Former councilors endorse Katie Stansky for Brunswick school board

As former chairs of the Brunswick Town Council, we’ve worked with many public servants who set aside grievance politics to focus on one thing: the good of Brunswick. In this school board election, the choice is clear: We’re supporting Katie Stansky.

Brunswick values fairness, inclusion and opportunity. Our students do best when every child — regardless of background, ability or identity — feels safe and supported. Strong schools benefit the entire community, not just by educating students but by strengthening Brunswick’s future.

Katie understands this. A Maine native and parent of two Brunswick students, she brings both personal investment and professional experience leading in the healthcare tech sector. She’s collaborative, thoughtful and focused on expanding opportunity for all — especially through STEM education that prepares students for the real world.

Her opponent offers a very different vision — one focused on rejecting diversity, equity and inclusion. He has pledged to oppose DEI efforts, freeze administrator pay for five years regardless of cost of living and limit protections for trans students. That’s not thoughtful leadership. It’s divisive and out of step with Brunswick’s values.

Katie brings the kind of forward-thinking, community-rooted leadership our schools need. We hope you’ll join us in voting for her.

Jim Mason and Abby King,
Former chairpersons, Brunswick Town Council

Response requested

I would really appreciate it if one, just one Trump supporter would write in to explain how his acceptance of a multimillion dollar plane from another government is okay. It is unconstitutional and completely unnecessary. I thought he was the law-and-order president. I have many, many other questions (including, how is it okay that he is ignoring a Supreme Court order to return Mr. Garcia so he may receive due process? Why is spending millions on golf trips and a military parade more important than funding medical research or food for struggling families?), but I would really appreciate an answer to this one very simple question. I am really trying to understand people’s continued support of Trump’s unlawful actions. Is it that you don’t really care what he does as long as a few of your goals are met? Will there be a red line? Thank you.

Peg Duhamel,
Woolwich

A return to Declaration of Conscience needed

On June 1, 1950, Maine Sen. Margaret Chase Smith rose in the U.S. Senate to deliver her Declaration of Conscience. Alarmed by Sen. Joe McCarthy’s divisive anticommunist witch hunts, she warned of a “national feeling of fear and frustration.” “Mr. President,” she began, “I speak as a Republican. I speak as a woman. I speak as a United States senator. I speak as an American.”

“It is high time,” she continued, “that we remembered that we have sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution … that we stopped thinking politically as Republicans and Democrats .. that we all stopped being tools and victims of totalitarian techniques.”

Nearly four months into President Trump’s second term, our nation once again feels divided, fearful and frustrated, with a collapsing economy, international alliances in free fall and a looming constitutional crisis. As we approach the 75th anniversary of Sen. Smith’s speech, I urge Maine’s current female Republican senator, Susan Collins, to show the same courage and conscience by standing up for our state and nation and reading to her colleagues the original Declaration of Conscience.

Nathaniel T. Wheelwright,
Harpswell