Davis Hartwell’s June 16 Maine Voices column is a shining example of white racism and dog-whistle politics. Rather than engage with real issues facing people of color in Maine, he cries “critical race theory!” and blames Black people for speaking in their own defense. Mr. Hartwell indicates that he is ending his career as a […]

The recent response by industry and business groups to the legislation reducing packaging is backward. There is a dire need for industry to take leadership to reduce and remove unnecessary plastics and packaging. It has been proven that recycling plastics is largely a farce. Plastic particles are now present in every ecosystem and in every […]

Where to begin with Davis Hartwell’s misguided opinion piece (Maine Voices, June 16)? The fact that he makes academia a bogeyman, rather than a system to enlighten? That he reappropriates the term “critical race theory” as slang against white people, thereby naming as victims a group that constitutes 94 percent of the Maine population? That […]

I am writing this, not so much for lobsters in pain, but to analyze what we perceive to be fact or opinion. Peter Pressman wrote a letter, published June 18, about lobster pain. He used words naming the lobster’s anatomy to give validity to what he wrote. His conclusion was based solely on the lobster’s […]

Portland Charter Commission member Nasreen Sheikh-Yousef’s comments calling City Manager Jon Jennings a white supremacist are wrong and misguided. I am also an African American, who worked closely with him for nine months as an intern in the executive department in 2019. In my time there, never did I once think or have any reason […]

The reason I love paying the Portland Press Herald for home delivery is so I can physically pick the paper up or put it down at my leisure. Sometimes my papers pile up. My family knows not to mess with “my pile,” although each daily is available to whoever chooses to peruse. Upon reading June […]

Here in Maine and other states we pay taxes to the city or town in which we live. Tax dollars are used to pay for certain services. One service is law enforcement, whether it be on a local, county or state level. I have relatives who live in a town in Androscoggin County that I […]

The goal of facilities like Long Creek Youth Development Center is to rehabilitate our youth so that they may reenter society as productive members. However, removing someone who has caused harm from society sends the message that they are not welcome in our communities and is counterproductive to helping youth develop a sense of connection […]

A recent Press Herald editorial (Our View, June 14) favorably reviews a provocative ProPublica report that a few very wealthy individuals paid little or no federal income tax in recent years. We can have a debate about the desirability of a number of tax deductions and exemptions that are of particular value to those with […]