Who among us does not treasure the natural beauty of Maine’s landscape from ocean to mountains, lakes, rivers and all the breathtaking wonders we are so fortunate to be surrounded by? It is why we love Maine and why we want to protect it for future generations.

It is far too early to know how devastating this latest European war will turn out to be, how many will die, how many will be left homeless and stateless, how the repercussions will play out across the globe. There is, however, an ominous resonance in the lies from which it arose.

We all know that the decline of paper making is part of a decline in manufacturing, especially in rural Maine, but when you list the declines together, it really hits home. A short list: Forster Manufacturing (toothpicks, clothespins, etc.) closed all its mills in rural Maine, four of them in Franklin County. At least three tanneries have closed, all rural. Of the once-strong industry of shoe shops, not much remains other than the three New Balance shoe shops. Diamond Match in Peru and Oakland? Gone.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of the sovereign nation of Ukraine under several pretexts reminds me of Adolf Hitler’s rationale for invading and annexing Sudetenland in 1938 and his invasion of Czechoslovakia and Poland a year later.

The so-called “Freedom Convoy” tells us that not even Canada is immune to insanity, to this virus of ignorance and inchoate intolerance that has infected much of the world. That saddens me.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams is wrong … when he implies that a Black journalist would — or should — report on him more favorably than a white reporter. Such an assertion demeans the professionalism of journalists of color and suggests because of their race they should support politicians who look like them.

Can we characterize a friendship trumping sexual jealousy as “taboo”? Well, it certainly puts sex in its place.

While many have pointed to a lack of interest or fewer economic or social opportunities for athletes of color to become involved in winter sports, one overlooked factor is that these sports are often played in states in the country’s West that have long histories of excluding people of color, through both segregation and violence.

America remains a land of plenty, of course, but the present shortages are a poke in the eye to any sense of sacred national entitlement. It turns out this ability to have whatever, whenever, is fragile enough to be undone by idling trucks or an unruly virus.