Yours truly has just celebrated a birthday. This one was a milestone year and I was eyeing it a little dubiously when I discovered to my great joy that I share this particular milestone with one of my most favorite organizations, the Maine Organic Farmers and Growers Association – MOFGA to its friends. MOFGA was […]
Forecaster Opinion
Posted inAmerican Journal, Forecaster Opinion, Lakes Region Weekly
Forum: Anti-vaxxers are nothing new
Having spent nearly two years in hospitals with polio as a child, I am incredibly grateful that by the time my own children came along, pediatricians automatically provided the polio vaccine. I can still remember the fear infantile paralysis brought to American parents each summer. Everyone avoided crowds and public places for swimming and movie theaters were forbidden. […]
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Posted inAmerican Journal, Forecaster Opinion, Lakes Region Weekly
Mainewhile: Play is serious business
Remember when getting ready for a new school year meant a new backpack and a fresh pack of pencils? Man, I miss that. Last year we were figuring out how to manage returning mid-pandemic. We navigated cohorts, figured out Zoom and became experts on different types of sanitizer. This year, we are figuring out how […]
Posted inAmerican Journal, Forecaster Opinion, Lakes Region Weekly
Through My Lens: Music and culture should be integrated
It is about time immigrant leaders in the state of Maine start embracing music and cultural integration. It is common these days for people to group themselves in faith or culture and stay together tightly for safety reasons, particularly in the past few years under Trump’s leadership. While I think that is not a bad […]
Posted inForecaster Opinion
Superintendent’s Notebook: Homeostasis – destination or roadblock?
I don’t think any of us thought we’d be heading into the new school year like this … more uncertainty, continued adjustments and ever-changing policies. It’s a bit disheartening, especially after a hopeful spring and summer. A common refrain: “Can’t we just go back to the way things were?” A friend of mine once observed, […]
Posted inForecaster Opinion
Life Unwound: What questions are you asking?
Do you ever wake up empty? I mean, do you first think versions of hollow questions like “What’s for breakfast?” or “Do I look fat in that shirt?” You know, questions that trigger “ugh, another day, blah.” Me, too. “Ugh” questions don’t nudge us out of bed like poet Mary Oliver’s, “What is it you […]
Posted inAmerican Journal, Forecaster Opinion, Lakes Region Weekly
Mainewhile: Sorrow both here and abroad
This week I packed up the youngest, along with most of his belongings, and the two of us took a road trip to settle him in at college. I’ll be the first to acknowledge that the “empty nest” phenomenon is real. Never did I think it was possible to simultaneously feel so much joy and […]
Posted inAmerican Journal, Forecaster Opinion, Lakes Region Weekly
Here’s Something: Labor Day reminds us all workers are essential
Americans’ work ethic, and especially Mainers’, is still as strong as ever. And as we celebrate the upcoming Labor Day weekend, it’s appropriate to take time to honor laborers of all kinds, never take them for granted and recognize they’re all essential. Without the workers that manufacture, grow, transport, care for, clean, cook, teach, serve, […]
Posted inAmerican Journal, Forecaster Opinion, Lakes Region Weekly
Mainewhile: Masks are our children’s only defense
My family took a lot of road trips when I was little. My memories of those trips involve a lot of singalongs, getting passed from one lap to another and curling up on a blanket in the way back when I got tired. There was no car seat. Heck, there were no seat belts. My […]
Posted inAmerican Journal, Forecaster Opinion, Lakes Region Weekly
Through My Lens: We own the outcome in Afghanistan
What happened in Kabul this week reminded me of what happened in Mogadishu in 2006, and the years to come for Afghanistan seem scarier than ever. In 2006, only five years after the U.S. troops went into Afghanistan in pursuit of Osama Bin Laden, an armed Islamic group who called themselves Al-Shabab stormed into Mogadishu, […]