I’ve never thought of myself as having any special wisdom. But they say wisdom comes from experience, and sadly, I’ve had enough experience with flare-ups like Ferguson, Missouri, that wisdom has come unbidden. I say “flare-up” because, like an ill-placed match, one event can ignite others, causing responses of outrage. Too often, though, the media […]

The Providence (R.I.) Journal, Aug. 15: A match has been struck in the north St. Louis County suburb of Ferguson, Missouri, and now the nation is struggling to understand why it flared so quickly into a blaze. It started when a Ferguson police officer shot and killed an unarmed, 18-year-old African-American man named Michael Brown. […]

The “buddy system” can mean a lot of different things, but in the city of Biddeford it’s the name of a program that helps connect an elderly resident to a peer who can check in on them and make sure they are safe. The brainchild of Mayor Alan Casavant, The Buddy System is a 1 […]

At the planning board meeting a couple of months back, the gentle legal lady informed us that according to Federal Communications Commission regulation, no local government could prevent the erection of a cell tower on grounds of human health. What she deliberately did not say was the following from that same regulation: “The Act provides […]

Atrocities have never been an eradicated item on the world stage. Fanatics bent on hatred, carnage and anarchy somehow always seem to emerge to display and emulate the work of Satan. They then claim an evangelical gift, which Lucifer never lost his claim to. In this latest example of human vulgarity for a deranged group […]

Having survived homelessness in Maine, few Americans have experienced poverty like Paul LePage. He has a passion for Maine and its taxpayers, and for which he has a plan: stop spending and taxing. He cares especially for the homeless and the disabled who are citizens of Maine. That’s why Paul volunteered for years at Mid-Maine […]

Excerpts from recent editorials in newspapers in the United States and abroad: The Daily News, Bowling Green, Kentucky, on Ukraine: The situation in Ukraine is getting worse every day. Pro-Russian rebels are destabilizing that country, and the latest reports are that the Russian military is sending in heavy military hardware such as heavy machine guns, […]

Panama! Panama-ah-ah-ah! The lyrics from the eponymous Van Halen song could just as easily be the nation’s port policy — if the country had one. Panama is nearing completion of retrofitting the Panama Canal to accommodate much larger ships. The prospect of these ships calling on the East and Gulf Coasts has every port authority […]