It has been a while since I felt a sense of elation upon perusing the news. Imagine my delight when I read that Dr. Nirav Shah is coming back to Maine. He will make positive change by helping to build a public health program at Colby College.

When Dr. Shah left Maine, my heart sank. I tried to tell myself that Washington needed him even more than we did. Thanks to Shah’s daily analysis of the latest scientific understanding of the coronavirus, his ability to present such information in a language we can understand, his genuine concern for the people behind the deadly statistics and his respect for the listening audience, his televised updates helped us to come through the pandemic with the sense that we were not alone in a bewildering new reality.

For whatever reason it is happening, I am glad that Dr. Shah will be back in our midst. His focus will be on Colby College but I can only hope that having even one more truth-teller in our state will be a seed planted. The level of civil discourse in Maine has plummeted since the days of Gov. Paul LePage. Perhaps folks in the statehouse, as well as the rest of us, can relearn something about civility and respect from the good doctor.

Susan McCarthy
Augusta