It is a sad state of affairs when a person[s] drive onto private property in the middle of the night to deface a political sign with an unprintable word on one side and ‘stupid’ on the other, and steal almost all of the remaining signs. The defaced sign was apparently too large steal.

If you have been anywhere near a television this week, you are probably familiar with the story of former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice, whose domestic violence case is currently shaking the National Football League to its very foundation.

Jefferson is in the midst of a debate over the best way to educate our kids. We have heard from a number of people who think the school committee has broken a promise to voters about hiring certain teachers.

Even though I have lived in Manhattan for over a half a century, I still observe the “rule of the road” that I learned growing up in rural upstate New York some 70-odd years ago: “If you are walking on the road, walk to the left, facing the on-coming traffic.”

In the classic setting, the first day of school is accompanied by the peal of the school bells, calling delighted children back to their studies.

As a retired educator whose career was spent in public education, I understand the necessity for some level of fluidity in a school system budget. Needs arise and change as the year progresses, so the school committee, acting in concert with administration, is there to review, to manage and to approve school budget expenditures.

In early 2011, after the RSU 12 Board of Directors voted to “immediately” and “permanently” remove the term “Redskin” from any and all schools within the district, we said in this space it was the right decision, badly made.

In January, 2013 our family lost our home on Bayview Road in Nobleboro to a fire. We have been displaced and struggling to get back on our feet for a year and a half now. We finally managed to find and purchase a home back in Nobleboro where we want to live.

Imagine the excitement of earning the title of Little League World Series Champions. We recently returned to Maine from a trip to Williamsport, Penn. to see who would take home the top prize in youth baseball. All the excitement brought back wonderful memories of my son’s own recent Lincoln Little League Championship game where his team, The Wheels, finished an undefeated perfect season and won it all.

As I drive around Lincoln County every day. I can’t help but notice the amount of political signage that litters formerly green spaces along the roads. As a former advertising researcher, I realize that the candidates for various offices are hoping to achieve name recognition when voters go to their polling places to cast their ballots.

It’s always a pleasure to write to you after a blood drive, thanking you for your support. We truly appreciate your announcing this three-times-a-year event and without a doubt, the publicity we receive in your newspaper makes a difference.

We have no control of where and to whom we are born; it is an accident of nature. Some are born into better situations than others. Some fall into the trappings of assumed preferential entitlement because of their wealth and others drop into the abyss of self-pity entitlement because of their poverty.

Many people have asked who are the Concerned Citizens of Waldoboro? We are a group of concerned citizens advocating for the improvement of our town by identifying issues of concern to all citizens, fact-finding and suggesting potential solutions.

Though their descendents still live in the area, Wilbur Bearce, Robert Woodward, and Frank Wells are probably best recalled, if at all, as names on a plaque on the wall at the South Bristol Town Hall.