As social workers, we are taught that all people have a right to social and economic justice. Our social work values, however, are at odds with the realities of how Maine treats its citizens. After the state of Maine recently cut MaineCare eligibility and services, the government is proposing another round of cuts, including threats […]

Just picture it folks: Your 18-year-old daughter can get arrested for a minor traffic infraction, perhaps even because of a computer error, and she can be subjected to repeated invasive strip-searches. Five justices of the U.S. Supreme Court have just ruled that this is perfectly OK. I look around and see many people in our […]

Olympia Snowe recently said she would give the president an “F” for failing to work with Republicans. During the crafting of the Affordable Care Act, Snowe was given unprecedented access to Barack Obama. Eventually, the public option was dropped from the bill at her insistence. Apparently, she didn’t care that the vast majority of businesses […]

President Barack Obama got caught on an open mic in Russia the other day, talking confidently about his re-election. The other campaigns pounced on it, and off they went for another news cycle. It appears we’re in for a year of distraction, with Congress distracted and stalled, candidates raising millions and campaigns spending those millions […]

Let’s hope that the U.S. Supreme Court doesn’t come up with a partisan 5-4 decision on the Affordable Care Act. The court’s credibility is at stake. The general public is turned off by Congress, where each party is obsessed with defeating the other party while ignoring the need to work together to solve the nation’s […]