As I read the paper’s Sept. 1 ‘Today in History’ section, I remembered that when the history course I taught got to the beginning of the Second World War, the students and I would read aloud and discus the poem, “September 1, 1939,” by W.H. Auden. On that date, Germany invaded Poland. While the circumstances […]

Illegal entry into the United States is a federal crime. A non-citizen who enters or attempts to enter this country without authorization faces arrest and deportation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). “We are a government of laws, and not of men,” noted John Adams, second president of the United States. What is it […]

Sen. Susan Collins is no longer her usual “concerned.” Now she’s “extremely alarmed” that President Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have fired the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after just weeks on the job. And that led to the resignations of four other CDC officials.  […]

This is in response to an article that appeared in the Aug. 28 edition, headlined “Erratic driving led to Skowhegan traffic stop, detaining of 14 Romanians.” Were laws broken? Yes, traffic laws, safety laws, but rather than given citations, they were arrested. Local police watched as they loaded their groceries, then proceeded to follow them […]

My husband and I recently adopted two children from Maine’s foster care system. They’re kind, smart, beautiful, funny, athletic and empathetic — like millions of other kids. I’m a teacher and my husband works in affordable housing. Our older child, a rising senior, insists on working 50 hours a week during summer. Our younger child […]

I’m laughing out loud at Ron Joseph’s Sept. 2 “In the Field” column titled “Lovesick moose sparks sex education lesson,” about an amorous male moose falling for an indifferent milking cow named Ginger. Joseph painted a hilarious snapshot of rural living in Maine in the 1960s. It reminded me of the hysterically funny books and […]

For all the headlines criticizing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, what’s missing is the good news: this bill is a win for American jobs, workers and the small businesses that keep our communities running. Many of the small businesses shut down during the COVID pandemic and we need to bring them back. The United […]

This letter could set a record for brevity. On Sept. 2, this paper published two letters — one critical of the administration’s attitude toward immigrants (“We’ve seen this unsettling story before“) and the other (“Voter ID referendum includes dangerous changes“) alleging that requiring a picture ID to vote is burdensome. In the case of the […]

Reading Rhiannon Hamdi’s Aug. 28 op-ed, “Our neighbors to the south need to look in the mirror,” and the letters to the editor collectively titled “Canadians enraged by invitation of Maine State Sen. Joseph Martin” (Aug. 20), I had what has become a familiar reaction: shame. Though underestimated in degree, incompetence, ignorance, corruption and cruelty […]

I took great offense at Rhiannon Hamdi’s Aug. 28 op-ed (“Our neighbors to the south need to look in the mirror“), which attempted to lump all proud American citizens into her one narrow box. Yes, we have some major problems and our current political nightmare is heartbreaking to the majority of citizens — but to […]