$17 billion dollars spent on political ad campaigning for this round of elections. Just how dependent is our elective system on funds? As Mark Twain said, America has the best government money can buy. How refreshing it would be if media were obliged to provide reasonably priced, limited time slots; if each candidate had a […]

For over four months we were inundated with annoying political ads, full of half truths and lies. Now that the elections are nearly completed, let’s take a second to reflect. It seemed every Republican ad was aimed directly at crime, inflation and immigration, criticizing the Biden administration for everything but the weather. So now that […]

I’m an avid reader of The Week, a magazine that I value up there with the Press Herald as an indispensable fount of information and inspiration. In a recent issue, that magazine’s editor-in-chief writes of Greek tragedies: “… where heroes meet their downfall when they succumb to hubris – the arrogant belief in their own […]

This seems like a good time to ask how Maine is working to improve gun safety laws. I saw on everytown.org that Maine ranks 26 in the nation on gun safety. We need to make this a priority. I teach at Portland High School. The active shooter threats on Nov. 15 at several schools in […]

Let’s be honest. There are those who no longer observe Dec. 25 as the religious holiday that it is. So, for them, it is no longer Christmas. And it’s not Saturnalia. What is their Dec. 25? They should give it an appropriate name. I’m suggesting “Winterfest.” This solves the problem of Santa Claus; he can […]

As a child, I remember my parents talking about growing up during the “Red Scare,” and preparing for nuclear war. It was hard to imagine them as children in their Buster Brown shoes, innocent and vulnerable, crouched under cheap metal desks and waiting for what seemed inevitable. My father remembers his family’s makeshift fallout shelter, […]

I see reference to infrastructure projects like the Eastern Trail that have been allocated funds from the 2021 infrastructure deal (“Work on the Eastern Trail could expand rapidly in the coming decade,” Nov. 13). It makes me very interested in learning how much money Maine will get for infrastructure projects, as well as who decides […]

Thank you for publishing Will Bunch’s spot-on assessment of President Biden’s first two years and how he managed to win the 2020 election (“A Biden coalition is (barely) saving democracy. POTUS 46 must run again in ’24,” Nov. 20). A candidate without his decades of Senate experience and worldwide associations could not have coalesced his […]