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By RAZVAN SIBII

Last month, my column was an end-of-the-year top 5 list of hypocrisies that poison our current discussions about the migrant crisis at the southern border [bit.ly/3RLgE6s]. I think I got more emails about that column than about any other I’ve written...

By GREG REYNOLDS and JESSE PORTER-HENRY

Saying that we were moved barely begins to describe how we felt on Jan. 8 when student after student spoke on educators’ behalf at the Hampshire Regional School Committee meeting. Current students, recent grads now in college and those who are into...

By CYNTHIA LORING MACBAIN

For 32 years, I was a volunteer with the Alternatives to Violence Project in New York State maximum security prisons: Sing Sing, Elmira, and the last years in Auburn Correctional Facility.A mantra among men incarcerated for violent crimes is “A man’s...

By ROB OKUN

Let’s start with some basic assumptions: 1) Israel is not Jewish — just as the U.S. is not Christian. 2) Palestine is not Muslim. 3) Hamas perpetrates heinous acts, puts civilian lives in peril, and regularly violates the “rules” of war. 4) Israeli...

By DANIEL CANTOR YALOWITZ

“True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.” — Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Stride Toward Freedom (1958)The wars that rage around the world are not only to be found elsewhere, beyond our soil and nation. Yes,...

By BILL NEWMAN

This is scary. The number of books being banned in school libraries is spiraling upward. Nationwide, for the 2022-2023 school year, PEN America substantiated 3,362 school book bans that targeted 1,557 unique titles. That’s a 33% increase from the...

By MARK REYNOLDS and LINDA BUTLER

As we reflect on a year of unprecedented weather events, we must move into the new year embracing a diverse mix of power options to protect Americans from blackouts and climate extremes.While Massachusetts escaped the worst of the U.S. heat waves this...

By BOB NAGLE

According to Frontiers in Psychiatry, 3.06% of people living with bipolar disorder experience psychiatric hospitalization. Upon awakening, I found myself emotionally mired in a wellspring of despond. What happened? My life of strife...

By KAREN GARDNER

It’s the Name That President game show! And you, our contestants, are here to show your mettle and knowledge by matching the correct president to his statements and accomplishments. What fun!In today’s game, you have a choice between President X and...

By IYKO DAY

I would like to respond to Jonathan Kahane’s guest column of Dec. 29, “Haunted by questions with no good answers.” His column presents a series of rhetorical questions as a conceit to disguise his ideological defense of Israel’s genocidal bombardment...

By DR. MATTEO PANGALLO

In his Dec. 22 letter, ‘The fallacy of gun control,” William Aherin repeats without qualification certain assertions he made in a similar letter in June 2022 — namely, that gun control “doesn’t work.” As in the previous letter, the writer does not...

By JOHN SHEIRER

Four years ago, my column in this newspaper predicted that Donald Trump would lose the 2020 presidential election. Readers who opposed Trump told me, “I wish I had your optimism,” or “That’s what you said in 2016,” or “His crazies have gotten worse...

By GENE STAMELL

One morning, a number of years ago, I found myself standing in line at a Starbucks counter.The woman in front of me was screaming into her phone, arguing about what seemed to be a rent dispute. Obviously irate, she was completely unaware of her...

By MARIEL E. ADDIS

My mom passed in 2008 at the age of 70. She had suffered for a number of years with early-onset Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s and had been in nursing home care the last years of her life.I had come out as transgender to my wife a year and a half before...

By JOHN HAAG

I am writing in support of John Berkowitz’s recent column, “End the war in Ukraine before it ends us” [Gazette, Dec. 4].In recent years, the world has witnessed the tragic conflict unfolding in Ukraine, a crisis that has caused immeasurable suffering...

By LYLE DENIT

There is much talk these days, including in letters to the Gazette, about whether it is time for the United States to push Ukraine towards a cease-fire with Russia. Their counteroffensive did not go as planned, the front lines are not moving much, and...

By CLAUDIA LEFKO

The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child issued a statement on grave violations of children’s rights in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory on Oct. 13. “We reiterate that the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) requires States...

By J.M. SORRELL

Last month I wrote a column about fighting all forms of antisemitism. I have written a few columns about misogyny as an insidious and acceptable form of oppression in many societies including ours. Over the years, I have had this nagging feeling that...

By MARIETTA PRITCHARD

Have I mentioned that I read the obituaries in the Gazette every morning before I start my day? Does this sound depressing? I don’t find it so. It somehow anchors things for me.I can learn about people in my community and about how they or their...

As of 2023, there were 31.2 million elders enrolled in private Medicare plans, known as “Medicare Advantage.” For the first time, that’s more enrollees than in the “Traditional” Medicare program. Seniors choose these private companies because they see...