November has arrived and as we approach Thanksgiving, it is a time for reflection, appreciation, and thankfulness for the enormous blessings around us. Abraham Lincoln formalized Thanksgiving as a national celebration during the Civil War, seeking to bind together a divided and wounded country. This is worth remembering as the recent tragedies in Pittsburgh, where […]

I do not always agree with Edgar Allen Beem. However, I admire the depth of his research and thinking on a very broad range of subjects. He will always provoke some of his readers some of the time; he takes rebuttals in stride. That is good; it keeps us from believing everything that we think. […]

On Oct. 8, the United Nations released an urgent warning about the coming impacts of climate change. On Oct. 10, Hurricane Michael, one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the U.S., struck Florida. More frequent and severe storms are just some of the repercussions we are seeing from unchecked climate change, and with […]

Alan Caron isn’t going to be Maine’s next governor. But he might be the one after that. As an independent gubernatorial candidate, Caron was running fourth in a four-candidate field when he finally decide to drop out. His polling numbers were stuck in the low single digits. He wasn’t airing any TV ads. And the […]

As we head off to vote in the most consequential election of our lifetimes, we are more divided as a nation than at any time since the Civil War. Many Americans seem to view Donald Trump as a populist savior. Many more view him as a threat to democracy and the rule of law. If […]

Are you sick of the constant political campaign commercials? Sick of hearing the names of the candidates? Sick of hearing how Candidate X is the best thing since sliced bread or the worst, depending on which political party or political action committee paid for the advertisement? Me, too. (Maybe we should start another “Me too” […]

This past weekend, I found myself in a familiar place: tabling. Literally stationed behind a table covered with colorful brochures, clipboards covered in sign-up sheets, and stacks of “save-the-date” cards. If, like me, you’ve spent a career in the nonprofit sector (or you volunteer a lot), this is familiar territory. I have tabled a lot […]

Cancer will kill an estimated 3,360 people in Maine this year. Maine policymakers have the power to guarantee access to adequate and affordable health care coverage, fund critical cancer research and screening programs and pass policies to reduce the burden of tobacco in Maine. Every day, our elected officials make decisions that affect cancer patients […]

The Second District congressional debate on WCSH was hard to watch, both because incumbent Bruce Poliquin was being an obnoxious twerp, talking right in challenger Jared Golden’s face like Trump hovering creepily behind Hillary, and because so much time was wasted having to listen to the two independents in the race. Tiffany Bond, a Portland […]

She’s not taking sides It’s nearly impossible to disagree with Terry Hayes – because it’s tough to disagree with somebody who hardly ever takes a stand on anything. It’s true that Hayes, the state treasurer and an independent candidate for governor (and a person whose lawn signs identify her as “Terry! Hayes” because maybe she […]