Amid the national and international turmoil of late, look no further than our towns to bring us back to center on all that is America’s best side, its helping one.

After dark last Thursday night, with Wiscasset’s responding agencies on the way, help was already starting on a three-vehicle accident on Route 1: Citizens pitched in, in the night, people who were going to or from work or home or who knows where, as wherever you go on the Midcoast, you may well take Route 1 for part of it.

And our neighbors on the Boothbay peninsula rallied this week to raise money for fisherman Chris Pinkham’s family after he drowned while working. From Paul Coulombe’s $10,000 to donations from parents and others, what caring that showed.

And completing that trifecta of caring, people at Wiscasset Middle High School thought, and cared, internationally, raising hundreds of dollars to aid the people and animals hard hit by Australia’s fires. 

On Route 1, on the peninsula and on another continent, the goodness of our towns is making a difference, helping others and setting an example for all.

Week’s positive parting thought: Let’s hear it for threatened snowstorms that fizzle out. We dodged one last weekend thanks to warmth and, at press time, another one forecasters had eyed for this weekend was looking less likely.