Connecting the Dots: Float on Eventide’s harmonic raft

By JOHN BOS

Having now lived 31 years longer than my father, I celebrated much of my 88th birthday in silent contemplation. And in reflections of my eight-decade journey on this planet. My awareness of dying has become ever more present since surviving a melanoma...

Genevieve Clare Bird: The olive trees lost

Palestine is not flames, it is the beautiful water of the ocean. Palestine is not the blood the world ignores. Palestine is the fruit trees, the olive trees that grow as old as love. Palestine isn’t weak, Palestine is a strong culture full of love and...

Don Ogden: Ageism threatens the future of our democratic republic

“The years teach much which the days never know.” — Ralph Waldo EmersonIn many cultures around the world, cultures far older than what we have here in the United States, elders are held in high regard. Their experience and knowledge serve to guide...

My Turn: A disconcerting February

By JUDY WAGNER

 If April is the cruelest month (T.S. Eliot), February must be the most disconcerting. After an inordinately gray January, punctuated by only one noticeable snow, and just one brief stretch of single-digit temperatures overnight, we were left...

Columnist Russ Vernon-Jones: A win for the climate

By RUSS VERNON-JONES

For the last two months I’ve written to you about the U.S. becoming the world’s largest exporter of climate-destroying gas and oil; about the fossil fuel industry’s plans to vastly expand these harmful exports; and about a campaign to stop them by...

Jim Bates: The EV party is over

The climate activists in our valley have been partying like it’s 1999, RIP Prince. Our illustrious new governor recently announced $50 million to built EV charging infrastructure across the state. What’s wrong with this picture?State revenues fell for...

Ann Darling: Dangers of nuclear power still in our midst

I am grateful to Sam Lovejoy for his 1974 weather-tower-toppling civil disobedience that brought the risks of nuclear power into public awareness in western Massachusetts, and I appreciate the front-page placement of your article about it [“Play it...

My Turn: Water, the lifeblood of the world. 

By CAROLE GARIEPY

I had two experiences that made me actually see what a vital substance water is. I saw how being hydrated makes a difference to both life and land, a lifesaving difference.A few years ago, Gerry came in from outside confused, not able to function...

My Turn: When will the president be elected ‘by the people’?

By THE REV. LLOYD PARRILL

The preamble of U.S. Constitution begins beautifully: “We the People of the United States … do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”We the people. It should be so simple. The term “democracy” literally means “the...

Mary Kay Mattiace: A Franklin County wonder

Hooray for the New England Learning Center for Women in Transition (NELCWIT)!Hooray, hooray for the Ja’Duke Center for Performing Arts!!Doing a fundraiser for such a critical and worthy cause is magnanimous — all proceeds went to NELCWIT. Doing a...

Judy Atkins: Support Medicare for All 

In the article, “Nursing students meet with Legislators,” (Recorder, Feb. 13) one of the students from the GCC Nursing School class asked the legislators what nurses can do to drum up support for Single Payer Health Care — also know as Medicare for...

Linda J. Donaldson: Mike Pence, Liz Cheney are ‘truth-loving patriots’

“It is up to us, in our time, to choose wisely between the hard but necessary task of preserving peace and freedom and the temptation to ignore our duty and blindly hope for the best while the enemies of freedom grow stronger day by day.”“Let it never...

Shel Ball: Hydro plant’s deadly impacts on fish and the river

Water is life. FirstLight’s Northfield Mountain Pumped Storage (NMPS) is life-killing.In his recent column, Karl Meyer encouraged us to read Dr. Alex Haro’s comments to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) regarding the Flows and Fish...

My Turn: Will men organize to end gun violence?

By ROB OKUN

How many ears must one man haveBefore he can hear people cry?How many deaths will it take till he knows thattoo many people have died?— Bob Dylan, “Blowin’ in the Wind”It’s been six years since the Valentine’s Day massacre of 14 students and three...

My Turn: A power in hands that work

By JOHN SHEIRER

Last summer, I asked my boss about taking some time off to address a medical issue. “As the human body ages,” I said, “strange things happen.” We laughed.“You must have lots of sick time saved up after working more than 30 years,” he said. I showed...

My Turn: GCC effort turning elders into ‘Cyber Seniors’

By JUDY RAPER

It would be an understatement to say that our world is becoming increasingly digital and the pandemic has only accelerated this shift. The reality is one uses digital skills to pay bills, access health records, watch television, connect socially,...

Allen Woods: Diversity of opinion requires willingness to write

For years, and more often recently, I have read complaints about the Recorder’s columnists and their politics. Most have suggested that there are too few conservative viewpoints represented and that most regular writers come from one particular...

David Goldstein: Death penalty makes liberals sad

According to columnist Bill Newman, “Someday we will abolish state-sanctioned killing of our fellow human beings. Someday.” [“The illusion of kinder, gentler executions,” Recorder, Feb. 5.]I hope he’s wrong. The death penalty makes liberals very sad....

David Blais: Thank you Franklin County residents

I recently attended a show at the Ja’Duke Center for the Performing Arts called “Resilience Rising.” The show was a benefit to raise money for New England Learning Center for Women in Transition, an organization that helps women in crisis. The show...

Jennifer Richardson: Nuts and not so nutty

MAGA — the right-wing conspiracy nuts who are unhappy with the status quo in Washington, D.C. Well, not really.I mean, if you think “right-wing” means wanting lower taxes for ordinary Americans who are sick of sending half their income to government...