According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, automobile accidents are the leading cause of teenage deaths in the United States.

New technology does much to empower us and to make life more convenient, but that same technology also empowers corporations and governments to watch us, to learn ever more about us and to use the information they collect in ways we cannot foresee and may not appreciate. The latest revelations about the scope and extent of the government’s programs of electronic surveillance remind us that our society faces some difficult challenges ahead as we strive to take the best advantage of new technology while protecting the dignity and privacy of individuals.

Recently at the National Conference for Geriatric Care Managers, Lillian Jeter, an elder abuse expert, woke up the audience to the stark realities of the elder abuse that is proliferating throughout our nation.

Clutter gathers and grows unto itself. Drop a pair of gloves on the kitchen table and a day later the table resembles a bedroom closet stuffed with clothes. Somehow a telephone message jotted on a sticky note and left on the kitchen counter for your spouse multiplies until there are four pens and a papers scattered all around.

It was never quite clear what feminizing the workplace would mean when women en masse invaded corporate America a generation ago.

My approximately half-birthday, December 7: My mother was bathing me in the kitchen sink preparing for my 6-month birthday party, when the radio news announced Pearl Harbor. This is a borrowed reminiscence since I personally don’t remember that day, or anything much about the war except getting into the recycling cans and making a mess. Repeatedly.

For compelling evidence that Maine’s public schools are long overdue for an overhaul, check out the May 10 Kennebec Journal story about Cony High School students who were disappointed at the C grade their school received from the state department of education. Members of the student council gave their school much higher marks on a report card that graded the school in 10 different categories, none of which included academics.

As a regular subscriber to this newspaper, I’ve seen a lot of discussion about a bill pending in the Maine Legislature that would create a new level of dental provider. Basically, the proposal would allow dental hygienists — with additional minimal (and undefined) training — to expand their scope of practice to include administering anesthesia, drilling and filling cavities and extracting teeth. That part is scary enough, but also throughout this debate no one has presented how and where these dental hygiene therapists will be educated. No one is talking about the length of time it might take for us to see any impact on access if the Legislature passes this bill.

WASHINGTON — You might say I have a dog in this fight.