Archive for ‘Opinion’

  • Uppermost House: Girl with a grey sweatshirt

        By S. Peter Lewis BN Columnist On a recent autumn day, as I worked to get the last few outdoor chores done before we were plunged into another Maine winter, I was scraping old dry caulk from the window frame in the door that leads to the back yard when my 23-year-old daughter, […]

  • Earth Notes: The earth and its people searching for peace

      By Sally Chappell Let’s think about the effects of military spending on the environment. Even as the presidential and congressional candidates from our two major political parties avoid the issue, we all know that the United States has the most powerful military in the world and spends more on defense than the next seven […]

  • Small World: Democracy’s ills and remedies

      By Henry Precht BN Columnist It all started, I guess, with the mania for testing that has gripped our school systems these past few years. Numbers mean everything; whether you want to move to the next grade, graduate, win a scholarship, prosper and live happily ever after, your score is a big piece of […]

  • Small World: Yet another big, big worry

      By Henry Precht BN Columnist I read the other day that a moderate dose of anxiety is good for you. It might help to sharpen you physically and mentally. Prepares you to deal with stress, with life’s surprises. The major price to pay is a furrowed brow and loss of sleep. Still, all of […]

  • The Planning Front: A very busy summer

    By Anne Krieg, AICP Bridgton Planning & Development ecodevdir@bridgtonmaine.org Happy summer! As we wind down to the fall season, I know many service workers in the tourist industry that are truly exhausted, so hang in there if it’s you! I have heard from many businesses that this summer has been good for visitation; so though […]

  • Small World: A spine of bronze

      By Henry Precht BN Columnist Swish, swish, swish. I was puzzled by these short bursts of wind until I heard added to them “touché, en garde.” Next, there was swish, swish, swish, gotcha. I was walking up by the Civil War monument, as is my frequent evening custom. There, as he is fairly frequently, […]

  • Small World: Terrorism and racial strife

      By Henry Precht BN Columnist I hate to take sides, but I think Donald Trump and his followers are pretty far off base in blaming terrorism on Islam and Moslems — unless their real intention is to create a war fever against a very large segment of humanity. Islam may be the answer to […]

  • Small World: Laws, rules and Hillary

      By Henry Precht BN Columnist The debate would appear to be ended. The highly respected director of the FBI, James Comey, has said Mrs. Clinton and her team were “extremely careless” in using a private e-mail server for official business. His judgment is that no crime was committed and there should therefore be no […]

  • Uppermost House: Out standing in the road

      By S. Peter Lewis BN Columnist I was a total mess when we dropped our daughter Amanda off at college in Virginia in August of 2010. After endlessly hugging her, with her new roommates and their parents standing around awkwardly while I wept, I walked out into the rainy night, got in the car, […]

  • Earth Notes: Our ability to live on Earth

    By Rev. Robert Plaisted Oh no, not again! Why another “Earth Notes” column about climate change? Aren’t there other topics worthy of consideration? Sure there are — lots of them — but none of them will matter a century from now unless we solve our existential dilemma of rapidly destabilizing climatic conditions. We created the […]