One of the recurring themes advanced by those supporting a merger of the Twin Cities, creating a ponderous big city straddling the Androscoggin River, is that the Twin Cities are in a competition of some sort with Portland. Once Lewiston and Auburn are merged, the new city will rise up and slay the powerful dragon on Casco Bay that has been eating our lunch economically for so many decades.

Pure poppycock.

Portland is Portland and Lewiston is Lewiston. Chasing Portland, and the prosperous constellation of partner cities and towns surrounding it, is a fool’s errand.

It is about time that the pro-merger crew gives up its feelings of being second fiddle and set its own course to prosperity in face of the many challenges, many self-inflected, Lewiston faces as a struggling service center on the Androscoggin.

Not everyone can be the star running back on the high school football team. Let’s stop the Portland persecution complex and make the best of what we are.

Robin Dearborn, Lewiston