Media — newspapers, TV talking heads, entertainers, reporters, internet trolls, TikTok exhibitionists — Beijing’s influence, infiltration co-optation and blackmail operations target media large, minute and in-between.

Is that not what especially evangelicals and others who highly regard personal integrity in our leaders have done with Donald Trump? Does the end justify meanness and lying? Can they ever credibly question the behavior and language of future presidents when they have sold their souls on this big question?

How about we respect educators as the trained professionals they are? How about we trust their judgment? How about we stop requiring them to reach consensus with those who have not the first clue? If a parent feels their child can’t handle some challenging material, fine: empower that parent to opt the child out of the lesson — not to deny the lesson to everyone else.

Why did Cheslie Kryst, a former Miss USA with law degree, an MBA and an on-camera gig on “Extra,” a celebrity TV show, leap to her death from a posh Manhattan apartment? As the cliche goes, she had everything to live for.

While we in Maine hunkered down last Saturday waiting out the heaviest snowfall of the winter (until then), our neighbors in Canada were coping with what seemed almost deja vu all over again. A protest rally gone sour.