The juxtaposition of two local guest columnists (Stephen Heinz of Cumberland Foreside and Laura Fralich of New Gloucester) in the Dec. 29 Opinion section couldn’t have been better. The Heinz piece first: “Are we just talking to ourselves in these pages?,” followed by Fralich’s “Do not give up on your neighbors,” gave well-written responses for […]

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Donald Trump roundly criticized China for all of its real or apparent misdeeds, and his outrageous campaign statement was to impose tariffs on China. His alter ego, Elon Musk, must not have been listening to the president-elect spouting his wrath toward China. Musk, […]

A recent letter expressed anger about the Christmas/holiday “problem” (“Happy holidays? Bah humbug!” Dec. 19). In 1964, in my segregated Virginia high school, I wrote a paper about American holidays, using mostly one small library book. I learned that early Christians chose Dec. 25 since there was already a pagan (meaning non-Christian) holiday called Saturnalia […]

As a resident of Limerick, I’m no stranger to traveling long distances to find affordable care. With rising inflation and a shrinking network of services, it is more important than ever to have organizations like Planned Parenthood that offer family planning services, cancer screenings and wellness exams to all Mainers regardless of their ability to […]

What we have witnessed in Washington in recent weeks, with Congress fighting over the spending bill to keep the government open, should be an eye-opener for everyone. A billionaire private citizen almost shut the government down — with the blessing of Donald Trump. By using his X platform, Elon Musk bullied Republican members of the […]

It was nice to see a Hanukkah article make the front page (Dec. 26). But I wonder why the writer felt compelled to insert a disputed Gaza death toll statistic into an article with substance that had nothing to do with the current war. The sentence prior, stating it’s been a difficult year for Jewish […]

For the past two years, I have devoted one hour each week to Zoom conversations with an English-speaking Urkrainian who wants to improve his/her spoken English. The volunteer program is called ENGin Program. Search those two words and the link will appear. There are many Ukrainians, of all speaking levels, who will be paired with […]