On Dec. 8, 1941, U.S. newspaper headlines were bold, black, 72-plus-point font size describing attacks on ships in Pearl Harbor.

The Feb. 23, 2025, Maine Sunday Telegram’s business-as-usual front page featured articles about the Card/Lewiston shooting, consequences of Trump’s threats to Canada and lobster fishing gear. Similarly low-key was the lead article in the Opinion section, about polarization.

In the final business days of the preceding week:

• The Senate confirmed the new, conspiracy-driven head of the FBI.

• The president fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the other services’ chiefs of staff.

• The unqualified secretary of defense removed many of the services’ Judge Advocate General officers.

• The vice president, the secretary of defense and President Trump changed the entire posture of relations with our European allies.

• In the Senate, Maine’s Angus King itemized numerous reasons for profound concern about the direction our nation is taking, noting Republican colleagues’ failure to resist

• The President, in a White House governors’ meeting, bullied and belittled Maine’s governor. Some of these facts received modest mention on the inside pages of the paper.

This is not a business-as-usual time. The word “existential” has profound application to current, ongoing threats to the ideals and way of life our country has enjoyed and promoted.

With many departments of our federal government taken over, the last hopes for our future are for the free press stepping up, under banner headlines, alerting our citizens of imminent threats confronting us. The newspaper must fulfill its role.

Ervin Snyder
Brunswick