My Turn: Fight climate change, not each other

By LENORE BRYCK

Why would eco-climate activists throughout Massachusetts challenge the siting of industrial solar installations on forests and green lands? Their focus is precisely climate healing, not impeding solar development. But witnessing severe damage by big...

Mike Naughton: Let’s use the scientific method instead

Recently, nuclear physicist Andrea Pocar wrote of watching “Oppenheimer” and coming away hopeful that it might prompt productive public discussions about the scientific method and how it can best be used to solve societal problems [‘“Oppenheimer’ sets...

Charles Arthur Green: Green for assessor 

Paying for city government should be fair, but property taxes are based on assessments which can be manipulated. An excellent example is abuse of the permitting process — check out the Recorder.com articled entitled “Greenfield residents, officials...

Barbara Buschner: His own petard

It was not a happy day for me when I found out that Donald J. Trump won the 2016 presidential election. In my political view, there have been a lot of unhappy days since, devastatingly unhappy. Many who do not share those sentiments are continuing to...

Paki Wieland: Why I protested at Northfield pump station

I appreciate the Recorder’s coverage of our blocking of the tour bus to the Northfield Pump Station [“Protestors temporarily block tour bus,” Recorder, July 27]. My rationale for joining other protesters there last week will give further weight to our...

Patricia Sanville: Excitement growing for fair parade

Folks! It’s that time of the year again. I’m writing about the Franklin County Fair Parade. In the early part of July a theme goes out to everyone to interpret. The theme this year is “Larger than Life.” Everyone has their own interpretation of what...

Kathleen Perez: Fireworks and veterans

Last Saturday, my husband and I were enjoying an evening of beautiful weather. Air conditioner off, windows wide open, fresh air blowing through the house. Then “they” began. Fireworks.We groaned. My husband and I have two dogs who are terrified of...

Christa Chevalier: Dissatisfied with first experience at new library

As I read today’s column “Celebrating us and our new library” [Recorder, July 31], I must say how disheartened I am to not be able to share in these feelings of celebration and accomplishment in our new library. I voted for the building of the library...

My Turn: Sinéad’s sins

By J.M. SORRELL

Honesty. The sin of telling the truth when no one wants to listen. When the brilliant and incomparable Sinéad O’Connor died on July 26, rapper and actor Ice-T summed it up perfectly: “Respect to Sinead. She stood for something. Unlike most people.”On...

MaryDiane Baker: We have a moral imperative to relieve suffering in Yemen

As columnist William Lambers marks the 70th anniversary of the armistice in Korea, I think of my dad, who was the radioman for a colonel in Korea [“Eisenhower’s gift to Korea after the armistice,” Recorder, July 27].Critically short on funds, the...

Laurie Woodward Garcia: Mosquitos worsened by climate change

The article [“They’re like ‘vampires’: Heavy rains, warm temperatures cause mosquito excess,” Recorder ,July 31], offers an essential reminder of why mosquito control is necessary to help reduce the spread of mosquito-borne diseases. But the article...

My Turn: Learning more about nuclear weapons

By SUZANNE R. CARLSON

Watching the film “Oppenheimer,” I resented the sound and visual distractions and the lack of the horrors of the effects of atomic/nuclear weapons on the people and environment around the New Mexico test site (July 16, 1945) and those of Hiroshima and...

My Turn: ‘Protect and restore nature’

By FRIENDS OF CONTE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

This summer’s epic flooding up and down the Connecticut River watershed, from the hillsides of Vermont to the low-lying farmland and neighborhoods in Massachusetts and Connecticut, is simply astonishing. Gurgling little brooks, once just a few inches...

My Turn: Thanksgiving in the sweet summertime

By JUDY WAGNER

Ah, Thanksgiving! It’s my favorite holiday of all, even though in recent years we have rarely celebrated with family. Kid schedules, work responsibilities, travel hassles, limited vacation and other challenges (like pandemics) lead us to plan other...

Columnist Daniel Cantor Yalowitz: Celebrating us and our new library

By DANIEL CANTOR YALOWITZ

“Libraries are … a place to gather that focuses its role on the social infrastructure which enables libraries to help fight inequality, polarization, and the decline of civic life…” — Eric Klinenberg, Palaces for the People (2018)“Libraries are … a...

Allen Woods: Apology for misleading words

I want to apologize for the phrasing used in my “The World Keeps Turning” column of July 22 [“Footing the bill for college”]. As several readers have pointed out, I left the impression that I didn’t value young people learning a trade and that...

Jeremy Williams: Making comparisons — The cost of student loans vs. military

If you’re the type of person who has a little jealousy towards student loan forgiveness, here’s a better way to look at it. Since this country is in a really bad way right now, wouldn’t you think if you took some stress off of some of people it would...

John Lund: Thoughts on cartooning

Because I was devastated about a comic strip that I really liked that only ran one year back in the mid-1980s, comic strip related memories from much of the 1980s and through the 1990s are painfully bad for me, with the 2000s at least only somewhat...

Walt Gorman: FirstLight protesters should have been arrested

The protesters who call themselves Connecticut River Defenders are a menace. These activists should’ve been arrested for blocking tour buses from entering the Northfield Mountain Pumped Storage Station [“Protesters temporarily block tour bus,”...

Sia Stewart: Responding to climate change must be a top priority

Phil Korman, Claire Morenon and Margaret Christie spell out very clearly the losses farmers are sustaining from this summer’s extreme weather [“Farms, floods, and climate change,” Recorder, July 25]. Amid the details of the heartbreaking damage and...