Maine has a long history of protecting individual rights and keeping personal, family decisions out of the political sphere: one of the first three states to enact marriage equality through popular vote, in 2012; death with dignity, in 2019, and the right to a legal abortion affirmed since 1979, a protection that was updated just […]

Since 1975, Gallup polls document that fewer than 20 percent of Americans believe a woman’s right to choose an abortion should be banned in all cases. This small, but vocal, minority reports to be defending the right of a fetus to a life it cannot yet sustain outside the host’s body. The most vocal of […]

Postsecondary education is vital in securing good jobs and careers in the 21st century. Many economists now project that in order to maintain a middle-class lifestyle, an individual will require knowledge and skills available only through some sort of postsecondary education after high school. Although many entry-level jobs once required only job experience, employers in […]

Bravo for the inspiring Bill Nemitz column on Maine COP26 contributor Susana Hancock (Nov. 21). The U.S. could lead the world to a sustainable future, and Maine lawmakers are critical to this effort. With EU and UK carbon tariffs starting to hit U.S. products in 2023, economic pressure to join every other developed nation and […]

The late Sen. Bob Dole, Republican of Kansas, was not only a supporter of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, but also – in 1979 – expressed his support for direct elections: “Were we to switch to a system of direct election, I think we would see a […]

I guess I am one of those nuanced people about abortion, as identified recently in The New York Times. I am a year away from 80, so it isn’t something I have to worry about for myself. In our early years of marriage, it wasn’t really available and it wasn’t anything we considered. After two […]

Martin Mackey, director of Rethinking Responsive Education Ventures for the Maine Department of Education, has written a Maine Voices column that spells out plans for the future of education in Maine (“Here’s how we build Maine schools that work for everyone,” Dec. 7). Unfortunately, the document is so replete with jargon and ill-defined terms that […]