October 3, 2011--Midcoast: Boobies

Even here things can get complicated.

The weather has been an early fall blessing. A few days last week could actually have been called hot. We haven't had to make a fire except for romantic purposes; and even when I rise before the sun to get this typing done, I haven't had to turn on the electric heater we have placed near my writing table to take the chill out of the dawn air as well as from my two hunt-and-peck fingers.

I feel guilty about being so fortunate. Rona, as always, reminds me when I am feeling that way that I should enjoy it because, as she ominously but wisely puts it, "Your turn too will come."

This is not to report that it has. I continue to be more than fortunate. But nearby, there are complications.

I have from time-to-time mentioned, as a friend Char last year said, that she likes the local newspaper because it does not contain any "real news." I have come to appreciate that. How the Lincoln County News provides respite from the screaming headlines of the New York Times and the Breaking News of the 24/7 cable news channels.

In the weekly LCN there are articles about the rivers and ponds; grange hall socials; new commercial ventures; weddings, births, and passings; and much about the high schools--mainly how their teams are faring and in May about their graduates' plans.

Schools reopened about a month ago and recently there is a version of real news here about one that has national echos. I wouldn't be surprised if it gets picked up by the Times and CNN.

On the front page of this week's paper, below articles about how the governor is thinking about consolidating the state's 911 call centers in an effort to save money and how Wiscasset Raceway is about to hold its first race of the year--say goodbye to tranquility--there is a controversy at Medomak Valley High School about breast cancer awareness bracelets.

This should be benign enough. Actually something school officials should feel good about--how their students are taking on a worthy cause.

The problem, though, is what is printed on the bracelets--

I ♥ Boobies.

According to school officials these bracelets--the "boobies" part--is distracting. They claim that they "carry a sexual connotation," and thus banned them and began suspending students who choose to defy the prohibition. Up to 12 students wearing the bracelets deemed offensive were not allowed to attend class.

But it seems that the I ♥ Boobies flap is not confined to Lincoln County or Maine. They have been banned in several other states; though, when challenged there, courts have ruled that the First Amendment protects this as an expression of free speech.

As in other situations where banning a book or a movie assure a wider audience, fully three-quarters of Medomak students are now wearing the cancer awareness bracelets. In part in solidarity with their suspended classmates.

Wisely, school superintendent Susan Pratt, aware of the meaning of the First Amendment and the feelings of an increasing number of parents who support their children, has lifted the ban, though she as yet hasn't indicated when it will take effect.

So real life intrudes along the post-season coast of Maine.

But on page three of the LCN , to distract myself from all of this, I turn to news about the Garden Club of Wiscasset welcoming Debbie Cupo while local quilters are starting a Groovy Girls Sewing Club and the Railway Museum is expanding it hours and . . .