Sen. Olympia Snowe reminded our country last week that Maine is a state of independent women and men. Always was. Always will be.

In casting her crucial vote to provide a gentle push for full debate over a new health-care plan for the nation, she didn't endorse the Senate Finance Committee's proposed bill so much as she kept the process alive for us to continue working toward a much-needed solution to a serious national problem.

The country needs health-care policy reform.

Snowe's vote had nothing to do with politics, and for that she should be congratulated. As the only Republican voting in favor of the bill, she acted with courage and integrity. One of her comments upon casting her vote will become iconic: "When history calls, history calls."

History will say this: Snowe heard the call. And she answered.

The $829 billion bill hammered out by Snowe and her Finance Committee colleagues now must be merged with one drawn up by the Senate's Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, and eventually debated by the full Senate.

What health-care reform will look like at the end of the process -- the House will offer yet another version of reform in a bill of its own -- is anybody's guess. We know one thing for certain. Snowe showed character and leadership to help keep the issue alive.

It was bipartisanship -- or maybe nonpartisanship -- at its best. But no sooner had Snowe voted than the ugly side of politics emerged, and the person wearing the political bull's-eye on his back was none other than poor old talk show host Rush Limbaugh.

I'm no fan of Rush. In fact, I believe he's merely an entertainer, not a disseminator of serious political commentary. He's also a tedious blowhard -- but that's probably a subject for another day.

But for him to be denied the chance to be part of an ownership group seeking to buy the St. Louis Rams is pure, flat-out hypocrisy.

The group that wants to purchase the National Football League franchise and keep it in St. Louis dumped Limbaugh as a partner after the controversial commentator's detractors rehashed a critical remark he made a number of years ago about Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb. Limbaugh also was accused of racist comments that he apparently never made, prompting NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to say that it would be "inappropriate" for Limbaugh to be part-owner of a team.

The head of Limbaugh's investment group, Dave Checketts, subsequently informed Limbaugh that he would not be allowed to participate in any purchase.

So much for free enterprise. So much for free speech. And so much for common sense. The NFL regularly welcomes into its midst a varied assortment of lawbreakers -- felon Michael Vick comes to mind -- but Goodell can't tolerate a controversial talk show host? Ridiculous.

Would Limbaugh be blackballed from pro football if he were a provocative liberal commentator rather than a conservative? I think we know the answer to that one.

Then, amid all the craziness and media mayhem, we were saved -- or thought we were -- by "balloon boy," 6-year-old Falcon Heene of Fort Collins, Colo., who came along as if drawn from a Harry Potter novel to make our hearts race, stop and, eventually, jump with joy.

For two hours on Thursday, the country was transfixed not by health care and Snowe, or Limbaugh and pro football, but by little Falcon and what appeared to a harrowing adventure in the Colorado sky.

Reacting to reports that Falcon had climbed into a homemade helium balloon and drifted skyward -- false reports, as things turned out -- law enforcement officials, the media and concerned Americans from coast to coast waited with bated breath for the balloon to be corralled and Falcon to be rescued.

When the balloon returned to earth, of course, we discovered that the little boy had not flown away at all but was hiding in his family's garage. Now that the balloon is down from the clouds, a cloud of suspicion hovers over the Heene family as media and law enforcement wonder if the whole thing was a publicity stunt orchestrated by Falcon's father, Richard Heene.

We may never know the truth about that one, but the debate about motives doesn't need to overshadow the good news about the story.

At the moment when just about everyone believed that a child was in danger, we all turned our attention to his plight; we all prayed for his safe return and rooted for those who set out to rescue him.

It's easy to be cynical in a world where health-care reform faces seemingly insurmountable hurdles; where even the best intentions of someone who wants to save a football team for its fans give way to partisan political reprisals; where the feel-good news story of the week could turn out to be a hoax.

But the nation's gut reaction to Falcon's story was pure and guileless caring and concern. And we should allow ourselves to take some pride in that.

Richard L. Connor is the editor and publisher of the Kennebec Journal, Morning Sentinel, and the Portland and Bath newspapers.