Here’s an interesting question: of the more than 1,000 businesses in the Biddeford and Saco region, how many do you think you’ve done business with personally or professionally?  For many of us, the list would run into the hundreds. Being one person or company among so many in our modern society poses a paradox. There […]

The beloved humorist Will Rogers surely put it best: “I am not a member of an organized political party,” he said. “I am a Democrat.” That was almost a century ago, in 1930. The Cherokee cowboy who began his vaudeville career as a trick roper was seen as an apostle of the common man, although […]

It was a bright morning, and we had finished off the coffee and conversation at the Mule Barn truck stop, and we couldn’t think of anything much to do because we were still full from breakfast and it was too early for lunch, and the political problems and Hollywood gossip tanks had been thoroughly topped […]

True or false?  The U.S. Constitution begins: “Natural Rights.  All people … have certain natural, inherent and inalienable rights….” False.  That is in the first sentence of the Maine Constitution.  Most other states have a natural rights clause.  For example, the Kansas Constitution begins: “Equal rights.  All men are possessed of equal and inalienable natural […]

Don’t get me wrong. Churches are much more than just social clubs. Yet the evidence suggests that our churches need to be social clubs. One of our concerns as Christian leaders and role models is the secularization of America. We hear that surveys show a growing number of Americans are identifying themselves as atheists. This […]

Merriam-Webster just added 640 new words to its dictionary. Contemporary words like “go-cup” and “vulture capitalism.” The problem is, we all know how to spell those words and what they mean. After all, we invented them. Who needs a dictionary to look up the words we already know? And sometimes you have to wonder, is […]

“The recession talk in late 2018 got way, way out of hand,” the New York Times economic reporter Neil Irwin tweeted a few days ago. Indeed it did. Irwin’s tweet came shortly after the government released figures showing the economy grew at a 3.2 percent annual rate in the first three months of this year. […]