Professor Barbara Held in the Feb. 16 Portland Press Herald attempted to dismiss Gov. Ron DeSantis’ feeble backlash against Florida’s “critical turn” in education (“Commentary: Why ‘woke ideology’ is an oxymoron – and why that matters”). Both Gov. DeSantis and Professor Held suffer from the same error: Both are trying to avoid naming the central […]

This is in response to a recent letter criticizing a Maine Monitor article published in the Press Herald on Jan. 30 (“There’s an ugly side to Maine harness racing”). The letter’s author writes: “Maine harness racing is monitoring, regulating and fining owners for rule violations of prohibited substances and whipping and kicking.” The real issue […]

Adding to Kristen Salvatore’s excellent piece on Israel’s violation of the human rights of Palestinians (“Maine Voices: Silence of our state’s senators on human rights violations equals complicity,” Feb. 14), Mainers should know the cost of U.S. military aid to Israel. That aid totals nearly $4 billion each year, far more than we send to […]

Re: Kevin Benjamin’s recent letter (“Letter to the editor: ‘1984’ analogy better applied to Democrats,” Feb. 14): No, it applies more to Republicans, especially when it comes to George Orwell’s cardinal principle: truth. Republicans of all stripes make up stuff to suit their political purposes these days. It’s like Orwell said: “Political language … is […]

Our Power (Pine Tree Power) is a Maine ratepayer group, approved by a bipartisan Legislature to help reduce Mainers electric costs, improve services and overall transparency, and move Maine to a clean, equitable and resilient electricity future Pine Tree Power performed several economic feasibility studies to ensure Mainers that any transition will not only be […]

I urge a “yes” vote this fall on the ballot initiative to create Pine Tree Power, a nonprofit consumer-owned utility. This would convert foreign-owned Central Maine Power and Versant Power to public power status. I speak from 40 years’ experience as an energy and utilities analyst, including extensive work in the public power sector. Public […]

Barbara Held writes that the woke agenda gets maligned when referred to as “woke ideology” (“Commentary: Why ‘woke ideology’ is an oxymoron – and why that matters,” Feb. 17). For me, her words were wasted; she appears to be living in her own little world. Typical of the “woke,” particularly those in academia, Dr. Held […]