The BDN Opinion part operates independently and doesn’t set newsroom insurance policies or contribute to reporting or modifying articles elsewhere within the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com.
Robert W. Glover is an affiliate professor of political science and honors on the College of Maine. These views are his personal and don’t characterize an official place of the college or the College of Maine System. He’s the co-director of the Maine chapter of the nationwide Students Technique Community, which brings collectively students throughout the nation to deal with public challenges and their coverage implications. Members’ columns seem within the BDN each different week.
The nation is reeling from one more horrifying college capturing on the Robb Elementary College in Uvalde, Texas. As we think about common sense coverage measures to scale back gun violence on this nation, we should disavow ourselves of the notion that Maine is phenomenal. It isn’t. The disaster is right here.
Lots of you probably despatched your youngsters to high school final week wrought with emotion. Are they secure? Am I mendacity to them and to myself after I reassure them? Why should I drop off my baby in school silently hoping that their weak, younger our bodies won’t be ripped aside by bullets?
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As a instructor, final week’s carnage prompted me to assessment our college’s (grimly mandatory) lively shooter tips: That we not attempt to transfer those that are badly wounded; the suitable methods to silently conceal if we can’t escape the assailant(s) safely; tips on how to sign that we aren’t a menace when rescue groups storm the constructing.
Does it should be like this? It doesn’t.
The USA is the one superior nation on this planet with this prevalence of dying by gun violence. A latest research within the Journal of the American Medical Affiliation discovered gun violence dying charges 5 occasions increased than Canada, 10 occasions increased than Australia, 34 occasions increased than the UK. Put merely, these international locations appropriately regulate entry to and prevalence of firearms. We don’t.
The urgency is felt by lots of our policymakers. Final week, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut spoke with fury and eloquence on the Senate flooring. Murphy implored his colleagues: “What are we doing? … Why are we right here if to not attempt to guarantee that fewer colleges and fewer communities undergo what Sandy Hook has gone by? What Uvalde goes by?”
Insurance policies to confront this nightmare are inside our attain. Two such measures, HR 8 and HR 1446, would strengthen federal background checks, closing loopholes that allow gun gross sales and transfers with out oversight (a reform greater than 80 p.c of gun homeowners help). Each measures have handed within the Home, however Senate Republican opposition has prevented a vote there.
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“Crimson flag” legal guidelines empower legislation enforcement or relations to petition for eradicating weapons from these deemed a threat to themselves or others. This measure, too, is supported by greater than 70 p.c of Individuals and 60 p.c of gun homeowners. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have such legal guidelines. A invoice to increase such protections nationally was launched final yr by U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath of Georgia, who lost her own son to gun violence. If Congress was sufficiently motivated, the measure might be voted on and signed into legislation inside a matter of weeks.
It could be tempting to assume Maine is phenomenal, that we possess a tradition of secure, accountable firearm use and relatively low ranges of violence, making such measures pointless. Assume once more.
From 2011-2020, Maine skilled 113 home abuse homicides, 52 p.c of which had been dedicated with a firearm. Significantly alarming is the prevalence of gun suicide in Maine. Maine suffered 163 gun deaths in 2019; 88 p.c of those had been suicides (a grim statistic alarmingly excessive amongst our veterans). Everytown for Gun Security estimates that gun deaths and accidents price the state of Maine greater than $979 million in 2019.
Gun violence is right here. It’s pricey. It’s devastating. There isn’t a cultural or social protecting bubble rendering us immune from the grisly homicide we noticed unfold in Texas final week. If we don’t take motion, a mass killing reminiscent of this will likely be inevitable in our future.
Lots of you might have been motivated by Uvalde to name your federal lawmakers to register concern. With Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer vowing to maneuver shortly on bipartisan laws, we ought to be asking U.S. Sens. Angus King and Susan Collins what they plan to do to make sure swift motion on such payments. We now have each proper to be indignant, damage, and scared. However now’s no time to give up to hopelessness.
Erik Stevenson was fouled making a 3-pointer and completed the four-point play with 3.5 seconds left to lift the Capital City Go-Go to a 96-93 win over the Maine Celtics on Sunday at the Portland Expo.
Stevenson finished with 36 points for Capital City. Ruben Nembhard Jr. added 13 points. 14 rebounds and seven assists, while Michael Foster Jr. had 14 points.
Ron Harper Jr. had 21 points and six rebounds for the Celtics. JD Davison added 11 points and 10 assists, while Baylor Scheierman finished with 16 points and six rebounds. Drew Peterson scored 18 for Maine.
This story was originally published in December 2022.
Jerry Galusha and his best friend, Doug Cooke, share a friendship that dates back to 1984, when they were living in Rangeley and were introduced by mutual friends.
Over the years, they have often gone fishing or deer hunting, activities they both have enjoyed immensely.
“The relationship that we have is just unbelievable,” Galusha said. “We’ve had some really amazing adventures.”
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This fall, Galusha was confronted with a heart-wrenching task. He would take Cooke into the woods, one last time, in search of a big buck.
The difference was that this time they would not be walking the tote roads and trails together. Instead, Galusha would be carrying Cooke’s cremains in his backpack.
Cooke died on Sept. 5 at age 61 after a long struggle with renal failure. Galusha said after 40 years of dialysis or living with a transplanted kidney, Cooke opted to cease treatment and enter hospice care when his third transplant failed.
Doctors had originally told Cooke he would be lucky to celebrate his 30th birthday. Thus, he tried all his life to avoid getting too emotionally attached to people. He seldom asked anyone for favors.
Cooke and Galusha hadn’t seen each other much in recent years as Galusha focused on raising a family. But in late August, Cooke left a voicemail for Galusha explaining that he planned to enter hospice care.
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Cooke told Galusha he didn’t need to do anything, but wanted him to know. He did not want to become a burden to anyone else.
“His body was telling him that he’s had enough,” Galusha said. “He couldn’t golf. He couldn’t play his guitar. He hadn’t been hunting in years.”
The late Doug Cooke of Rangeley is shown with a buck he shot many years ago. Cooke’s best friend, Jerry Galusha, is honoring Cooke’s last wishes by taking his ashes on hunting and fishing excursions. Credit: Courtesy of Jerry Galusha
Galusha couldn’t let it end like that. In spite of Cooke’s reluctance to have his old friend see him in such poor health, he went to visit him.
But as Cooke faced his own mortality, he asked one favor of Galusha.
“He said, ‘Promise me one thing, could you please, just one time, take me in to Upper Dam to go fishing before you dump my ashes?’” Galusha said.
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The dam separates Mooselookmeguntic (Cupsuptic) Lake and Richardson Lake north of Rangeley. It was a favorite spot of theirs, one Cooke introduced to Galusha, who grew up in New York.
“He really loved the wilderness and Rangeley,” Galusha said of Cooke, who was a Vermont native.
Galusha immediately said yes but, knowing how much Cooke also enjoyed hunting, he didn’t feel as though the fishing trip was enough to adequately honor his friend.
“I said, I’m going to take you for the whole deer season, every time I go,” Galusha said. “He looked at me and started crying and said, ‘That would be so awesome.’
“It was hard. We cried and hugged each other,” he said.
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When Galusha went deer hunting near his home in Rangeley during the third week of November — a week the two buddies often spent together over the years — he tried his best to make it like old times.
Galusha spared no effort. He carried the cardboard urn containing Cooke’s cremains inside a camouflage can, which was wrapped with a photo showing Cooke posing with a nice buck he had harvested many years earlier.
He also packed Cooke’s blaze orange hat and vest, along with his grunt tube, compass, doe bleat can, deer scents and a set of rattling antlers.
Galusha chronicled the events of each hunting day by posting to Cooke’s Facebook page, complete with observations, recollections and photos.
Lots of deer were seen and there was one encounter with a buck, but after missing initially, Galusha refused to take a bad shot as the deer was partially obscured by undergrowth.
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“I just did what Doug would have done. He’s not going to shoot and I wasn’t going to shoot,” Galusha said.
He spoke reverently about Cooke’s resilience through the years in the face of his constant battle with health problems, which included not only kidney failure, dialysis and transplants, but four hip replacements and, eventually, a heart attack.
Jerry Galusha carried the cremains of his best friend, Doug Cooke, along with several items of Cooke’s hunting gear, on hunts this fall. Credit: Courtesy of Jerry Galusha
The arrival of muzzleloader season provided one more week to hunt. On Friday, Dec. 2, Galusha walked more than 3 miles along a gated road to an area where he had seen deer a week earlier.
That got him off the beaten track, away from other potential hunters, something Cooke would have appreciated.
“He wasn’t afraid to go do stuff,” Galusha said. “It might take us a little bit longer, but he didn’t care.”
Galusha, who still often refers to Cooke in the present tense, said he vocalized some of his reflections while in the woods. He saw eagles, which he thought might be Cooke keeping an eye on him.
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“I talked to him a lot,” Galusha said, who also enjoyed telling the handful of hunters he encountered that he was not out alone, rather with his friend.
He then explained the story of his promise to Cooke and reverently removed the urn from his pack to show them.
When Galusha finally saw the buck, it wasn’t quite close enough. He uses one of Cooke’s favorite tactics to coax the deer closer.
Galusha tried the grunt tube, and then the doe bleat can, but the deer didn’t seem to hear it. Then, he blew harder on the grunt tube and finally got the buck’s attention.
“I irked one right in, that’s what Doug would say,” said Galusha, recalling Cooke’s affection for using the alternating calls.
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The spikehorn turned and walked directly at Galusha, who shot it.
“I cried,” he said of the moment, recalling that Cooke had been there when he shot his first antlered deer, also a spikehorn.
During the long drag back to his truck, Galusha had plenty of time to think about how much Cooke would have enjoyed the hunt — and watching him make the drag.
At one point, a crew of loggers had approached.
“I was pointing to the sky saying, ‘We got it done,’ shaking my hand,” Galusha said. “A guy came up behind me and said, ‘You all set?’ and I’m like, yup.”
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Cooke and Galusha had lived together for 10 years at one point, but they also had gone long periods without talking with each other. Even so, whenever they were reunited it was as if they had never been apart.
The last few visits were difficult. Cooke’s health was failing, but Galusha just wanted to be there for his buddy.
“It was emotional,” said Galusha, who was present when Cooke died. “I held his hand to his last breath.”
Next spring, hopefully when the fish are biting and the bugs aren’t, Galusha will grant Cooke — who he described as a fabulous fisherman — his final wish by taking him fishing at Upper Dam, just like they used to do.
“I’m thinking maybe around his birthday [July 19]. It might be sooner, depending on how buggy it is,” said Galusha, who expects to make more than one excursion with Cooke.
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Galusha said he will know when it’s time to say goodbye.
“I really don’t want to let him go, but I promised him I would, so I will,” he said.
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