Staff Writer
Author Samme Bailey recently held a book signing at Mr. Paperback in Caribou promoting his newly released book, “Samme, Breaking the Cycle”.
Aroostook Republican photo/Barb Scott
Samme Bailey relaxes for a moment during a book signing at Mr. Paperback in Caribou. Bailey, author of “Samme, Breaking the Cycle,” plans to run for governor in 2010. He was stationed at Loring Air Force Base and spent his leave one year picking potatoes for a local farmer.
Bailey, a professional business consultant is a 2010 hopeful in the run for the governor’s seat, under the Independent Party.
In “Breaking the Cycle”, Bailey relates how he, as a 15-year-old black American born and raised in the South was asked to leave his home, not because of any trouble caused by the young man but, “simply because that was the way it was and what his father wanted.”
Focused on completing high school Bailey, homeless but determined, he found himself integrated into a ‘White High School’ where he was the only black student.
Bailey supported himself for three-years while he was in school, living and working at a local restaurant.
Following his completion of high school, Bailey found himself arriving in Aroostook County via bus transportation, to an area with a culture as strange to him as the south would be to any northerner.
At 18 years old, Bailey arrived in Limestone destined for Loring Air Force Base.
“I will never ever, forget what the Caribou and Limestone people did for me,” said Bailey.
“It was all so different and to have Caucasians actually acknowledge me on the street with a hello or a smile. It was something I didn’t know how to take.
“These people were just nice,” and by their actions they helped me eliminate my own racism, said Bailey, “It was like being reborn.”
Bailey noted that in the South his self-esteem had been stripped away, but professors had told him on the Air Base that he was smart and bright so he enrolled in night school.
“In school before, I rarely ever got above a D. When I started taking classes again at the I actually got an A in French of all things,” he said.
“One of my favorite memories of this area as a young man was while I was stationed at Loring, I was informed that I needed to use my ‘vacation’ or leave time, 30 days of it.
“I didn’t have a lot of friends outside the base and I wasn’t going home, so I decided that I would work in the potato fields. I was going to pick potatoes.
“After, my first day, the field boss stopped by me and said, ‘Samme, you’re really not very good at picking potatoes, why don’t you come and work on the barrel truck?’”
With strong business knowledge and a general feel for politics, Bailey feels that if he were elected governor, he would concentrate on the obvious need for change in Maine’s economic condition, addressing the lack of good paying jobs, and essential need to keep our young people within the state.
“ Maine needs young talent and they deserve good jobs, it’s not a privilege, it’s a right,” said Bailey.
Through his book tour, Bailey is hoping to become a familiar name throughout Maine, while he prepares to take steps toward building his 2010 campaign for governor.
