As a legislator who is also a historian, I’ve been honored to weigh in on a number of bills that have improved the state’s relationship with Maine tribes. Maine’s history with the tribes has been a long ugly one of broken promises, and as a result, there’s also a history of poverty, oppression and discrimination […]

I’m slow. Very. I mean I do things slowly. Everything. Rushing about is for people who like to do that sort of thing. Rushing is just so bourgeois. Slow is the only way to go. Slow rules. At restaurants for example, I’m just chewing my way through the appetizer while my dinner companions are ordering […]

I have dreaded sitting down to write this week’s Giving Voice. My plan was to focus on the community reading of “Rough Sleepers” and how our community is taking care for those who experience homelessness. This book is about Dr. Jim O’Connell and his commitment to providing medical care for people who are unhoused in […]

Note from the author: I wrote this article before the horrendous mass shooting in Lewiston. The need for sensible gun legislation — including banning assault rifles — has never been greater. The stupidity of book banning has never been clearer. As a red-blooded teenager in the late 1950s, I was delighted to get a copy […]

In olden times, alchemists tried to turn lead into gold. They failed. In 1976, the U.S. decided to convert gold into political power. It worked. That year, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that free spending and free speech are the same. Because the Constitution allows no limits on political speech, the Court said it allows […]

Hopefully, the rugged beard I’ve been sporting will motivate at least one of my fellow men to take better care of his health this November. Every November, you see, two charitable organizations, Movember and No-Shave November, raise funds by encouraging men to not cut or shave their facial hair. Both organizations have made November an […]

The ripples of last week’s “mass shootings” — an inadequate term, but all we have — continue to spread, but gradually the shock waves are receding from the days immediately following the horrific events in Lewiston. For a time, everyone locked their doors while the search for the man who took 18 lives, not including […]

THE CONVERSATION — Many Latinos regularly declare: “Día de los Muertos is not Mexican Halloween.” The declaration is increasingly repeated by non-Latinos too. Drawing a clear line between the two holidays is a rhetorical strategy to protect Day of the Dead’s integrity as Mexican cultural heritage and separate it from American popular culture. However, as a […]