If we haven’t figured out yet that fossil fuels are doing us major harm, after the year we’ve just had, we’re in big trouble. With so much warming already baked in above us, we must clearly plan for a more hopeful future to preserve as much as we can of the Maine we love. That’s […]

The Republican Party has always supported the military. Recently, Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville has been holding the Pentagon hostage by refusing to promote military personnel. Currently, 31 admirals who have been approved, and who Tuberville voted to approve, cannot be promoted. The Marines are without a Senate-confirmed commandant for the first time in more than […]

What do we do to care compassionately for our unhoused friends who have no place to go, no safety, no shelter when it rains or gets cold? I was really sad when I learned about the “sweeps” of homeless encampments happening in Portland. A “sweep” is when unhoused people’s camps are destroyed and people are […]

Landscaping with eco-friendly plants, rewilding, has become a thing and none too soon. Twenty-five years ago, my husband and I bought 8 wooded acres in Scarborough and told the landscaper of the newly built, single-story house that he could only plant what was already there. And, specifically, no grass. He had plenty of leeway; juniper, […]

I grew up in Portland in the 1950s, and the landmarks that come to my mind first are the outdoor sculptures by Franklin Simmons of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and “Our Lady of Victories”; the Lobsterman Memorial; monuments to John Ford, the USS Maine and the many curious statuaries at Evergreen Cemetery. Even “The Weight of […]

I am shocked to view last Sunday’s Steve Meyers cartoon, showing a hunched-over person pushing a walker (Sept. 10, Page D2). Yesterday 50 friends, neighbors and family members honored my wife’s passing. Her life encompassed 75 years as a nurse. A few of our friends slowly walked into the Community Center also pushing a walker, […]

I am writing to express my deep concern about the alarming increase in racist and antisemitic incidents that have recently occurred in Freeport: a swastika and racist slur carved in a public restroom stall at 100 Main St., my place of work (April 16); three offensive racial slurs spray-painted in the parking lot owned by […]