America is the land of plenty, but to many, it’s become a world of envy and anger. Nowadays, malcontents seem to feel more entitled to act out in anti-social ways.
Alex Lear
A Maine native and Colby College graduate, Alex has been covering coastal communities since 2001. He lives in the Portland area with his wife Lauren, 4-year-old daughter Alaina, and 7-year-old bulldog Walter. He has released four CDs of original music and does occasional research work for Marvel Comics' collected editions.
Clarence Page: Will the upending of the ‘Blind Side’ story help chill Hollywood’s ‘white savior’ complex?
Of course, I’m not opposed to white actors or characters. I’d just like to see the sort of diversity that roughly reflects our cultural diversity and fully developed characters who reflect what we humans increasingly can see is real life — here and around the globe.
Clarence Page: Why #MontgomeryRiverfrontBrawl gained new meaning in Black conversations
The sight of Black people rushing to the defense of an endangered Black person and the police responding by properly subduing the suspects, especially in a city with all the historical baggage Montgomery carries with it from the civil rights era, you gain a new appreciation of how the system can work, when it’s supposed to. You can see it in the tweets.
Cal Brown: Bob Neal delivers the real deal with ‘The Countryman’
Saturday’s paper is, by far, my favorite. It’s not that I don’t like the other days, but I find Bob Neal’s column, “The Countryman,” very timely and educational, and I read every word of it. The subjects he finds to write about are newsworthy and thoughtfully presented in a form that is missing in far […]
Chris Beam: U.S. would still have intervened in Vietnam under JFK
Columnist Froma Harrop (“The Kennedy story was never that hot,” Aug. 11) rightly debunks the mythologizing of President John F. Kennedy and the Kennedy clam by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a contender for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination. She cites examples where post-mortem hero worship by Kennedy flame-keepers has distorted the true record of JFK’s […]
Rich Lowry: How Eric Adams has vindicated immigration restrictionism
In his desperate pleas for federal help to deal with about 100,000 migrants who have come to New York City since the spring of 2022, Mayor Eric Adams is vindicating the hawkish position on immigration with almost every utterance.
Bob Neal: The Countryman: The most interesting state that isn’t named Maine
I narrowed to three a list of interesting states. Minnesota, North Carolina and Virginia. Minnesota for Scandinavian culture and terrific cities, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Duluth. North Carolina for diverse culture, mountains and the Outer Banks. But I settled on Virginia.
Jane Costlow and David Das: Harmon offers Auburn collaborative leadership
Residents of Auburn are very fortunate this fall to have Jeff Harmon running for mayor. Jeff brings with him a wealth of professional experience in law enforcement and the private sector. He has demonstrated deep dedication to this community, where he and his wife have lived for over 30 years and raised two children. Like […]