I’m a harm reduction clinician and navigator with six years of higher education and 15 years lived experience. I’m a mother, wife and have lived in recovery for years. I have used drugs, possessed drugs, reversed overdoses and experienced incarceration. I have worked hard to get to a place where I know my voice has […]

Are you wondering what has happened to morality and justice in America? Me too. Tendencies toward valuing wealth, its privileges, pleasures and presumed ability to ward off life’s worst developments are common to all of us, regardless of economic status. What’s worth noting is that biblical history shows God setting up stipulations for living designed, […]

After reading the newspaper’s recent article on PFAS (“PFAS exposure leaves Maine people wondering: What is it doing to us?” May 14), I was compelled to respond. My family has been unknowingly living on and cultivating contaminated land for 30 years. My father died six years ago after an extended debilitating illness. Among his diagnoses were […]

Regarding the Press Herald’s May 16 story “ ‘Nowhere to go’: Dozens of homeless people displaced as city clears Bayside Trail encampment”: I applaud reporter Rachel Ohm and photographer Ben McCanna for their coverage of the Bayside encampment move-out in Portland. The anecdotes and photos were staggering while also providing dignified, humane coverage of the […]

I recently finished teaching English as a volunteer for six weeks at the Salvation Army. Most students had only been in the U.S. for a month or two. The class was all over the place with its English proficiency. So I simply began. It was mix and match. I never got to know all 60 […]

The news last week rightly included the city of Sanford and its response to the asylum seekers who arrived seeking safety. They arrived in multiple groups and at varying times: men, women and children. As expected, much behind-the-scenes work went on. But something that was concerning to me was the untrue and harmful light that […]

The cause of the hospital staffing crisis is the system hospitals use to staff only the bare minimum of nurses on each shift. Without legislation for nurse-to-patient ratios, patient care is unsafe, and nurses will not keep participating in it. I am constantly agonizing over being a part of a system inflicting harm by design, […]

Many thanks to Orlando Delogu for such a clear and convincing explanation of the problems with Maine tribes achieving full sovereignty (“Commentary: In state with dispersed tribal land, ‘full sovereignty’ seems unworkable,” May 12). I wonder why Gov. Mills does not offer this explanation herself? The lack of transparency about her consultations with tribal leaders is […]