Maine Senate enacts Sen. Carney bill to rename Maine Turnpike Approach Road in honor of peace activist Samantha Smith

AUGUSTA — On Thursday, the Maine Senate enacted a bill from Sen. Anne Carney, D-Cape Elizabeth. LD 21, “Resolve, Designating Maine Turnpike Approach Road in South Portland as Samantha Smith Way,” would rename Exit 45, Maine Turnpike Approach Road, as Samantha Smith Way, in honor of what would have been Samantha’s 50th birthday. Samantha died in a plane crash on Aug. 25, 1985.

“I want to thank all of my Senate colleagues for supporting this bill, especially during Women’s History Month,” said Sen. Carney. “Naming a well-traveled roadway after Samantha will preserve the memory of this remarkable young Mainer and, I hope, inspire great conversations on family road trips about the importance of speaking up for what you believe in and believing you can make the world a better place.”

Samantha Smith became an advocate for peace during a time of great tension between the U.S. and the USSR. In the fall of 1982, 10-year-old Samantha, a fifth-grader at Manchester Elementary School, read a Time magazine story about Soviet leader Yuri Andropov and the threat of nuclear war. She asked her mother: “If people are so afraid of him, why doesn’t someone write a letter asking whether he wants to have a war or not?” Her mother replied, “Why don’t you?”

In Samantha’s letter, she wrote:

Dear Mr. Andropov,

My name is Samantha Smith. I am 10 years old. Congratulations on your new job. I have been worrying about Russia and the United States getting into a nuclear war. Are you going to vote to have a war or not? If you aren’t please tell me how you are going to help to not have a war. This question you do not have to answer, but I would like it if you would. Why do you want to conquer the world or at least our country? God made the world for us to share and take care of. Not to fight over or have one group of people own it all. Please let’s do what he wanted and have everybody be happy too.

Samantha Smith

Eventually, Samantha received a reply and an invitation to visit the Soviet Union in the summer of 1983 as the guests of the Soviet leader. She and her parents spent two weeks traveling in the Soviet Union, getting to know children and adults in many parts of that country.

“I would like to point out that the Maine Turnpike Approach Road that this bill designates as Samantha Smith Way is a place where many tourists drive. This may show a nice aspect of Maine’s history to them,” said Cecilia Smith, an eighth grader at Brunswick Junior High School, while testifying in support of the bill during the public hearing. “Naming this approach road after her would continue her legacy and further her message, in a time very similar to hers.”

The City Council of South Portland passed a resolution (Resolve #4-22/23) in favor of LD 21 and sent a letter of support for LD 21 to the Transportation Committee. Several members of Veterans for Peace also provided testimony in support of LD 21, noting that Samantha’s call for peace is appropriate for ongoing conflicts and tensions around the globe today.

Now the bill goes to the Governor’s desk, where she has 10 days to either sign the bill, veto it or allow it to become law without her signature.

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