The day after Christmas. The shopping. The sales. The drive to Portland, Augusta or Freeport.

As the Sun Journal found earlier this month, retail development is skipping right over our community, leaving residents a drive of 40 minutes or more for many high-profile stores.

A press release from the governor’s office last week rubbed a little salt on the sore spot.

“Representatives of Packard Development informed Governor John E. Baldacci of their plans to construct five new shopping centers across the state. They have already opened one such facility, Maine Crossing, in South Portland.” The locations for these six projects, which are expected to bring $600 million in retail sales to the state and an estimated $2.7 million in real estate taxes, are: South Portland, Biddeford, Augusta, Morrill’s Corner in Portland, Pinetree Center Re-Development in Portland and a site in Bangor.

Noticeably absent from the list are Lewiston and Auburn. We’re missing out on the revenue, the commerce and the choice.

Maybe next year Santa, or his elves in economic development, can wrap up a retail project for our stockings.


Good work


Normally, when we hear about teenagers and cemeteries, it’s bad news about vandalism.

Not this time. Kurtis Bucher of Peru found the downtrodden Day Mountain Cemetery more than four miles off Route 4, back in the woods.

The 17-year-old Boy Scout went to work on the last resting place for 19 people who lived in Avon in the 1800s. He cleared brush, stood fallen stones back up, worked on the entrance and photographed the graves for the historical record.

He’s not done. Kurtis is raising money for a memorial stone and for ongoing upkeep.

Small cemeteries like Day Mountain are scattered all over Maine, lost in the woods or among new developments. They pop out in neighborhoods and on the edges of shopping centers. Many are lost.

Thanks to Kurtis’ good work, there’s one less that will be lost to history.


Person of the Year


Time Magazine picked a worthy subject for its Person of the Year honor: “The American Soldier.”

It’s a great choice.

Members of the United States military serve in faraway places under sometimes brutal conditions. They are enforcing U.S. foreign policy in Iraq and Afghanistan, protecting South Korea and helping to stabilize the world.

In its story, the magazine describes the honorees: “They swept across Iraq and conquered it in 21 days. They stand guard on streets pot-holed with skepticism and rancor. They caught Saddam Hussein. They are the face of America, its might and good will, in a region unused to democracy. …

“For uncommon skills and service, for the choices each one of them has made and the ones still ahead, for the challenge of defending not only our freedoms but those barely stirring half a world away, the American soldier is Time’s Person of the Year. “

That’s a pretty good explanation of the honor. But more than that, the men and women who make up the military are a reflection of the country they represent. They are diverse, educated volunteers, mostly from working-class families. They do difficult jobs in dangerous places.

They have earned our gratitude and our respect.
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