As the lazy hazy days of summer fade into the early days of autumn you will be going back to school soon. On behalf of this region I want to wish you the best as you go back to the classrooms.

Are you interested in knowing how AARP and local leaders are working together to create a more age-friendly culture, making Dover-Foxcroft, Milo, Dexter, Guilford, and Greenville more livable for people of all ages? Want to share your ideas? Would you like to know more about how AARP is advocating for older adults statewide? If so, come to the AARP Coffee Talk at Elaine’s Bakery in Milo on Thursday, September 21 from 10 – 11:30 a.m. or join us at The Mill Café in Dover-Foxcroft on Tuesday, September 26, from 10 – 11:30 a.m.

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." Those words, rather famously, come from Martin Luther King Jr., first spoken in a sermon he gave in 1957, and then printed in his 1963 book “Strength to Love.”

Notice to the Sangerville, Maine residents, I Richard R. Dobson Sr. have in writing legal documentation from the town’s attorney Thad B. Zmistowski’s office, and the board of overseers of the bar, that the town’s attorney Thad B. Zmistowski does not represent the citizens of Sangerville or works in the best interest of the Sangerville citizens and we are not his clients.

Thank you to Sen. Tom Saviello, R-Wilton for setting the record straight about Medicaid in Maine in an Aug 21 BDN OpEd. Gov. Paul LePage’s refusal to expand Medicaid under Obamacare has cost the state tremendously.

As our students will be going back to school soon on behalf of this great county I want to wish you the best this school year. You are our future leaders of our communities, county, state and nation.

History tells us that every generation rewrites history and often repeats it. There are enough statues and counter statues today to warrant leaving them all intact. Strategic relocation of some statues erected by Jim Crow in front of Halls of Justice would be a good compromise by both sides. We don't need to revere or hate the icons of the past.

I enjoyed reading Brett Baber’s column about the Seventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in “The Piscataquis” Observer for Aug. 16. He urged fellow conservatives to resist the efforts of big corporations, government, and some professional bodies to limit or abolish trial by jury in civil cases by imposing dispute resolution by arbitration. As an unabashed liberal lawyer from Massachusetts, I urge my friends and colleagues to resist this trend also.

The SAD 4 school committee recently met and, as I predicted about a month ago, did not make any effort to reduce the expenses in the budget that it is submitting again to the district citizens. At a previous meeting, I had given the committee members a letter detailing over $100,000 of expenditures that could easily be cut and that would not affect student programming in any way. It continued to be totally ignored. The moral of the story is clear. Once again school committee steadfastly refuses to cut expenses as a way to bring the assessments under control.

The budget referendum election will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 29 from 8 o'clock in the morning until 8 o'clock in the evening at your local town hall. Be there and vote “no.”

The lowest form of journalism is analyzing the sufficiency of condemnations. That said, as hyperbolic and unhinged as the media's reaction to Donald Trump's statements in the wake of Charlottesville may be, they do still have a point. President Trump did not, in my opinion, say the right thing, and I wanted to hear things out of his mouth that I did not hear.

Full disclosure: I am a trustee of the Center Theatre. As such, I am predisposed to think and speak favorably about the theatre’s productions. That said, I am urging readers to take in the currently-running production of ‘Nunsense’: one of the funniest and most entertaining shows “evah!”

Good morning America from the shores of beautiful Moosehead Lake as dawn pieces the night sky and my eyes penetrates through the treetops in search of the sun rising on the horizon and the sounds of nature surrounds the Moosehead Lake region with the grandeur of the Lord’s glory and love engulfing America’s Crown Jewel.

My family spent the first week in August on Moosehead lake in the Rockwood area. Our 13 year old cocker spaniel Zelda accompanied us although we’d observed a noticeable decline in her health in the weeks leading up to our Moosehead vacation. This decline continued while in Rockwood to the point where we needed to get her to a veterinarian.

As you all know my brother Allan Snyder was laid to rest Saturday, July 22. He was a decorated war veteran and past fire chief with both the U.S. Air Force and the Dover-Foxcroft Fire Department.

The Washington Post boldly declared that it said women were “genetically unsuited for tech jobs." CNN said that it claimed "women are not biologically fit for tech roles." Time Magazine said it was an "anti-diversity tirade. Gizmodo called it a "screed," as did The Atlantic. Vanity Fare went with "anti-diversity manifesto." “It” was the controversial memo drafted by a Google employee, criticizing the company’s internal policies on bias and diversity. A memo that got him fired.

Two weeks later, to my surprise, my boss dropped an open envelope on my desk. The letter inside said, in essence, "I'm not dead." It was written by Maurice Purtill, living only ten miles away.

As a conservative trial lawyer, one of my favorite parlor games is to ask fellow conservatives: “What is the Seventh Amendment?” Not surprisingly, the vast majority of people, whether conservative, liberal or some other political orientation, cannot name this key provision of the Bill of Rights.