This op-ed originally ran in the June 10, 2023, issue of the Kennebec Journal. Imagine a trail from Augusta to Brunswick, offering rare and breathtaking views as it traces the Kennebec, Cathance, and Androscoggin rivers. Running along an inactive state-owned railroad corridor, it would attract tourists from around the country, benefit small businesses in our […]
This op-ed originally ran in the March 10, 2023 issue of the Times Record newspaper. I am a parent of children in the Maine School Administrative District 75 school system. Recently, I have become concerned that certain rights of mine are not being respected. Here are some of the rights I’m talking about. As a […]
This column originally ran in the Times Record newspaper on November 26, 2021. Each autumn, I’ve been lucky to find myself with much to be thankful for. The smell of a fall campfire, for one. The friend who takes me duck hunting and suggests good excuses when I miss every shot. And of course, the […]
This column was originally published in the Kennebec Journal newspaper on August 28, 2021. You may have heard about the Merrymeeting Trail, a 26-mile multi-use trail that would join the Kennebec River Rail Trail in the north to the Androscoggin River Bicycle and Pedestrian Path in the south, linking Augusta to Brunswick (and one day […]
This column originally ran in the Portland Press Herald newspaper on April 16, 2021. Robert Frost famously wrote about two roads that “diverged in a yellow wood.” These days, you couldn’t be blamed for thinking that half of us have wandered down one of those roads, half down the other. With all the division and […]
This column originally ran in the Times Record newspaper on October 27, 2020. One recent evening, I was getting ready for bed in the usual way: staring at my phone, anxiously doomscrolling through deeply troubling news stories. An article about the wildfires out west had caught my attention, and I was reading about how climate […]
This column originally ran in the Times Record newspaper on August 24, 2020. I have a deep, nerdy love for the Postal Service. I trace it back to my 20s, when I was working as an analyst at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) in Washington, DC. As part of my job, I was sent […]
This is not a post-election think piece. Lord knows we have enough of those already. It is not a To-Do List for the Brokenhearted. It’s not an assessment of blame, a hope-in-a-dark-place mantra, or a rallying cry. This is just a statement of fact — a fact I believe sits at the heart of Tuesday’s election outcome — followed […]
In late March, I presented to about 150 attendees of the HighEdWeb New England conference at Mt. Holyoke College. My topic: how to plan and run an effective livestream fundraising event. This is something we’ve had a chance to do at Bates for the last two years, and it’s been very successful for us. It […]
The Bowdoinham Democratic caucus was a great place to be on Sunday. Excellent turnout and engaging discussions about the issues, all buoyed by the general ebullience that comes from having a choice between two strong candidates. This was my first caucus. If I learned one thing from the experience, it was this: be sure you’re […]