Dear Editor:

On Saturday, January 10, while dropping wood at a friend’s house, I discovered a second level deck door open about two feet. Thinking the owners could possibly be at camp, it was either blown open when left unlatched or it could have been a break in, which, as I thought later, could have still been in progress!

I decided not to enter the building and instead, get professional help from law enforcement. Thanks to a quick call made by Kathy Williams (Wiscasset reserve officer) to Lincoln County, I saw two patrol cars arriving within about 10 minutes, possibly less.

The end result of this was that it was not a break in and all was secured by the officers.

The reason for writing this is to ask everyone to take a moment to think how fortunate we are to have professional, respectful and well-trained deputies to be there when we need them. This could have gone another way and I am sure it would have been handled with just as much controlled professionalism as it was in fact that day.

My personal thanks to deputies Brian Collamore and Henry Grenier for their response and the way in which they carried out their duties. Both deputies took the time to tell me I did the right thing by calling them. They said there would be far less accidents and fatalities if others would do the same.

Some would say, "They were just doing their job." I disagree. There are too many people who "just do their jobs," these guys are far beyond anything to be described in that manner.

Respectfully,

Jim Collins

Wiscasset

Unborn need protection

Dear Editor,

January 20 I listened to President Obama’s address to the nation and then read it in last week’s paper. In it he said, "The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness."

President Obama was referring to the foundational words of the American doctrine of civil liberties, the opening words of the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

President Obama omitted the right to life in his speech. I wish the President and all our elected officials would read about Dr. Bernard Nathanson who campaigned vigorously, with good and reasonable intentions, for the legalization of abortion in the 1960s. In 1969 he helped found the National Abortion Rights Action League. When New York liberalized its abortion law in 1970, Dr. Nathanson ran the nation’s largest abortion clinic.

In 1973, the year Roe v. Wade made abortion on demand legal across the country, Dr. Nathanson became the chief of obstetrical service at St. Luke’s Hospital Center. He went from tending mothers to tending babies. He continued to perform abortions. One of the newest pieces of equipment at St. Luke’s Hospital Center was the ultrasound machine. Watching his first ultrasound, Nathanson noticed his mind dropped the word fetus in favor of baby, and the question hit him: How many babies had he himself cut to pieces? How many human lives had he taken?

Dr. Nathanson presided over 60,000 abortion deaths before he got out of the business. His objections to abortion were not based on any religious beliefs, but from scientific facts and purely humanitarian conclusions. He believed that a society’s morality must be judged by its treatment of the weak and defenseless. His own work to legalize abortion had been inspired by his concern for the poor. But ultrasound technology revealed to him an even more vulnerable class: the unborn.

Every day in our country 4,000 children die from legal abortion. May our President and other elected officials come to realize the humanity of the unborn and offer them the protection promised by our forefathers in the Declaration of Independence.

Sincerely,

Mary Rose Pray

Wiscasset   

Dear Editor:

I grew up in Wiscasset, but I live in Atlanta, Georgia. I’m an avid on-line reader of the Wiscasset Newspaper.

Wiscasset was a great place to grow up. My father, Ralph J. Gagnon Sr., bought our old homestead on Birch Point Road in 1950. After my folks passed, my brother Allen, former owner of Reds Eats, bought the house. I always love going back to Wiscasset because it brings back many fond memories of my childhood.

Please continue your great work with my favorite newspaper.

Respectfully,

Jim Gagnon  

Wiscasset News Headlines

Wiscasset News Headlines

Wiscasset News Headlines

Wiscasset News Headlines

Somewhere in the town of Wiscasset is a guy named Mike, a very nice person, who has a very nice wife, whose name I do not know. I asked Mike what his last name was, but it had quite a few syllables, and I didn’t think I should ask him to spell it because it seemed like that would be too intrusive. Or not necessary. But I now wish I had asked him anyway, because I would like to thank him publicly.

One of the joys of writing for this tiny little newspaper is I get to write nearly anything I want. My boss, Mary Brewer, has put up with a lot of stuff in our newspaper that she doesn’t necessarily like, but she allows it to go anyway. I’m now in my tenth year here, and I’ve realized this is a pretty huge benefit. A few years ago I became good friends when a senior writer from National Geographic magazine called to say she was coming to town to do a piece on Wiscasset and its worm industry. We spent four or five days together – me showing her around town and introducing her to people I thought she should talk to. I told her one of the disadvantages of my job is there are no copywriters – people who read your stories to see how they can be written better. We have proofreaders, but no copy writers. So I told her my stories, except for the obvious spelling or grammar mistakes, pretty much go in the way they’re written. So no one improves on my stories. She said I was lucky. She said I was better off not having three or four people, including "fact checkers" read my stories, because when they were finished, she often didn’t recognize her own story.

That said, or written, let me tell you what a joy it was when the two tires on the passenger side of my car strayed onto what looked like a frozen icy shoulder of the road, which, turns out, was a ditch, and I was subsequently pulled out of the ditch by Mike in his big black truck. I had pulled over to the side of the road to take some photos. I knew immediately I was in trouble when I got out of the car and saw how much lower the ditch side of the car was than the road side.

Up drives a young lady who stops, rolls down her car window and asks, "Are you okay?" I said, "No, I need to call someone to tow me out."

"Oh, you don’t have to do that – I live just down the road – my husband will come and pull you out," she said. I probably said something dumb, like "Are you sure?" and off she went. By the time I had taken my photos, the big black truck was pulling up. "I don’t have a rope or anything," I said. He did. I asked him his name. He smiled. "Mike"

I asked him if he lived in Wiscasset. Yes. I asked him if he read the newspaper. "No, but I think I’ve heard of it," he said. I asked him his last name: it started with "T" followed by lots of syllables. "Do you do this for a living?" I asked. He smiled again. "No, I plow a little," he said. Quiet, nice guy. He hooks the rope up to a hook underneath the back of the car, which I never knew existed. No go.

He gets out of his truck and walks back to my car. "Let’s try pulling you out from the front," he says. His huge back tires spin a bit, then out we come. I put it in park and drop down on the road to see if there are pieces of my car hanging out, or down. There weren’t.

"Thank you so much," I said. He smiled and drove off.

I wish I knew his last name, so I could call and thank him, but maybe he’ll buy the paper this week.

- Paula Gibbs