My daughter-in-law recently told me about an NPR story which sparked the idea for this column. The noted Nobel-winning physicist Richard Feynman was asked what one message he would pass along to future beings if the world blew up. He said he would tell them that everything is composed of atoms. Audience members were asked […]

While Republicans are positively giddy over the party’s sweep of Virginia and the near-miss in reliably blue New Jersey, Democrats have succumbed to public bickering and finger-pointing over who and what was to blame. Whatever détente was possible between the party’s progressives and centrists vanished on the morning after the election, as leaders of both […]

“What’s the matter with Kansas?” An 1896 editorial in a Kansas newspaper carried that headline. It became a national mantra, revived in a 2004 book, a film – both with that title – plus a New York Times commentary last week. They all concluded that average people often vote against their own best interests. After […]

At The Gathering Place, just before COVID, we marked something important to many of us there: Our 10th anniversary. Feb. 7, 2010, marked our first day, on which we opened to a grand total of seven guests. Yes, seven! Since then we’ve been visited over 200,000 times by guests, the majority of them folks who […]

11 white jurors and one Black juror. We are in week two of the Ahmaud Arbery trial, and I wanted to remind you of the make-up of the jury in the case of a Black Georgia man who was shot and killed by three white men. A father and son duo — Gregory McMichael and […]

On Tuesday, Nov. 2, Maine voters overwhelmingly rejected the CMP corridor with a 59%-41% victory on Yes on Question 1. The process to enact the law moves ahead with a 20-day period for Secretary of State Bellows to certify the election, followed by a 10-period for a signature from Governor Mills, then enactment after another […]

It’s hard to imagine the pandemic hasn’t changed the world, but you’d never know it from predominant Washington political reporting. It hardened into its present configuration early in the Clinton administration, when Newt Gingrich swept the 1994 midterms and gave Republicans full control of Congress for the first time in 40 years. Bill Clinton bet […]

From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, labor unions have been among the strongest advocates for workplace safety measures. So it came as a surprise to many that some unions have resisted the imposition of vaccine mandates, ranging in sentiment from cautious to outright hostile. Their reactions can seem confusing because we tend to associate […]