I read your article titled “Cove’s Edge employees see some changes” in the Dec. 6 edition with great interest. Medicare dollars seem to be stretched very thin these days and the impact is hitting the health care industry hard, especially here in Maine with its high proportion of senior citizens.

To be honest, the first time many of us heard who Russell Libby was and what he did, we read it in his obituary.

Thanksgiving leftovers are squared away, Santa is popping up everywhere, and the Christmas TV specials and promotional efforts are in full swing.

I learned today that Bath Savings Institute will not be hosting their (previously) annual holiday wreath auction for the benefit of Big Brother’s Big Sisters. What a travesty.

I feel I have to respond to the angry, derogatory, and unnecessary letter from Barbara Buermann Johnson in last week’s LCN entitled, “Continued myopia.”

A false empowerment of a citizenry due to a misguided interpretation of a Constitutional right rooted in a partisan control of a judiciary is cause for a larger concern. We are no longer a “free” nation but imprisoned by a perpetual fear of an armed citizenry.

In Dunblane, England, in 1996, a man who possesses six registered and legally obtained firearms kills 16 elementary school children. The media and public outcry is huge and in 1997, under the pretense of increasing public safety, Tony Blair and his Labor government pass the strictest gun laws of any Western democracy. Pretty much every firearm in British households except grandpa’s old bird gun gets confiscated by the government.

As we look ahead to 2013, we still have the horrors of the Sandy Hook School shooting in Newtown, Conn., in mind.

In August 1995, I visited my dad, Jim Lester (then age 72), and his wife who were living on Westport Island. We took a road (and boat) trip and one day hiked on Monhegan Island.

On Nov. 6 a majority of Mainers, including 52 percent of voters in Lincoln County, voted to allow the state of Maine to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples.

I am writing to commend Sherwood Olin and Kim Fletcher on last week’s article, “Dog shooting sparks Facebook furor.” Their reporting made the details of a complete situation understandable, helped to educate readers, and challenged us all the examine our own reactions.

The organizers of the local hurricane relief project returned home Sunday night, after a successful and rewarding weekend delivering supplies in New York.

A reminder to everyone enjoying their Thanksgiving dinner that when you say a prayer of thanks for all your blessings, please add a prayer for all our young men and women who cannot be there with you. Yes, I know we all feel that loss and in some cases, more than others.

The holiday season is one defined in different ways by different people. People of different upbringings, social status, and religions each see the various holidays from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day in ways similar to many, but unique to each.