Was it our country starting an unjust war in 2003, when I was a sophomore in high school – beginning for me the realization that America is not the land of the free? Was it in 2008, when President Obama bailed out Wall Street? In 2016, when the DNC torched Bernie Sanders’ campaign? Or when […]

I am still reeling in dismay over the most recent mass murder in Texas. I note that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, by a 2-1 vote, recently overturned California’s law banning the purchase of semi-automatic weapons by persons under age 21. I further note that the shooters in the El Paso […]

There has been much public debate and controversy lately over LGBTQ+ issues in public schools. In hopes of putting concerns to rest, I’d like to share our experience at Brunswick Junior High School. Since 2016, BJHS has committed to actively supporting our LGBTQ+ students. Pride flags are visible all around the school, and teachers respectfully […]

The Press Herald website prominently featured Senator Collins’ participation in a one-hour bipartisan discussion of gun safety measures in the U.S. Senate. Collins voiced her support for a “Yellow Flag” law requiring a “medical practitioner to approve a request to temporarily take away someone’s firearms.” In the article, the senator failed to endorse other effective […]

The mass shooting at Robb Elementary is devastating to all the parents who lost their precious children. Now the impetus is on gun control, as it always is after any mass shootings. Please think about the following: New York and Chicago have strict gun control laws, yet 10 people were killed in a mass shooting […]

In the last week, I have consumed media almost exclusively about two horrors: the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Texas and daily reports of Palestinian youth murdered by the Israeli military. I have spent months living in a refugee camp in the West Bank. My friends and neighbors have all experienced physical violence at […]

For far too long, gun promoters have argued that guns should be easy to get, that guns in the hands of citizens will make everyone safer. They do not. We grow less safe year after year. More guns equal more suicides, more murders, more fear. I am a third-grade teacher – if a child, in […]