I take issue with two of Halsey Frank’s assertions (“Short Relief: Don’t look now, but the next referendum battle is brewing”). The first is his opinion that given Maine’s median age of 40.7 years it is likely that the repeal of the right of same-sex couples to marry was based, in part, on the idea […]

I am a proud Morse High School Shipbuilder and a proud member of a great teachers union in RSU 1. Morse High School is an institution rich in tradition. RSU 1 is a district rich in a tradition of treating teachers fairly and decently. Yes, we’ve had disagreements with school boards in the past, but […]

I spent much of the last Election Day as I often do, working the East End School polling place on Munjoy Hill in Portland. For an off-year election, it was an unusually busy day there, as elsewhere around the state. About 1,600 people voted in person. As in past elections, a significant number of people […]

On the rainy evening of Oct. 30, Margie Cooper, a senior art history major at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, had reservations at an upscale Portland restaurant. It was Parents Weekend and Cooper planned to dine out with her parents. She made the 8 p.m. reservation a month before, but when she decided to invite her […]

I am a proud Morse High School Shipbuilder and a proud member of a great teachers union in RSU 1. Morse High School is an institution rich in tradition. RSU 1 is a district rich in a tradition of treating teachers fairly and decently. Yes, we’ve had disagreements with school boards in the past, but […]

Thank you, Edgar Allen Beem, for your column about Rudy and Twin Brooks. It brought a smile to my face, for I can identify with the two of you. My black Lab, Briggs, and I walk there most mornings in all weather and we both have a wonderful time. There is, indeed, something magic about […]

Perry B. Newman’s column hit the nail on the head: “We fear change because it will cost us …” This country needs many, many more of its citizens willing to compromise, to give up something of their own for the common good. Would you, the well-off folks in Forecaster Country, be willing to pay a […]

We members of the South Portland School Board are writing this letter to address last week’s article, “South Portland School Board appointment raises questions about oversight, superintendent’s role” and the subsequent editorial. The article states that “Superintendent of Schools Suzanne Godin has recommended three board appointees since becoming school chief in 2007.” This statement is […]

Edgar Allen Beem’s commentary, “Marriage is a gay inevitability,” leads me to wonder: had Barack Obama been denied the presidency based solely on his skin color or on the fact that he was the product of a mixed-race marriage, would that not be bigotry? Or if women and minorities were still prevented from voting based […]

The recent referendum on homosexual marriage was as much about the north-south divide in Maine as it was between conservatives and liberals. Northern Maine is mostly made up of traditional Mainers who have been progressively abandoned by the Democratic Party over the past 50 years. In fact, Maine is a microcosm of what has been […]