100 Years Ago: 1924

Gov. Percival P. Baxter in a proclamation today naming Nov. 17-23 as education week in Maine, called upon the people of the state to help carry out the program for the week.

“Especially do I urge our people to cultivate a spirit of tolerance and understanding of others…” he said. “Only if we do this especially of the peoples of foreign nations shall we fulfill our destiny as the greatest Christian nation.”

“Education is the foundation of true progress,” he declared. “The horizon of the illiterate man is narrow and limited, while that of the educated is almost boundless.”

“The greatest cause of all, that of world peace, is inseparably connected with that of education. When the people of different nations learn of the environment, history and aspirations of others, and when they come to an understanding of them, most of the points of friction that produce conflict will have been eliminated. War thrives on ignorance and jealousy; peace comes from knowledge.”

50 Years Ago: 1974

Lewiston police were baffled Monday night by an “honest thief” who broke into the Lewiston Drive-In but left money for a soft drink.

Det. Sgt. Roger Bisson said the culprit gained entrance to the snack bar by breaking a rear window, drank one soft drink, left the empty cup and $.20 in the cash box.

Officer Daniel Juneau and Det. Marcel Belanger investigated.

25 Years Ago: 1999

Nearly 10 years ago, while she was a student at Brown University, Toby Simon became incensed when sexual issues did not seem to be addressed at her school.

She devised a way to educate young people about sex abuse. She assembled what is now called the Anti-Sexual Abuse Project. A troupe of seven actors, all of college age or recent graduates, tours from home base at Marymount Manhattan College, New York City, to confront, through drama, the problem of sexual abuse.

ASAP, four women and three men, performed two age-appropriate skits, the first for the Hebron Academy middle school in the morning and a second skit later in the gym for the upper school on Saturday, Sept. 16.

During the actors’ presentation of a typical dating scene, a teen-age boy exploited a teen-age girl. A narrator interspersed comments and statistics about sexual abuse to dispel common myths and misconceptions about abuse. The message that each person’s body is his or her own and is sacred was primary and often reiterated.

Following each skit, students were allowed to ask the actors, who remained in character, questions about their role. Then the student body broke into small groups to discuss the issue.

The material used in Looking Back is produced exactly as it originally appeared although misspellings and errors may be corrected.