Opinion
Columnist Cheryl Zoll: Family planning network at risk
By CHERYL ZOLL
Congressional lawmakers in Washington may have backed off their drive to repeal the Affordable Care Act, but they are certain to consider other harmful policy changes and funding cuts that could limit women’s access to reproductive health care and the...
Editorial: Towns free to go their own way with broadband
It doesn’t happen often enough, but last week common sense prevailed in state government.The Baker administration, saying it heard the pleas of 40 rural towns in central and western Massachusetts, has essentially stepped out of the way to allow those...
Columnist Jay Fleitman: Sanctuary city advocates protect criminals
By JAY FLEITMAN
Synonyms of sanctuary: refuge, haven, retreat, safe place, protection, asylum, shelter, hiding place, immunity from pursuers.San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, New York, and our own Northampton and Amherst, liberal communities all, have...
Editorial: State supports GCC goal to train students for success
Area residents who want to find well-paying work in the tech field have gotten a leg up from the administration of Gov. Charlie Baker.Greenfield Community College recently received nearly $500,000 for advanced skills vocational training and related...
Marvin J. Ward: Urges leaders to stand up for what is right
Urges leaders to stand up for what is right A letter published March 20 puzzled me because the writer said that he was waiting for the “curtain to rise” on the Trump show/circus.I, and most of us who voted for the popular victor in the election, are...
Columnist Bill Newman: Constitution reading inspiring, disheartening
By BILL NEWMAN
The Preamble begins, “We the People.” The evening of March 26, a large group gathered at the Haymarket Café in Northampton to read the United States Constitution and its amendments. The thought was, we talk about the Constitution a lot but we actually...
Editorial: ‘Deal-maker’ Trump fails as president
As Donald Trump wraps up his first 10 weeks in the White House, it is clear that the braggadocio he employed as “the closer” in negotiating real estate deals does not play well as president.The other two branches of government dealt Trump humiliating...
Columnist Gloria DiFulvio: Americans have ability to effect change
By GLORIA DIFULVIO
In Aesop’s fable, “The Boy who Cried Wolf,” a shepherd boy repeatedly tricks villagers into believing a wolf is attacking their sheep. Alarmed, villagers run to the boy’s aid only to find he had made up the story.Everyone wants to believe the boy...
Louis Triggs: Must seek shared sense of nationhood
Must seek shared sense of nationhood The recent international shift to populism of the right is motivated by a dangerous, outmoded kind of nationalism that must be replaced with newfound reassurance and all-inclusive faith in a global progressive...
Marc Silver: Big not better, and may be worse
Big not better, and may be worse Friday’s illogical editorial (“Support Amherst school plan”) extols the “mega-mania” that periodically grips Amherst, as the town too frequently confuses size with quality. Two of our grandchildren attend a beaten-up,...
Merriam Ansara: Shame on US for its own meddling
Shame on US for its own meddling What’s extraordinary is not just our pain but our surprise to think that the Russians meddled in our elections. After all, we are known to have meddled in the elections of Chile in the 1970s, in those of Iran in the...
Stephen Hartwell: Derek Kellogg had desire to coach at UMass
Kellogg had desire to coach at UMass No matter who UMass ends up hiring to coach its men’s basketball team (“Kelsey backs out, coach search resumes,” March 24), there is one thing Derek Kellogg had that they will not: a true desire to actually coach...
Editorial: Trump news keeps getting weirder
Two-thirds of the way through President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office, the news just keeps getting weirder and — for those who cherish the rule of law and reason — more disturbing.FBI Director James B. Comey told congressional...
Columnist Don Robinson: Experiencing a political revolution
By DON ROBINSON
There have been two great presidents in American history: Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. We can learn a lot from studying how they became great presidents.First, they were preceded by a parade of nonentities, men who staggered blindly...
Amy Greeman: Demand that Congress strike down Trump’s budget
Demand that Congress strike down Trump’s budget Donald Trump’s inhumane budget cannot pass. He allocates $54 billion more for war, while slashing lifesaving programs here and around the world.Millions of people around the world are now threatened by...
Barbara Kelly: World needs lemon law for presidents
World needs lemon law for presidents What I see is Trump using the kind of dishonesty I have heard from a used-car dealer. But with Trump the purpose appears to be to hoodwink a nation’s people while he trashes the place in order to serve the...
Editorial: State a leader in farm-to-consumer sales
Massachusetts has long been on the cutting edge of enterprises ranging from education and biotech to changes in our health care system. But there’s another home-grown enterprise that the state is cultivating that is more down to earth –...
Natalia Muñoz: Time to leave gracefully, President Obama
By NATALIA MUÑOZ
President Obama finally found his muscle on Israel, dispatching the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations to draw a line against the expansion of Jewish settlements on Palestinian lands. Then Secretary of State John Kerry explained why the U.S. cannot...
Columnist John Sheirer: Learning that we're all Trump's victims
By JOHN SHEIRER
Growing up, I attended a tiny Lutheran church near our family farm. During a Christmas service four decades ago, as our beloved pastor was delivering another soft-spoken sermon about kindness and grace, thick sheets of snow thundered down the pitched...
Editorial: Battle against opioid abuse must continue
Despite advances made in Massachusetts during 2016 in battling opioid addiction, much work remains to be done in combating this nationwide blight.Last March, Gov. Charlie Baker signed what he called the most comprehensive law in the United States to...
