A little more audacity will yield a lot more hope.

I live near a military base. The sounds and rumbles of the large tankers often catch me unawares. Momentarily, I may imagine that my little condo will be crushed under the weight of the behemoth. Several times a day one of the 157th Air Refueling Wing's eight KC-135R Stratotankers will depart or return from refueling F-16s from Vermont, and A-10s and F-15s from Massachusetts. No matter what my political views at the time, the sounds always fill me with wonder. Forces far beyond my every day world are performing their unique jobs.

Today one of the tankers flying overhead elicited a reaction from a little girl that changed my world, inconveniently. I heard her screams, and my first reaction was that she had been tragically injured. I rushed in her direction as did two adults near her. They were her adopted parents, and they explained that they had only recently brought her to the United States from her war torn homeland. For this little girl low flying planes always bring death and destruction.

Dorothy Wickenden has an interesting article in this week's The Talk Of The Town in The New Yorker. She compares the changing positions and strategies of John McCain and Barack Obama. She concludes that Obama, if he is to win, must tell the public the inconvenient truths that can inspire change. He can make voters part of the solution by helping them understand the issues. She believes that the next president can be its most powerful leader. "Congress will not redeem themselves until consumers demand that they do so by making some inconvenient changes of their own. A little more audacity will yield a lot more hope."

The little girl's screams of terror have inconveniently changed my views.

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The Silver Surfer (Norrin Radd) is a fictional character, a Marvel Comics superhero created by Jack Kirby. The character first appears in the comic book Fantastic Four #48 (March 1966), the first of a three-issue arc fans and historians call "The Galactus Trilogy".

Originally a young astronomer of the planet Zenn-La, in order to save his home-world from destruction by a fearsome cosmic entity known as Galactus, Norrin Radd made a bargain with the being, pledging himself to serve as his herald. Imbued in return with a tiny portion of Galactus' Power Cosmic, Radd acquired great powers and a silvery appearance. Galactus also created for Radd a surfboard-like craft — modeled after a childhood fantasy of his — on which he would travel at speeds beyond that of light. Known from then on as the Silver Surfer, Radd began to roam the cosmos searching for new planets for Galactus to consume. When his travels finally took him to Earth, the Surfer came face-to-face with the Fantastic Four, a team of powerful superheroes that helped him to rediscover his nobility of spirit. Betraying Galactus, the Surfer saved Earth but was punished in return with everlasting exile there.

Stan Lee enjoyed the character and decided to feature him in his own individual title in 1968. John Buscema was penciller for the first 17 issues of the series, with Kirby returning for the eighteenth and final issue. The first seven issues, which included anthological "Tales of the Watcher" backup stories, were 72-page (with advertising), 25-cent "giants", as opposed to typical 36-page, 12-cent comics of the time. Thematically, the stories dealt with the Surfer's exile on Earth and the inhumanity of man as observed by this noble yet fallen hero. The Silver Surfer comic book series became known as one of Lee's most thoughtful and introspective works. Englehart writes that Buscema and Lee were "pouring their souls into the series".

Waldo County, situated in mid-coast Maine along scenic Penobscot Bay, has genuine New England character evidenced by working port towns and quaint rural villages. Visitors are awed by the area's unspoiled beauty. From striking coastal views to sweeping mountain vistas, dramatic natural settings abound. In addition great care has been taken to preserve and refurbish numerous historic landmarks, homes and buildings. Consequently, the Maine of yesteryear is still found here.

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