely inaccurate.     

In his post, Ankeles implored everyone, “to force the federal government to treat everyone there (at the border detention centers) with decency and humanity.”  That is a great line for a social media post, but we don’t have to think that long ago when Ankeles was a fledgling member of a cabal that sought to deny decency and humanity to families right here in Brunswick.  For months the town council held the Tedford Housing homeless shelter in limbo, thereby denying resources to those who needed it most.             

It was reported by a different local news source that there were, at most, four individuals who stripped themselves of their headsets at Wayfair and protested outside.  I am glad they protested.  I am glad they got it off their chest.  However, at the end of the day the protesters went right back into work because they work for a company that sells goods to people or entities that want to buy them.  That is what they do.   

When it comes down to sales, any sales help the bottom line and help to enrich each employee.  After all, Wayfair, you got just what I, and many other people, need.   

The moral hand wringing and chest beating about who can and who cannot be sold something will get old.  Will Ankeles propose the same sort of behavior of castigation and walk outs towards, say a beer parlor, because someone doesn’t drink in Moderation?  That would not make him popular within his House Caucus.  But then again, he would not say anything in that case because he knows how his bread is buttered. 

Ankeles tried to score cheap political points with his social media post.  Does he think chastising a business that came to town is a good idea?  Does he want to sour a relationship with Wayfair to score those points?  He may have succeeded because no one will call him out on it.  Those who support Ankeles will gleefully nod their heads in agreement and those that disagree will just throw their hands up and say, “Well, there is another leader from Brunswick.” 

As a town councilor, Ankeles should be welcoming and open to any and all business that wants to set up shop in our little piece of the world.  Ankeles should want businesses that will employ the very constituents that he serves as a councilor.  Given his statement, Ankeles seems only interested in having businesses in town that think like he does and walks a very narrow line despite selling a completely legal product and service.  To all of the businesses out there remember that for at least one councilor you must bend to his will or adhere to his politics or you are not necessarily welcomed in town.      

Jonathan Crimmins can be reached at j_crimmins@hotmail.com