Sen. Trent Lott put his foot in his mouth, but shouldn’t be forced to abandon his post.Voters in South Carolina first elected Strom Thurmond to the Senate as a write-in candidate in 1948, and they have re-elected him ever since. First when he was a Democrat and then a Republican.Voters in Mississippi first sent Republican […]

In his farewell oration in 1796, George Washington delivered his famous few words on “entangling alliances.”“The nation which indulges toward another an habitual hatred or an habitual fondness is in some degree a slave,” warned the man who was first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen. “It is […]

Monday’s announcement that the state has purchased 3,800 acres of pristine land in Weld, including the summit of Tumbledown Mountain, is exciting because it makes one of the most beautiful spots in the state public property.Hancock Lumber Co., which sold the land, sweetened the deal by granting an easement to 7,800 additional acres, guaranteeing public […]

The strongest argument against affirmative action I’ve ever heard was only one sentence long.The setting was a room full of black journalists in Seattle in the summer of 1999, the year after Washingtonians voted their state out of the affirmative-action business. The speaker was Shelby Steele, the conservative black author. And the argument – a […]

Mention the U.S. Postal Service distribution center to anyone in Lewiston and watch for a scowl. Folks here are still plenty mad, angry that the Postal Service broke its promise to bring 800 jobs and a $55 million payroll to this community.In retrospect, that broken promise might have been good fortune. In fact, if the […]

The desire not to offend has stripped “the reason for the season” of all meaning. Advertisers and store employees have substituted the joyful and heartfelt wishes of “Merry Christmas” and “Happy Hanukkah” with the diluted and mushy greeting “Happy Holidays. “The stripping away of America’s heritage continues as certain legal and cultural relativists pursue their […]

Last Wednesday, an afternoon seminar was held in Portland to consider biotechnology in the global marketplace. It was free and, of the 73 attendees, only one person was from Lewiston and one from western Maine.If businesses don’t show active interest in learning about global opportunities, how can they possibly expect to expand their markets?Of those […]

As Democratic presidential aspirants clear their throats and seek their voices, the lesson they need to take from the 2002 election isn’t that America needs a better left; it’s that it needs a better center. When “new” Democratic positioning can be blurred by a president whose “compassion” masks a deeply conservative agenda, it is the […]

Joyce D’Augustine made a mistake.She admits it.The Edward Little High School teacher provided students with alcohol and allowed them to drink at her house.It’s difficult to believe that an upstanding role model for young adults could make such a bad judgment call. Teenagers need to know where the line is drawn – and sanctioned drinking […]

WASHINGTON – It’s 10 p.m. – do you know what your government is up to? It seems that Iraq is not the only “regime change” that the Bush administration is working on.The U.S. government apparently has decided that President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela must go, one way or another. True, Saddam Hussein is a brutal […]