Bearing witness: A Maine mass shooting

Black and white closeup of a man holding an automatic rifle close to his torso, with face and legs not visible

I have called Maine home for the last 21 years, and certainly I have often been ambivalent about this state for a number of reasons. Today, though, I write as a Mainer with a heavy heart. One of the state’s nearly one-and-a-half million residents now linked together in our collective sorrow, as we find ourselves …

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Welcome to your dystopia

Image of nine distant people in silhouette with the ground in front of them long and dark and the horizon behind them half stormy and half sunset

Before I begin, a few words from a George Carlin routine that I have cherished for years (here’s a link to a 2006 performance of it, if you want to get it all in context)… “They don’t want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking … That doesn’t help them … You know …

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