Small family farms are a huge part of what makes Maine special. Farms provide jobs, drive local economies, maintain cultural connections and keep land open. More importantly, last year when the supply chain broke down and supermarket shelves were empty, our small farms literally kept us fed. Despite all this, they’re in trouble. A recent […]
Forecaster opinion
Posted inAmerican Journal, Forecaster Opinion, Lakes Region Weekly
Life Unwound: Hope springs eternal – or does it? That depends …
This week I reread holiday cards and saw in many of them, “Here’s hoping for an easier 2022. Let’s hope for an end to all this darkness.” Packing up hope messages, I remembered a lecture I gave years ago in South Carolina. I stood ready to speak, the “mindfulness woman” there to teach “some things […]
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Posted inForecaster Opinion
RSU 5 Superintendent’s Notebook: Welcoming asylum-seekers to RSU 5 with open arms
Even though many Americans move multiple times over the course of their lifetimes, nearly 72% of Americans live in or close to the place where they grew up, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. For those of us who move farther away, we do so after much planning. We find a job, a place to […]
Posted inAmerican Journal, Forecaster Opinion, Lakes Region Weekly
Here’s Something: BLM should learn to be more like MLK
Martin Luther King Jr., a reverend who charted a colorblind approach to racial injustice, was a man of honor. Read his famous speeches and you will be in absolute awe. Oh, how we need a King now. He’d set race-baiters everywhere straight. He’d tell them to love their fellow, flawed human beings as individuals, not […]
Posted inAmerican Journal, Forecaster Opinion, Lakes Region Weekly
Through My Lens: ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere’
Growing up in Somalia, I did not hear about Martin Luther King Jr. I had not heard the slavery stories of the United States and the persecution that African Americans have experienced. In fact, the whole experience seemed so distant that I thought the colonial stories of Somalia I heard on the radio every night […]
Posted inAmerican Journal, Forecaster Opinion, Lakes Region Weekly
Mainewhile: Goldfish experiment is food for thought
I had planned to write this week about the new guidance on masks and the omicron variant. I think it is positively astounding how fast scientific research is moving and tracking the virus as it morphs and changes – and knowledge is power, right? Given that the data is pretty clear that this variant requires […]
Posted inForecaster Opinion
Portland Superintendent’s Notebook: Portland aims to be a leader in teaching Black history
In January we observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day to honor his life and legacy. Black History Month comes in February, a time to celebrate Black Americans’ achievements and recognize their central role in U.S. history. That makes this an opportune time for me to highlight the Black history curriculum Portland Public Schools is developing […]
Posted inAmerican Journal, Forecaster Opinion, Lakes Region Weekly
Mainewhile: Honor Betty White by taking up challenge in her name
Betty White, Betty White, amazing Betty White. At half her age, I wish I was even one quarter as cool. With her death, the internet, in one of those all-too-rare moments when it actually proves to be a worthwhile tool of goodness, quickly spawned the idea of The Betty White Challenge. Although I quite recently […]
Posted inAmerican Journal, Forecaster Opinion, Lakes Region Weekly
Life Unwound: The sweetness of the past is worth remembering
Sometimes we don’t know or want to know big, worldly truths. International politics. Fast-moving viruses. The Earth’s climate crises. And there are smaller personal truths that we also cannot or do not want to see. I acknowledge one here: I am forgetting things. Names. Words. It’s as if “my friend’s name is Grace” or “that […]
Posted inCoastal Journal, The Forecaster
Brunswick Superintendent’s Notebook: Look around – geography puts you in your place
What three major seas does Turkey border? If I had asked that question when I was a child, my parents would have pointed to the globe that sat in our living room or they would have told me to walk down the street to visit the Sangerville Library to look at an Encyclopedia Britannica set […]