High school graduations, by their very nature, are bittersweet affairs. For the graduates it is a celebration of their life’s work to date; the formal demarcation between childhood and their launch into the great wide world.

To the Editor:

We have been struggling for the past year in Round Pond. Our village has tried to unite over the purchase of the last buildable lot facing our harbor. The people of Round Pond are skeptical that we can reach our goal of $380,000 by the middle of July this year!

It is said, by some who have moved around America, that racism is more blatant in the North than it is in the South. According to those sources, you are more likely to encounter outright, hostile racism in the North than you are in the South.

To the Editor:

The Round Pond Village Improvement Society (aka RPVIS) is trying to purchase the “Lupine Field” so it will be kept open and available for all. It is the last piece of unbuilt land on the harbor.

To the Editor:

I recently attended a baseball game for 12- and 13-year-olds in Nobleboro and was heartbroken by the conduct and performance, not of the boys, of the adults. I watched a parent not only yell at a player about his hitting, or lack thereof, but also shove him several times, leaving the boy in tears.

It seems like every kind of local baseball or softball league had a playoff this past weekend. Throw in a few foot races and fundraisers and it made for a busy week for our yeoman sports staff. Our congratulations go out to all of the competitors in this past weekend’s action.

We know of a local lobsterman who hosts his relatives from away every summer. Their idea of a good time is to pull up on his front lawn, put their feet up and feast on lobster he caught that morning while they watch the sunset over the waters he makes his living on.

It’s very exotic.

Next week at town meeting, Newcastle residents will have an opportunity to bring “New Urbanism” style form based code zoning to Newcastle when they vote on a proposition to allocate $60,000 to augment the $60,000 voted last year for refreshing the 2006 comprehensive plan and rewriting the town’s land use ordinance.

Last Tuesday, President Obama directed federal agencies to serve antibiotic-free meat and poultry in government cafeterias. The federal Food and Drug Administration will require animal producers to obtain authorization from a licensed veterinarian to use drugs to treat a specific disease, rather than just to promote rapid growth, as is current practice.

To the Editor:

The parade this year truly featured the wonderful businesses, products and talents of the Waldoboro community. Thank you to all who participated in this fun and festive parade.

Last week Damariscotta residents vetoed the proposed $1,713,896 secondary school budget. We don’t blame them really.

The recent commentary by Haley Holland Graves (“Autism awareness through the eyes of a teen,” 04/23/15 LCN) prompted me to learn a few things about autism.

We all look forward to this Sunday, May 10, when we celebrate Mother’s Day and the cherished bond between mother and child. Ironically, dairy cows, world-wide symbols of motherhood, never get to see their babies.

The newborn calves are torn from their mothers at birth and turned into veal cutlets, so we can drink the milk that nature designed for them. The distraught mothers bellow for days, hoping for their return.

In Lincoln County, when you talk about cycling, riding a bicycle for whatever reason, most people you talk too, if they are not cyclists themselves, usually look at you sideways.