Category: Community

Rock Bound

Working Waterfront

A wonderful life begins close to home

Much of my political philosophy—maybe too much—springs from the 1946 film It’s a Wonderful Life. Policy questions are more nuanced and complex than talking heads on cable news suggest, and this film might be dismissed by some, as its villain says, as “sentimental hogwash” and overly simplistic. I see the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Book introduces Maine to new neighbors

Dear Maine: The Trials and Triumphs of Maine’s 21st Century Immigrants By Morgan Rielly and Reza Jalali (Islandport Press) Review by Tina Cohen I’ve just read online that in 2021, and 2022 so far, Maine is the “whitest” state in America, at 93.2 percent. (Not far behind are Vermont at… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Maine’s not-so-clean history on race

Early in his presentation, Todd Little-Sebold shows a photo of a Ku Klux Klan gathering in 1926 that drew about 30,000. Mississippi? Georgia? Nope. Portland, Maine. The photo often prompts the question, “You mean the Klan was active in progressive, hip Portland?” he said. “And the answer is yes.” A… SEE MORE
Observer

Working Waterfront

An apology and an explanation

I wrote a column for this, the April issue of The Working Waterfront, a column about the absence of meaningful political discourse, particularly among elected representatives, the people we expect will indulge in such deliberation on our behalf. The column contained this: “I was expected to cultivate and sustain a… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Native stories keep heritage alive

Stories Our Grandmothers Told Us Edited by Wayne Newell and Robert M. Leavitt Resolute Bear Press Review by Carl Little In his introduction to Kuhkomossonuk Akonutomuwinokot: Stories Our Grandmothers Told Us, Wayne Newell notes that the traditional Passamaquoddy stories he and Robert Leavitt collected “create a bridge between the knowledge… SEE MORE
The WoodenBoat campus in Brooklin.

Working Waterfront

WoodenBoat founder turns over the helm

In the early 1970s, Jon Wilson realized he wasn’t as good a boatbuilder as others whose works he admired. But he was a pretty good thinker about boatbuilding. “At that time, wooden boats had been going out of fashion and fiberglass boats were coming in, big time,” he recalled. “I… SEE MORE