This is in response to a Jan. 27 letter (“Reality of health care worth examining“) that supported universal health care, but only for people “contingent with a healthy lifestyle.” The premise is that people who abuse their body get no health care, because they don’t deserve it. Does this mean that Trump would lose his […]

Thank you for Amy Fried’s Jan. 26 op-ed on immigration enforcement (“The ICE surge in Maine is relying on lies“). In many ways, the current ICE surge is the Trump administration in miniature: a gigantic transmogrification machine. Residents of the United States who can’t document that they were born here, especially if they don’t look “white” […]

Thanks for publishing the AP article “Meteorologists blame moisture, lack of sea ice, stretched polar vortex for upcoming winter blast” on Jan. 22. As tens of millions of Americans face brutal winter weather, you provided the science-based information they need to make sense of the cold. The weather gods must like irony, as they conspire to mislead […]

We are living in a time of two separate Maines and two separate Americas. Our nation and our people are perhaps the most divided since the Civil War. As an independent candidate for governor, I also see it in the two gubernatorial campaigns. That’s right, there are two very separate gubernatorial campaigns for this one […]

As a Republican legislator, who is also a Christian, I strive to follow Micah 6:8, “… to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly.” Justice demands that those who break the law face consequences. For guests in our country, that consequence should be deportation. However, it is unfair that immigrants who have […]

I would like to have someone who supports the MAGA agenda explain to me what is the difference between masked ICE agents arresting non-citizens off the streets and putting them in detention centers without due process and the Gestapo in the 1930s arresting Jews off the streets and putting them into concentration camps? In both […]

The Vassalboro Friends Meeting of the Society of Friends (Quakers) has been, like many faith communities, holding prayer and offering support for people who are stressed by the U.S. government’s behaviors toward immigrants and foreign countries. Our trust in the goodness of God tells us that it is our moral and and spiritual responsibility to adhere […]

The Legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on Housing and Economic Development is effectively increasing our county property taxes — collected through our community’s property tax system — to fund a state housing program. Many expected the Taxation Committee to handle this, since it understands the unintended consequences of shifting costs between state and local taxes. Instead, […]

I would like to say many thanks for the wonderful “In the Field” columns from Ron Joseph. He has become my favorite writer in your paper. I just finished his recent piece about bunking with Quebecois loggers near Clayton Lake. It brought back memories from my youth, as one summer I had three camp counselors […]