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By JOHN PARADIS

I’ve been doing a lot of soul searching to understand what happened to empathy as a common value in our country, a norm by which we respect and treat one another with basic human decency.

By LOIS AHRENS

On June 30, just as many of her constituents and legislators were about to begin the July 4 holiday weekend, Gov. Maura Healey announced a massive $360 million plan to “re-imagine” Framingham women’s prison. The only prison for women in the state. Seemingly, she did this with no consultation with legislators who three years ago passed a bill, introduced by state Sen. Jo Comerford, calling for a 5-year moratorium on new jail and prison building. Comerford’s bill was vetoed by then Gov. Charlie Baker. The same bill has been introduced in the current session with wide support. Healey did this despite the fact that dozens of advocacy organizations throughout the state, including the Real Cost of Prisons Project, worked for years to pass the moratorium bill. She did this despite a desperate need for investments in affordable housing.

By THE REV. ANDREA AYVAZIAN

During the 1980s, the legendary Frances Crowe and I were co-chairs of the Peace Committee of the New England office of the American Friends Service Committee, based in Cambridge. Three times a year, we got into Frances’ red Datsun and drove to Cambridge to co-facilitate lengthy meetings with peace activists from all over New England.

On Dec. 3, 2024, South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol attempted a self-coup by declaring emergency martial law. He and his wife were facing various criminal charges, and his party had only about one third of the seats in the National Assembly, the legislature. Yoon sent soldiers to the legislators’ building to prevent them from exercising their constitutional power to vote down the martial law. They still managed to vote, aided by citizens who surrounded the building to delay the soldiers. On April 4, the Constitutional Court impeached Yoon, who is currently in jail and on trial for insurrection.

By CHRIS LARABEE

GREENFIELD — The MassHire Franklin Hampshire Career Center and the MassHire Franklin Hampshire Workforce Board officially merged this month, as the agencies seek to bring coordinated, comprehensive employment services to the North Quabbin region and Franklin and Hampshire counties.

By TINKY WEISBLAT

Book Review: “The Wonder and Happiness of Being Old” by Sophy Burnham (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 256 pages)

By OLIN ROSE-BARDAWIL

In May of 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt visited John Muir, one of the most revered naturalists of his time, in Yosemite, California. Muir took Roosevelt on a three-day camping excursion through the area, hoping that exposing him to Yosemite’s natural beauty would convince the president to set aside Yosemite and other wilderness areas to be designated as national parks.

By GRACE CHAI

NORTHAMPTON — After 15 years directing harm reduction at Tapestry, Liz Whynott recently accepted a new post as senior program officer at RIZE Massachusetts Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to funding and collaborating on solutions to end the overdose crisis in Massachusetts.

By DOMENIC POLI

GREENFIELD — The end of the fiscal year coincided with the conclusion of a 39-year career at the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office, as Donna Dudkiewicz retired as the organization’s chief financial officer on June 30.

By CHRIS LARABEE

GREENFIELD — With food insecurity rising across the state and food pantries seeing their highest number of clients since the pandemic, the public is invited to a fundraising event this weekend to support local pantries.

By JOANNA BUONICONTI

Every summer, usually towards the beginning of June, my close family and I embark on a week-long excursion to the beach. The people included in this exclusive list are: my mom, my mom’s partner, grandma, my three cousins from Texas — how many of them that come each year varies — and my aunt. We cram into one house, there are bodies everywhere, and no one has nearly enough personal space.

By Hannah Bevis

On most days, Andrew Curran, better known as his drag persona Magnolia Masquerade, is a whirlwind of activity, brainstorming ideas for future shows, creating the props that will bring them to life, running the rehearsals with other drag queens who fill out the cast — but he looks almost peaceful in the hours leading up to one of his performances. Starting around 2 p.m., Curran plops himself down in front of a tiny, well-lit mirror in his bedroom to prepare for Magnolia’s performance that evening at Last Ditch in Greenfield. Abba and a mix of show tunes plays quietly as a gentle breeze wafts in through his open window, sunlight streaming in the room.

By TINKY WEISBLAT

Jonathan Lash of Northampton has had a fascinating life. He has been a Peace Corps volunteer, a practicing attorney, an environmental advocate, and a president of Hampshire College.

By CARRIE N. BAKER

Americans today face an existential threat to our democracy and our rights, but not for the first time. In the past, Americans have transformed similar threats into opportunities to realize bold and ambitious new visions for America. We must now do the same.

On June 18, the Supreme Court decided United States v. Skrmetti, one of the most important transgender rights cases to be heard by the court. The court ultimately decided to uphold a decision by the Sixth Circuit banning gender-affirming care (GAC) for minors, regardless of parental consent. Of great consequence was the court’s finding that Tennessee’s law (SB1) does not discriminate on the basis of sex and thus necessitates only a rational basis test (as opposed to heightened or strict scrutiny). The court thereby rejected the Equal Protection argument to protect access to GAC.

Recently, nearly 200 donors, legislators and media representatives toured our Emergency Department (ED) at Cooley Dickinson Hospital (“Cooley’s new ‘front door’ on display,” Gazette, June 7). Our long-awaited project, which is being completed in phases, expands the ED by 40%. It features new equipment, more private rooms and a floor plan designed with patients in mind. Earlier this year, we opened a dedicated space to provide a calm, healing environment for those needing mental and behavioral health support. Additional ambulance bays await our region’s EMS teams as they bring patients to our ED. The new addition opens in July and renovations in the existing ED continue through early 2026. Our ED is open throughout the project.

By BILL NEWMAN

Last Saturday, “No Kings Day,” saw large demonstrations in Northampton, Easthampton, Greenfield, Springfield, Shelburne Falls, Sunderland, Cummington, Pittsfield, Amherst, Granby, Williamsburg, Ashfield, Orange and Boston. They were among the more than 100 protests in Massachusetts and over 2,100 across the country in cities and towns, big and small. The common denominator? Devotion to resistance and the fervent hope, if not always the firm belief, that we can mitigate, if not totally prevent, the fascist takeover of the United States now in progress.

Don’t go to Scandinavia (Sweden, Denmark, and Norway) unless you want to be shocked by how advanced and better off they are than us, especially now. We just returned from a trip there. While I know there are big differences between our countries, and that they also have challenges too, we could still learn so much from them. Stockholm — no trash or dog poop anywhere to be seen. A person on our tour got sick and two hours later a doctor came to our hotel and wrote her an antibiotic prescription so she could rejoin the tour a couple days later.

By JOHN BERKOWITZ

I think it’s urgent that the current negotiations end the war in Ukraine soon, even if Ukraine has to make some territorial concessions and stay out of NATO. If we keep helping Ukraine escalate — such as its recent drone attacks on Russian bases housing nuclear-armed strategic bombers, and last year’s attack on Russia’s early-warning radars that damaged three out of a total of 10 — it will only bring even more suffering and devastation to Ukraine, while risking an unimaginably worse WWIII/nuclear war with Russia.

Testimony I submitted to the Massachusetts Joint Committee on the Judiciary, June 3, 2025 in support of H.2052/S.1178: An Act to Reduce Mass Incarceration. Twenty-five years ago, when I began the Real Cost of Prisons Project, I naively thought if people understood the real costs of mass incarceration to people imprisoned, their loved ones and their communities and the hundreds of millions of dollars we pay yearly to keep people caged, they would see that this state-run, outrageously costly system harms, not helps, everyone involved.

By DOUGLAS J. AMY

One of the main things that separates Republican politicians from Democratic ones these days is that the Democrats seem to still care whether people live or die. Not so much the Republicans. The fact is that the way Donald Trump and the Republicans are slashing vital government programs will inevitably result in the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans — and many more abroad.