Taking sides in the domestic politics of its allies would seem an unwise strategy for Ukraine under any circumstances. It’s doubly so now, when taxpayers in Western Europe and the United States risk tiring of spending money to support a war where victory seems increasingly elusive.
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 inOp-Eds, Opinion
Supreme Court needn’t fear political backlash on abortion
The predictable long-run effect of court-packing is to weaken the judiciary, as justices learn that their decisions will last only until an election delivers control of the elected branches to its opponents. This diminishment would make the courts less likely to overrule legislatures and less likely to prevail if they did. Yet this is exactly what progressives valued about Roe’s effect on abortion policy.
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Posted inMaine, News
Availability of Maine defense lawyers reaches all-time low
Maine’s public defense agency reports only 224 attorneys are accepting assignments to new criminal and child protection cases from courts. In 2019, there were 410.
Posted inLetters, Opinion
George Ferguson: So much for power of the people
I couldn’t sleep last Friday after watching the news. A 100-year-old New York State law had been struck down by our educated, or lack thereof, Supreme Court justices concerning concealed weapons. Now it will be legal for just about anyone to purchase a gun for concealed purposes. Evidently, the excuse is to protect yourself. From […]
Posted inNews, Oxford Hills
Maine’s highest court upholds Hartford man’s murder conviction, 50-year sentence
Justice William Stokes, who sentenced Rondon Athayde last year, called the ‘brutal’ and ‘extraordinarily violent’ domestic assault an ‘abomination,’ adding that the images of 41-year-old Ana Cordero and the crime scene ‘stayed with me for several weeks.’
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
The value of looking forward as we mark America’s next big birthday
As much as it is important to use the observance to reevaluate our understanding of the past, we must do so in a way that foregrounds the future, as well.
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Mass surveillance in schools won’t solve mass shootings
In the wake of a steady increase of school shootings in the United States, schools are eager to find ways to better protect their students, even as overall incidents of violence have dropped in the last two decades. But the steps they are taking risk reinforcing an unhealthy culture of surveillance without actually preventing violence.
Posted inUncategorized
As America celebrates its independence, inequality persists
On this national holiday honoring the creation of our democratic republic, we might look to Paul Laurence Dunbar and his writing. He keenly understood how local crises and catastrophes afflicting African American people could portend challenges ahead for the nation.
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
How to fix the U.S. labor shortage? Provide decent child care.
High-quality, affordable child care aids child development, acts as an anti-poverty measure and supports family stability. Particularly in this inflationary season, child-care costs that are outpacing average inflation are vacuuming up funds that otherwise could go to offset higher gas and food prices, to say nothing of helping families get ahead.
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Leonard Pitts Jr.: Republicans, don’t you want to be free?
How many years has it been since each of you was your own man or woman, unfettered by the burden of lies, alibis and pretending not to see?