Text messages have replaced email, telephone calls and even face-to-face meetings for relating momentous news, both good and bad. People, however, don’t realize that sending bad news via a text message leaves no opportunity to learn or grow, to make amends or even issue recriminations. It is a clipped, inadequate form of communication, an all-too-common […]

About eight years ago, former state economist Laurie Lachance wrote a terrific analysis about all the economic plans that had been developed in Maine over the preceding 30 years, and what a succession of governors had done to implement them. She called it, appropriately, “In Search of the Silver Buckshot.” Lachance described Maine’s tendency to […]

President Barack Obama’s decision to release five senior Taliban leaders in exchange for the return of American serviceman Bowe Bergdahl has sparked a firestorm of criticism, from current and retired troops, from political commentators and from members of Congress. On the merits, it must have been a difficult decision. On the one hand, the five […]

Weakness has never been a successful formula for anything, which is why I am worried about the future of America. Our president and those upon whom he depends for advice put us all at risk as they display weakness at home and abroad. President Barack Obama’s weakness is evidenced in his latest decisions involving foreign […]

As a father, grandfather and son, Father’s Day has real meaning for me. This year it means more than ever. Our three children are thriving, our two grandsons and I will fish together soon, our new granddaughter is 2 months old. And my 91-year-old father, Ezra Smith, is still alive and kicking. Dad has gone […]