Editorial: Slow fight for rights

When California voters approved Proposition 8 in 2008, it became government policy in the nation's largest state to discriminate against people who want to marry others of the same sex. On Tuesday, that retrograde law was struck down by a federal appeals court's 2-1 ruling. It said passage of Proposition 8, by 52 percent of the vote, served no purpose other than to "lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians ... and to reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples."

Column: White people's burden: Learning, not shying, from anger over bias

AMHERST - I can't get tacos off my mind. The city of East Haven, Conn., has been embroiled in controversy, primarily because four city police officers were recently arrested by the FBI on charges of deprivation of rights and obstruction of justice for waging a campaign of harassment against Latino citizens. The cherry on top occurred when a television reporter asked Mayor Joseph Maturo, "What are you doing for the Latino community today?" and he responded, "I might have tacos when I go home. I'm not sure yet."

Amy Pybus: How should an adult address youth's racism?

EASTHAMPTON - The other day before school I heard an eighth-grade boy drop the n-word. He didn't know I was close enough to hear him, or I doubt he would have said it. And I didn't reveal myself to him, I just listened. I didn't want to run over and say, "Never use that word!" until I heard what the context was.

Coolidge library, museum a potent tourism tool

To the editor:

The Jan. 16 guest column by Sasha Nyary and your recent editorial about the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library and Museum brought out an issue I pointed to during my campaign to become a Northampton city councilor: lack of knowledge and promotion.

Occupy movement just getting started

To the editor

Occupy Wall Street's road trip came to town last week and a free showing of short films on the Occupy movement packed the Academy of Music. Northampton's own Sut Jhally from the Media Education Foundation produced the DVD.

Correction

NORTHAMPTON - An engagement announcement for Sarah Feldman of New York, N.Y., and Jeffrey Rothenberg of Hadley in the Jan. 28-29 Gazette contained an error. Rothenberg's employer, Sigma Chi Foundation, is based in Evanston, Ill.

Editorial: Believing a victim

She said. And then he said. In the end, after relatively quick deliberations, a Hampshire Superior Court jury accepted the prosecution's narrative of a man who used his position of influence as a mentor to lure a 14-year-old girl into sexual acts to which she was too young to consent.