A hearty cheers to Lewiston Cpl. Jeff Baril, a true-blue angel to Auburn mother Heather Jeselskis.
Last Sunday, an aging tire on Jeselskis’ 1997 Honda blew, and she managed to limp the vehicle into a local gas station.
Jeselskis is used to doing things for herself, so she didn’t hesitate to change the tire. Six months pregnant, Jeselskis managed to get the lug nuts off and the car jacked up, but just couldn’t get the tire off the car.
Baril helped her with that task, and then helped mount the spare, but he did so much more than that.
He asked Jeselskis how she planned to replace the tire, but her finances are tight and she just didn’t know. So, he suggested she follow him to a local store, where he paid to have two new tires put on the car.
It was an unexpected and utterly decent thing for Baril to do. People who know him say they aren’t surprised because he’s an utterly decent guy.
“I’m just so thankful,” Jeselskis said. “People don’t do this kind of thing for others anymore.”
Unfortunately, all too often, Jeselskis is right.
We have become a society where incivility is not an occasional thing; it’s an everyday thing. A society where it surprises people that someone like Baril would do something nice because it’s the right thing to do. We all deserve a hearty jeer for allowing that to happen.
As we dust off the ugliness of the recent political campaign and look forward to the holidays, Baril is a shining example of graciousness for others to follow.
He says he helped Jeselskis because others have helped him in the past and he was simply, as they say, paying it forward.
Every one of us could do the same by helping a perfect stranger if ever possible, and exercise our basic human decency for no other reason than because it’s the right thing to do.
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Since winning his hard-fought gubernatorial bid Tuesday, Paul LePage has been a model of gusto and determination.
He’s pledged to put Maine people before partisan politics, and reiterated his campaign promises to streamline government and get Mainers back to work. Cheers to all that.
He also acted quickly to establish his transition team leaders, a lean trio of accomplished Republicans: Tarren Bragdon of the Maine Heritage Policy Center, attorney Ann Robinson of Preti Flaherty and John Butera of the Central Maine Growth Council.
The governor-elect also appointed John McGough — former chief of staff for the Republican office of the Maine House — as his chief of staff and said he expects to have key cabinet posts filled by Christmas, with the remainder of his staff assigned before his first day in office in January.
How refreshing is that?
Having people in place at the start of the term means everyone gets to work more quickly, which will be vital as LePage sets out to tackle voters’ directive that he turn Maine’s economy around — and fast.
Gov. John Baldacci has graciously offered to help make the transition go as smoothly as possible, a significant gesture of nonpartisanship that, we hope, sets a mood of new and ongoing cooperation at the State House as we enter the new year.
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