I wish to comment on Irv Williams’ Maine Voices column of Dec. 11 (“Ten years after Sandy Hook, it seems to me that little has changed”). Mr. Williams conflates two entirely separate subjects: gun violence and gun safety. Gun violence is not caused by guns, it is caused by the individual who pulls the trigger. […]

This is in response to a letter to the editor headlined “Fentanyl must be halted at the southern border” (Page D3) in the Dec. 25 Press Herald: It’s not that simple. While I share the author’s dismay over the massive suffering tied to fentanyl, the issue is complex. The massive amount of fentanyl does not […]

With the passage of the Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022, democracy was thrown a lifeline. Prompted by the attempt to stop the certification of President-elect Joe Biden after the 2020 election, the new law is designed to fortify the peaceful transfer of power of the presidency by replacing “ambiguous provisions of the 19th-century law.” […]

E.B. White’s magic world of the terrific but humble pig Wilbur, saved by Charlotte the barn spider’s mastery of putting the right words together, takes us to a world we find we never really forgot. Arthur Benedict’s column of Dec. 23 (“What gives ‘Charlotte’s Web’ such formidable staying power?”) shows that his memory is one […]

Hoist on his own petard. Fifty-eight percent of those who answered his poll think Elon Musk should resign from Twitter. Poetic justice. Joan O’Brien Portland

Re: Susan Walls’ letter to the editor of Dec. 21 (“Think creatively, USPS – deliver every other day,” Page A4): I think her suggestion for delivering mail every other day to all Maine neighborhoods is an excellent way to unburden USPS staffing shortages. However, I don’t agree with letter writer Richard Akers’ suggestion to have […]

I would like to express my deep gratitude to the line workers and road crews who worked so tirelessly to get the power back on and to clear the roads. I know many of these workers got very little sleep for days, missed the holidays with family and were working outside in terrible conditions. Their […]

May I suggest the newspaper bring on a statistician to fact-check its stories? Maine home prices are not “rising,” as claimed in the Press Herald’s Dec. 22 article (“Housing market may be easing for buyers, latest numbers show,” Page B1). Sure, prices may be 6 percent higher now than a year ago. But if one […]

Last week a letter writer criticized Brittney Griner for coming home instead of staying in Russia until Paul Whelan was also released (“Letter to the editor: Ex-Marine left behind in Russia as sacrifice to woke politics,” Dec. 23). Many on the right seem to imply that Whelan is more deserving, pointing out that he is […]