My Turn: A stroke of good luck

By BILL NEWMAN

I initially decided to not talk about this except with my family, closest friends and work colleagues who needed to know. But I changed my mind. If hearing about my experience might save someone’s life or future, well, that consideration should far outweigh any potential embarrassment or some random unkind comment. Let’s start at the end.

My Turn: No better time to ‘think globally, act locally’

By PEYTON FLEMING

Think globally, act locally.There’s no better time to act on these inspiring words than today. Especially when it comes to supporting local farmers who are reeling from heavy-handed budget cuts and a global trade war imposed by the Trump administration.

Columnist Daniel Cantor Yalowitz: Why we can’t give up on DEI

By DANIEL CANTOR YALOWITZ

Black Lives Matter. Yes, they do, and they should — without condition. All lives matter; there is no changing that sacrosanct truth. Despite all that this presidential administration seems to believe in and act on, the mattering of all humans is paramount in our democracy — no ifs, ands, or buts. That Donald Trump and his cronies cherry-pick who’s “in” and who’s “out” is an activated insult and outright affront to all that most of us believe and covet.

Elizabeth Lareau Whitcomb: Violence affects us all, knows no party lines

I am writing in response to the recent letter to the editor about Democrats and gang members [”Democrats and gang members,” April 24]. I agree with the writer that it is sad that no Democrats stood up to acknowledge the profound grief this woman is experiencing over the murder of her daughter. But I feel compelled to point out that the Republicans have time and again been uncaring towards victims of gun violence, in particular the mass shootings that have taken place in so many of our schools. I would also like to point out that it has not been proven that any of the men sent to the prison in El Salvador were gang members, indeed that there is no evidence that they are, regardless of what President Donald Trump and ICE officials have been saying. The fact that these men were denied due process means that no connection to gangs will ever be proven.

The World Keeps Turning: Attention — A day doesn’t count as a day anymore

By ALLEN WOODS

Nearly all social thinkers (including the artificial ones of AI) emphasize that functioning, peaceful societies must agree on a group of shared meanings for communicating. These include gestures (a handshake, hug, tip of the hat, tap on the heart, etc.), images and symbols, and spoken and written words. They are “the glue that holds society together, enabling individuals to understand each other, cooperate effectively, and build a cohesive and vibrant social life.”

My Turn: Picture This — Why the National Endowment for the Arts is essential to American life

By MADELINE MILLER

Shortly after 7 p.m. on Friday, May 2, I received an email from the National Endowment for the Arts notifying me that Artspace Greenfield’s current grant in support of our community gallery had been terminated. This grant had helped fund our gallery for roughly a year so far, offering new and emerging Franklin County artists an opportunity to exhibit in a professional setting, and increasing the amount of art on view for local people to experience.

My Turn: A dream of Donald Trump and Anne Frank

By RUSSELL PIRKOT

I had a dream the other day, and I want to tell you about it. I’d been reading The Diary of Anne Frank, which I do on occasion. I keep a copy of it on my nightstand, along with some other books that I find myself drawn back to, again and again. And lately, with everything in the news about Donald Trump and his authoritarian ways, I felt the need to revisit Anne Frank’s writing from the “Secret Annex.”

James A. Marples: New pope must continue where Pope Francis left off

Having family near Greenfield, I read the Greenfield Recorder news item: “‘A pope of hope’: Local Catholic community remembers Pope Francis,” (Recorder.com, April 21). As a Roman Catholic myself, I was saddened to hear the news of the recent passing of Pope Francis at age 88. He was indeed a kind and compassionate Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. The word ‘pontiff’ literally means “bridge builder.” He was. Pope Francis reached out with the hand of friendship to everyone. I hope the voting members of the College of Cardinals would selected a successor in the same vein or mindset. If the pendulum swings back toward a rigid, dogmatic pit-bull style of Benedict the 16th, the worldwide Catholic Church would suffer a throwback to the ugly dark ages. Pope Francis knew he had a royal mess to clean up. The clergy sex-scandals which cost the sale and foreclosure and bankruptcies of dioceses was appalling. In my view, the faithful parishioners who attend a church Mass should not have their tithes (or investments from tithes ) to pay-off wrongdoing. The guilty priest or bishop who abused or covered-up needs prison-time. The other major scandal that was on the road to being fixed was the dubious Vatican Bank, which had amateurish priest running the show with sticky-fingers and shoddy accounting procedures. Millions of euros were unaccounted for from Rome to London. Francis was a breath of fresh air. Continue that.

My Turn: Make America small again

By DAVID PARRELLA

There has always been a sentiment in our country to get small.

My Turn: Fear about the future of medicine

By JOANNA BUONICONTI

Two weeks ago, the life-saving medication that I receive three times a year was injected through a spinal tap into my cerebrospinal fluid. Call it women’s intuition, but my mom and I both had the feeling that something would be different this time. It could’ve been because the last injection I had in December was particularly brutal due to the build-up of scar tissue that had formed in the area of my spinal canal that they typically drill into. The doctor who does the drilling could feel the scar tissue and see the amount of pain I was in.

My Turn: The hopeful math for saving democracy

By ROB OKUN

Think resisting authoritarianism is too big of a lift? Think again. This spring, while the U.S. resistance movement may not be in full bloom, it is blossoming.

Guest columnist William Lambers: V-E Day inspires peace heroes

By WILLIAM LAMBERS

In the early hours of May 7, 1945, most people in the United States were probably asleep, but their prayers were being answered far away. For at 2:41 a.m., German forces surrendered at General Dwight Eisenhower’s headquarters at a schoolhouse in Reims, France. The horror of World War II in Europe was over.

My Turn: The Greenfield Public Library matters more than ever

By MITCH ANTHONY

When I moved to Greenfield in the 1970s, downtown could have been a scene from a Norman Rockwell painting. Parking was free on Friday nights, and the stores on Main Street stayed open late. Boys bought their first ties at Bartlett’s Men’s Store, and picking up a mail order at the Sears catalog store was a routine errand for everyone. Sullivan’s Drugstore would even stay open just for you if you couldn’t make it before their usual closing time.

Sherrill Hogen: Conflating anti-Israel activism with antisemitism

I wish we could trust the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to be tracking true antisemitism and not anti-Israelism. Likewise I mistrust State Sen. John Velis’ intentions in creating the Special Commission on Combating Antisemitism. For these reasons I am disturbed by the May 1 front page article in the Recorder, “Antisemitic incidents remain up,” with the subtitle, “Reports climb most steeply on college campuses.”

Tom Tolg: Columnist’s message sincere

I got behind on reading the Recorder so this comment may be a bit dated. I saw a recent column stating that columnist Al Norman’s concern about the possibility of ADUs growing at an alarming rate represented the “politics of fear.” Bringing up fear is awfully weak sauce.

Helen Gibson Uguccioni: Goldman for Montague Selectboard

I support Marina Goldman running for the Montague Selectboard. A write-in campaign for her election is in the works for the May 20 special election.

Pushback: One ‘absentee dwelling unit’ for everyone?

By AL NORMAN

“Massachusetts has had a housing crisis for decades.”

My Turn: ‘You gotta see this’

By RUTH CHARNEY

They were headed down Route 91, almost to Deerfield, when he says, “You have your ID right.”

Steve Minkin: Starvation and protests

In protesting the calamities of Donald Trump, we risk becoming indifferent to the plight of Palestinian children. UNICEF reports, nearly 10,000 are experiencing acute malnutrition and among them many are suffering from “severe acute malnutrition.” This is only the tip of the iceberg of what is becoming a disastrous famine. In all our rallies and protests we must make it clear that America needs to stop supporting genocide and that protesting the starvation of children is more than a free speech issue. It is a defining challenge to the moral fabric of our society.