As we all celebrate this Thanksgiving and people say a prayer and are thankful for this abundance, how many include in their prayer a thanks for all our servicemen and women who can’t make it home for the holiday?

Where were the people of Nobleboro on Oct. 26 when we met at the Nobleboro Central School to discuss Gateway 1? The Maine Dept. of Transportation has a $30,000 grant to discuss the so-called traffic growth, planning and development of our little village. This is the first of three monthly meetings. The second is on Nov. 16 and the third and final occurs in Jan. 2011.

Wiscasset students spent a day on the road visiting the Passamaquoddys earlier this month and last Friday a “sizable crowd” attended a panel discussion on being Muslim in America.

Wiscasset voters should go to the polls on Dec. 7 (or obtain an absentee ballot from town clerk Chris Wolfe ahead of time) to support the town planning budget. In this flagging economy, we must make thoughtful choices about how to reduce the municipal budget. We should not give up planning. Wiscasset needs-and deserves–smart, forward-thinking, well-organized planning.

As the daughter of a union carpenter, I grew up learning about the economic boom and bust cycle. My father worked hard; I remember him sometimes wearing a coal miner’s lamp so that he could work after hours building our home.

For decades now the Korean Conflict has been called the Forgotten War.

Sandwiched, as it is, in American history between World War II and the Vietnam War, it is little wonder the two-plus-year-long conflict gets the short shrift in the history books.

The patriotism you expressed during and following World War I and II, Vietnam, Korea, Desert Storm, Iraq and Afghanistan has all but disappeared. Parades are but a fleeting display of our patriotism and fife trucks. How soon we forget.

November 11 is Veterans’ Day and this old veteran remembers when it was celebrated with much more splendor and parades, but that was then and this now; now being more or less just a day off.

Tomorrow is Nov. 11, Veterans’ Day. It’s the special day when all Americans honor our brave servicemen and women for their service to our country. If it were not for them, America would not be the wonderful and free country that we live in and enjoy today.

The Great Salt Bay Community School held its annual Harvest Fair last Saturday (Oct. 30), and it seems to have been a wonderful success. As the parent of an eighth grader who directly benefits from this fundraiser, I’d like to thank everyone involved in the process of pulling the Fair together.

This weekend, 10 students from Wiscasset High School are going to make the long journey from home to Pleasant Point in Washington County where they will meet with members of the Passamaquoddy tribe.

We like it. We like it a lot.

Veterans’ Day is approaching and what do we do about it? Well, a few dedicated people meet, pray and acknowledge what they have done.

There has been a lot of disturbing news this election year: obstructed and compromised health care reform; increasingly vocal talk of privatization of social security benefits; talk of even eliminating social security; or at least adding two more years to the start up of the benefits – from 65 to 67; the funneling of billions of dollars from corporate funds into political campaigns; youth suicides and gay bullying. It goes on and on….

“Tax the rich” makes for a great sound bite as headlined by the liberal mainstream media. In fact, the top 10 percent of all earners in this country pay an enormous 70 percent of all federal taxes by their business activities that grow our economy and increase our standard of living.