To the Editor:

When I was a child, I, like so many others, marched in parades with my little American flag, proud to be an American.

To the Editor:

About 90 Sheepscot Valley RSU 12 voters turned out Jan. 16 to discuss and adopt a budget for the current school year.

When you read a book, do you read just a sentence or two in a paragraph, selectively? Do you read just a paragraph or two from a chapter? I think not. More likely than not, you read the entire book, from prologue to epilogue. Why not pick up a Bible and read it from Genesis to Revelation? Everything is in there, from dog vomit to eternal salvation. Think of the myriad topics between those two extremes.

What a terrible start to the year we are off to.

It seems that hopes of leaving the doom and gloom of 2009 behind us with the ringing in of the New Year may have been optimistic, but there is still plenty of time left to salvage a really good year out of this really rough start.

This week, we tip our cap to Dr. Allan “Chip” Teel and his effort to provide at home care for elderly residents too healthy to need full-time nursing care and too infirm to live completely on their own.

To the Editor:

I dropped off my 2000 Subaru for servicing at Yudy’s yesterday.

Newcastle resident Morrison Bonpasse is well known around Maine for his determined support of convicted murder Dennis Dechaine, but he could also be known as a man who is single handedly trying to save the world’s economic system by encouraging the global adoption of a single monetary unit.

In a story reported by John Maguire on the front page of the LCN (Dec. 3) reports that the Sheepscott Spa and Resort owned by Edgecomb Development LLC (Roger Bintliff) has been assigned to Priority Group LLC to” recuperate money for the Wiscasset Savings Bank.”

This past summer, I had a wonderful Mother Nature experience to share. While working outside one morning, I noticed a Hairy Woodpecker stuck on our kitchen screen door.

Back before 9/11 united Americans in a common purpose, back before the Challenger disaster, before the Kennedy assassination – there was Pearl Harbor.

Today it seems Pearl Harbor has largely been swept away in the rush to the mall but there was a time when remembering the most successful foreign assault on U.S. soil since 1812 was a big, big deal.

It is very refreshing to see the swarm of support for our “Toys for Edgecomb” effort. It wasn’t that long ago that the Edgecomb Republican committee sat around a table at the Town Hall and brainstormed a way to give back to our town. Sometimes a great idea stays a great idea and never gets implemented. The “Toys for Edgecomb” project has snowballed very quickly.

It’s tough times we are living in. Pick a subject, any subject it seems and we can find a problem to concern us.

However, this coming year there will be time and energy enough to spend on the issues before us and, while they are significant, they are not bigger than we are.

‘Tis the season of Christmas angels and snow angels and the YMCA has their very own – fitness instructor Mary Snow. Mary’s joie de vivre is infectious and spreads to all who are fortunate enough to be her student. She cares about fitness (in a very broad sense) and the fitness of others. To that end she has raised money to purchase stationary cycles so that more people can participate. On Christmas Eve morning as a gift to her students she offered a longer than usual spinning class followed by a relaxing yoga session. She exemplifies what we love about this community. Thank you Mary. Thank you YMCA.

Looking over the last year in LCN pages, the story that kept drawing us back was our tribute to the late R.H. “Bob” Reny, who left us in July.