I was awarded a Fulbright to conduct research in Spain on medical history and was evacuated with my family in the middle of a global pandemic. Starting March 30, the Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez advised citizens to go into hibernation, extending the state of alarm for yet another two weeks with the death toll […]

During his daily press briefing April 3, Dr. Nirav Shah from the Maine CDC delivered a stark warning about the shortage of personal protective equipment, or PPE. Our current situation, he said, is like “we’ve got an umbrella and we’re in a hurricane.” That grim analogy reinforces what nurses, doctors, and first responders have been […]

We arrived at Anna Maria Island in Florida on March 1, right as the COVID-19 pandemic was gaining steam, even though Trump and his Fox News cheerleaders were still calling it a Democratic “hoax” designed to bring down the President. For an introvert like me, the concept of “social distancing” presents no problem. Just go […]

I’m not sure what the current equivalent is, but a while ago, one of the ways to signal interest in someone was to make that person a “mixtape.” Said tape comprised a neighborhood of songs that you deemed special; it was the kind of ‘hood you wanted to hang out in, and the tape invited […]

Americans like to believe we all unite to fight an external threat. But it’s not true in the COVID-19 crisis. Start with the inexplicable absence of toilet paper in the supermarket. Because almost all of it is manufactured in the U.S., there’s no shortage. But the shelves were swept clear of it. That’s hoarding. By […]

Over the last two weeks, most everyone has had a chance to sit down and reflect on what is going on and where we as individuals fit within this new world. Those of us of a certain maturity might tend to think about what choices we have made and how that has affected our place […]

May I tell you a fundamental hope many of us hold, including those of us who volunteer and work at The Gathering Place? And may I ask you to think seriously about this, because until it can be met, there will continue to be hidden but deep inequality in Brunswick, and we will all suffer […]

Two months after confronting the coronavirus pandemic, China has contained the threat and is restarting its economy after suffering 3,100 deaths, while South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan are also recovering. In the same time period, the U.S. has suffered 2,500 deaths, the economy has collapsed, and the latest models predict 100,000 deaths before we recover. […]

When Donald Trump was running for president, he cultivated a tough-guy persona: tough on immigration, tough on crime and tough on America’s adversaries. He never admitted having made a single mistake, nor did he ever apologize. Question him and face his wrath. As COVID-19 cases multiply daily in the U.S., Trump’s approach has remained largely […]