In the January 1999 issue of Down East Magazine, something extraordinary happened. Our state’s premier home-grown monthly dedicated to Maine lifestyles and people filled its entire magazine with articles about what Lewiston and Auburn were doing together to make this community different from all the other towns and cities in Maine. Eighteen years later, another […]
Op-Eds
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Expansion of Medicaid makes sense
Maine needs to expand Medicaid. Question 2 on the November ballot would expand Medicaid to more than 70,000 Mainers. It would also strengthen hospitals in this state and provide a boost to the economy. That is why groups such as the Maine Medical Association and the Maine Hospital Association have both endorsed a “yes” vote […]
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Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Compromise on ‘wall’ would be useful
WASHINGTON — It’s time to build the wall — and, in doing so, prevent an estimated 690,000 DACA “dreamers” from being deported from the United States. It’s a fair deal that could be scuttled only by intense and self-serving partisanship from the White House and the Republican and Democratic congressional leadership. As almost everyone knows […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Many Americans can't afford to retire
Many Americans now face retirement, hearts full of dreams, bank accounts full of nothing. For them, those Wall Street ads showing silver-haired couples sailing warm blue seas may seem aspirations beyond their grasp. Instead, they may find themselves the 72-year-old hired to drive the platinum couple from the airport to the docks. Some 45 percent […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
President faces criticism from his own party
Yes, he’s childish and incompetent. Is that really news by now? But of course, it wasn’t that assessment of President Donald Trump that made jaws drop over the weekend so much as it was the person making it. Meaning Sen. Bob Corker, who unleashed an extraordinary barrage of contempt on Twitter and in a New […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Who decides what is vice or virtue?
“Where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint; but blessed is the one who heeds wisdom’s instruction.” (Proverbs 29:18) Ancient wisdom from a higher authority, which is available to anyone who takes the time to consider it, was provided to constrain people like Harvey Weinstein from acts he has been accused of committing. In […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Redistributive struggles part of the social fabric
WASHINGTON — The spoils society advances. The “spoils society” is a phrase I coined some years ago to illustrate a basic problem of wealthy societies, including, of course, the United States. After all, our annual GDP (gross domestic product) is approaching $20 trillion. The problem is that, as societies become richer, so does the temptation […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Tillerson not faring well in State Dept.
If Secretary of State Rex Tillerson resigned, how would anyone know? He has become the nation’s least influential top diplomat in recent memory. His relationship with the president of the United States is strained at best, he has no philosophy or signature initiative, he has barely staffed his own department, and he’s alienated the foreign […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Divining the future
Writers usually know better than to try to predict the future. But sometimes, you just know what is about to happen. It’s a little like the old Sesame Street skit “What happens next?” Then, the kid steps into the puddle. The prohibition against crystal-ball gazing was so strong when I was coming up at The Kansas City Star […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Don't make mental illness the scapegoat in mass shootings
NEW YORK — “He’s a sick man, a demented man,” said Donald Trump, trying to explain the latest mass shooting in the United States. We hear this view expressed routinely, after every new incident. But it is a dodge, a distortion of the facts and a cop-out as to the necessary response. There is no […]