A curious sort of person

Guest Columns - The Herald Gazette

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Published
February 13, 2010

A curious sort of person

I saw Lawrence Nash the other day. Remember Lawrence? He was a county commissioner for quite a while until Roger Moody beat him out. Kind of funny because Lawrence was on the board of selectmen that hired Roger to be town manager in Camden, and then Roger took Lawrence’s job at the county. Lawrence also might be remembered for not knowing where he lived. Seems shortly after he moved to Union, he tried to vote in …
Published
February 6, 2010

Reflections on Hope

In 1978, I was asked if I would be the deputy town clerk and tax collector for the town of Hope. I took the position and worked from my home. I had no set hours, so I had people coming from 5:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. In 1981 I was asked if I would run for town clerk and I did. I was elected that year by a landslide. It was a one-year term. The following year Ruth Desrosiers ran against me and I won that year. As far …
Published
February 5, 2010

Maintaining modest estate tax promotes shared prosperity

Amid all the end of year legislative frenzy to wrap up by Christmas, an important piece of legislation was left behind — the federal estate tax. This is a tax that most of us will never have to worry about — only 42 estates in Maine paid the tax in 2008. But it’s also a responsible and fair way to pay for important public services. The estate tax is essentially a tax on property transferred at the time of …
Published
February 5, 2010

Fields of vision

“Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world,” wrote William Sloane Coffin, scholar, religious leader and activist. I thought about that quote as the disaster in Haiti reached a peak in the usual media frenzy about such things. After months of hearing anti-government hysteria from the “Tea Party” and their Republican hangers-on it was more than a little revealing when a …
Published
February 1, 2010

From Thomaston to Camden: the Tolman Bus

My son-in-law’s father, Tom Fletcher, was born in 1900 and told me one time about seeing the first automobile to come to his town of Ravenscrag, Saskatchewan. Tom said he was 12 years old when the first horseless carriage came to town, racing around at speeds of up to 15 mph, frightening the horses and chickens, and endangering women and children. “There ought to be a law,” concerned citizens said. Well, the …
Published
January 30, 2010

When only a letter will do

“The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.” – Harriet Beecher Stowe I recently wrote a letter to a person who was a very important part of my childhood and young adult life. Though we rarely visit or talk anymore, and she is reaching an age of goodbyes, she still holds, and always will hold, a special place in my heart and mind. I cannot, looking back, imagine …
Published
January 30, 2010

Woodworker uses pallets as his palette

Consider the lowly used shipping pallet. Where others see junk or firewood, woodworker Hugh Lane sees a handsome, functional piece of furniture. Lane, who works out of a shop in Rockland’s Lincoln Street Center, uses lumber salvaged from pallets in the woodworking classes he teaches to adults at the Mid-Coast School of Technology. “Salvaged pallet lumber has many virtues,” said Lane. “It’s usually a nice …
Published
January 30, 2010

Toussaint L’ouverture for Haiti

Struck and struck again no God knows why small comfortable people living in an impecunious style taking so little of earth’s provender living in heat with such humility Why? There are men on earth’s oceans with 250 foot yachts there are people even here in Maine a poor state with two cars per two person families some in these United States who spend what the generals want a million per …
Published
January 29, 2010

Looking for name unknown

The following arrived via the U.S. Postal Service Jan. 25, addressed to The Herald Gazette. Sydney Caler, 93, of Skowhegan would like to make contact with a woman he knew decades ago. His letter tells the story. To whom it may concern, I would like to have you put in your paper a want ad that will be useful in finding the whereabouts [of someone], name unknown, who worked on Monhegan Island at the Island Inn …
Published
January 28, 2010

President Obama’s remarks on the State of the Union

Madame Speaker, Vice President Biden, Members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans: Our Constitution declares that from time to time, the president shall give to Congress information about the state of our union. For two hundred and twenty years, our leaders have fulfilled this duty. They have done so during periods of prosperity and tranquility. And they have done so in the midst of war and …

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