Mask requirements are an awful lot less freedom-restricting than orders to stay at home or keep all “nonessential” businesses shuttered, and letting one’s views be defined by opposition to anything the mainstream media says is not free thought.
Judith Meyer
Judith Meyer is executive editor of the Sun Journal, Kennebec Journal, the Morning Sentinel and the Western Maine weekly newspapers of the Sun Media Group. She serves as vice president of the Maine Freedom of Information Coalition and is a member of the Right to Know Advisory Committee to the Legislature. A journalist since 1990 and former editorial page editor for the Sun Journal, she was named Maine’s Journalist of the Year in 2003. She serves on the New England Newspaper & Press Association Board of Directors and was the 2018 recipient of the Judith Vance Weld Brown Spirit of Journalism Award by the New England Society of Newspaper Editors. A fellow of the National Press Foundation and the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism, she attended George Washington University, lives in Auburn with her husband, Phil, and is an active member of the Bicycle Coalition of Maine.
Posted inOpinion
We could stop the pandemic by July 4 if the government took these steps:
Our plan also recognizes that rural towns in Montana should not necessarily have to shut down the way New York City has. To pull off this balancing act, the country should be divided into red, yellow and green zones.
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Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Amazon’s empire is vulnerable to ‘rebel’ incursions
The e-commerce rebels are making their advance. Last October, Shopify Inc. CEO Tobi Lutke said his company’s goal was to “arm the rebels” against the Amazon.com Inc. empire. Since then, the mantra has become a rallying cry for Shopify’s employees and the merchant customers that use its e-commerce store software. And now, the business turmoil […]
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
The pandemic is changing how we eat, but not for the better
For decades, advocates from chefs to doctors have tried to get Americans to change the way they eat. In a matter of weeks, a virus appears to have done what they could not. Since mid-March small farms have seen a spike in subscriptions to community-supported agriculture operations, or CSAs, which deliver prepaid weekly bundles of […]
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Jobless benefits may be the intended victim of fast reopenings
Many states are racing to reopen their economies before measures such as testing, contact tracing and full-time mask-wearing are in place. But the one of biggest economic effect of a hasty end of lockdowns adopted to limit the spread of the coronavirus won’t be to save businesses; it will be to kick people off of […]
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
East Africa has weathered pandemics — and has a few things to teach the U.S.
The United States and powerful developed countries can benefit from the example of Africa, where humility about the capacity to treat diseases makes societies favor measures to prevent them.
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Five myths about vaccines
Amid today’s pandemic, as many eagerly await a vaccine against the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, here are five myths about this medical innovation.
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Time to reopen our new ‘normal’
Gov. Janet Mills has asked for input from the public on what course Maine should take in the current virus condition. Here is mine. Mainers, in their classic, stoic manner, have been troupers in their respect for the government-mandated requirements to stay at home, maintain “social distancing,” and observe the shutdown of so-called non-essential services. […]
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Bailed-out CEOs should have skin in the game to keep them honest
After the 2008 Wall Street bailout, profiteers sucked up too much money. One of them was then-hedge fund manager Steven Mnuchin, now President Trump’s secretary of the Treasury Department. Mnuchin used a government backstop to bottom fish a failed savings and loan. Instead of helping beleaguered homeowners with mortgages at this firm, he foreclosed on thousands of […]
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Point: Government should not be a roadblock to patient treatment
For decades, the Food and Drug Administration’s overly bureaucratic drug approval process has stopped patients from accessing potentially lifesaving vaccines and treatments. And thanks to the current COVID-19 pandemic, we’re learning that just how severely this red tape has hampered our ability to prepare for this crisis and any public health crises ahead. Fortunately, Right […]