On Monday, I spoke for the Visible Community at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for expanded bus service in Lewiston-Auburn.

Now I want to speak for myself.

I really appreciate the work that the Visible Community and everyone involved did to make this happen. It is important to me that now I can take a bus on Saturday morning, and that I can go somewhere during the week and not be stranded at 5 p.m.

I don’t drive. I value independence and also environmental conscientiousness. The bus is a way for me to have both.

As I stood there, I was remembering when I was in the Ecology Club of my junior high school, back in 1970, and imagining the world of the next century. I knew then that I wanted to live in ways that preserve the environment, so participating in the bus ceremony felt like I was standing in a moment of significance between past and future.

And I looked at the streetlights and imagined them as solar lights; and the roofs of buildings with solar panels. Imagine Lewiston with solar panels on the roofs!

Let’s reduce our dependence on heating oil, and get away from oil, coal and nuclear-produced electricity.

I want to see that future in Lewiston.

Brenda Akers, Lewiston