Pandemics like COVID-19 are not only powerful forces for inflicting human suffering but, as history has shown, for causing societal change. The suffering is predictable, but trying to foretell the nature and scope of resulting societal change is like seeing “through a glass darkly.” There will be profound consequences for the U.S. economy if we […]
Rearview Mirror
Posted inPerspective
We need to inoculate against ‘alternate facts’ to fight COVID-19
Donald Trump’s smoke machine has been running full blast, puffing out misinformation to play down the danger of the Coronavirus epidemic in an effort to reverse the stock market’s plunge and increase his chances of re-election. But neither the COVID-19 virus nor the stock market are paying attention to what Trump has to say about the epidemic and increasingly the public isn’t either. COVID-19, like all forms of microbial life, is following its own biological […]
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Posted inOp-Eds, Perspective
Opting out of vaccinations should not be an option
If you were to conduct a public survey as to whether respondents thought a terrorist should be criminally prosecuted, convicted and punished for spraying an aerosol can of dangerous pathogens in a school building, you’d probably get a nearly unanimous affirmative response. Well on Tuesday, Maine’s voters will be asked in a referendum if it’s […]
Posted inOp-Eds, Perspective
Mr. Golden goes to Washington and serves us well
It’s hard not to admire first-term U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, an earnest young newcomer to the national political scene, who possesses the quiet dignity, gritty independence, and solid integrity of the heroic underdog played by Jimmy Stewart in the classic 1939 movie, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” Although Golden’s GOP opponent in the 2020 […]
Posted inOp-Eds, Perspective, Politics
Susan Collins’ vote on impeachment comes with a cost no matter what
If U.S. Sen. Collins votes to impeach President Donald Trump, it may well cost her job. If she doesn’t, it will almost certainly cost her reputation.
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion, Perspective
Katy Grondin needed a broader base of support to stay superintendent
This summer the prospect of a three-year contract renewal for Auburn School Superintendent Katy Grondin appeared rock solid. Then two major tremors shook the ground beneath her and led to her resignation Nov. 6, effective next June. The first tremor was the accidental death two months earlier of her primary supporter, Tom Kendall, a long-time […]
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion, Perspective
‘Stubborn facts’ need to be considered before Auburn develops AG zone
“Facts are stubborn things,” John Adams famously remarked during his defense of British soldiers in the Boston Massacre Trials of 1770. Facts can be ignored, rationalized, suppressed or distorted in the interest of political partisanship, business profit, or ideological zealotry, but they still persist in intruding on reality, sometimes with disastrous consequences. Why then is Auburn […]
Posted inOp-Eds, Perspective
Maine re-asserts its leadership in environmental priorities
Maine is one of the birthplaces of the environmental movement, and, under Gov. Janet Mills and a Democratic Legislature, the state is rightly re-asserting its primacy in this all-important field of political, social and scientific endeavor. In its last session, the Legislature passed a series of laws comprising an ambitious program designed to promote recycling, alternative […]
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion, Perspective
There’s no vaccine to prevent an epidemic of legislative stupidity
The Maine Senate voted on Tuesday to approve a bill, LD 798, eliminating religious and philosophical exemptions from vaccination requirements for children attending school in the state. The Senate’s 18-17 vote reversed the chamber’s previous stance on the measure earlier this month, squared its position with that of the House, and put the legislation on […]
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion, Perspective
Auburn needs a new Edward Little High School but at what expense?
It appears that Auburn voters will be given a choice as to whether to build a new high school but no choice as to the scope and cost of the project they’ll be asked to approve in a June 11 referendum. The Edward Little High School Building Committee decided Tuesday to place only one thumbs-up-or-down […]