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Pat Hynes ends her July 8 column (“Human-made problems can and must be unmade”), which advocates stopping the use of all fossil fuels, with the question, “Why aren’t we doing it?” The answer is provided in a recent Vaclav Smil report: “To eliminate carbon emissions by 2050, governments face unprecedented technical, economic, and political challenges, making rapid and inexpensive transition impossible.”

Picture this: you’re in the grocery store, a few years in the future. The shelves in the produce section are sparse — wilted lettuce, knobby potatoes, and withered corn look like the best options. Apples, oranges, and bananas have disappeared entirely. And your cherished coffee beans? You’d have to take out a second mortgage to afford them.

The westbound lane of West Street (RT 66) where it branches off from Main and Elm Streets has been completely closed to traffic several times over the last few weeks, without any prior warnings, notices or detour signs in place. How long will these disruptions continue? Are we getting a little taste of what the Picture Main Street project has in store for us? The residents, visitors and people just passing through the city deserve better.

A hopelessly stupid political cartoon appeared in the June 25 Gazette. In it, a 35-year-old version of Donald Trump has slain the huge dragon of “Iran’s Nuclear Threat” and a Schumer-like donkey is nattering at him for it.

Gazette columnist Olin Rose-Bardawil’s June 13 column [“Calling out a ‘monstrous’ war”] was 792 words long, but he unfortunately never wrote why there has been a war in Gaza for over 600 days. Isn’t it because 1,200 innocent Jews living their lives, farming, attending a music festival etc. were brutally raped, maimed and killed? With what, a couple hundred more taken hostage? No words about that? The column states, “At this point in the war, it is almost as futile to claim that the destruction of Gaza and an ethnic cleansing aren’t the ultimate goals of the current regime.” Which sounds exactly like what Hamas leaders say — they are for the total destruction of Israel. We are lectured but no words about the similarity?

The Republican “One, Big Beautiful Bill” that has stormed through Congress is an omnibus bill that would adversely impact the lives of working-class Americans. Among the ways this legislation will impact Americans is in higher education access. In a misguided effort to slash government spending to address some very real issues of fiscal responsibility, Republicans have proposed changes to financial aid eligibility and Pell Grant allocations that would make it even harder for working students to pursue a bachelor’s degree. The bill proposes increasing the threshold for students to be recognized as full-time and thus receive adequate aid, this would be disastrous for working students who need to constantly scramble with limited time to meet credit requirements.

By MARIEL E. ADDIS

Last month, I had a dinner date with two trans women friends of mine. One of the women is a couple years older than me, the other two years younger. Each one of us transitioned from male to female in our 50s.

A new executive order by Donald Trump directs the Department of Veterans Affairs to eliminate two categories of patients from being protected from discrimination. For the first time, medical doctors, psychologists, physical therapists, chiropractors, and other health providers can refuse care to individual veterans based on their political affiliation, union activity, and marital status. The motivation for these changes can only be nefarious and is a threat to our democracy.

Regarding John Berkowitz’ June 16 guest column calling for Ukraine to stop defending itself and capitulate to Putin’s criminal aggression [”Ukraine War — If we don’t face the music, it could blow up in our faces”]. Putin could unilaterally end this war today by calling a cease-fire, retreating to internationally recognized borders, and respecting self-determination in sovereign nations.

By BETHANY ROCHON

I am writing in response to the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle our education system as we know it. Per the National Education Association (NEA), Donald Trump’s proposed education bill includes $4.5 billion in cuts to K-12 schools alone and $12 billion in cuts total to the Department of Education. While these cuts will do far more than reduce the number of mental health providers in schools (which is the very inevitable outcome), as a prior school counselor, that is the focus of my attention in this letter.

I’m writing to express my deep concern about HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s recommendation to stop giving Covid vaccines to pregnant women and babies. His policy is not just unkind — it’s dangerous.

By MICKEY RATHBUN

John Smith likes it when people stop outside his house, a lovely Carpenter Gothic on a quiet street in Florence, to peek at his garden through the fence. “I tell them, ‘Come on in and have a look around,’” he said. On June 14, Smith will invite the public to come in and look around his eye-catching garden. It’s one of six local home gardens on this year’s Northampton Garden Tour.

I am writing to add my voice to the chorus of community members who are appalled by the treatment of Evelyn Harris by Smith College. I have known Evelyn as a fellow musician, mentor and a dear friend for over 10 years. Evelyn’s many exceptional gifts are well known. But what is even more remarkable than her amazing gifts is how she has shared them with us for decades, and for very little material reward. To publicly brand this incredibly talented and generous member of our community with the academic conceit of “plagiarism” is both ridiculous and shameful.

Those who drive the streets of Northampton, both residents and non-residents, are totally fed up with the state of the roads throughout the city. I for one frequently drive roads trying to avoid having a tire blown by ever deepening potholes that have remained unfixed for weeks, months and even longer. I thought last year was bad but this year is the pits!

By RUTHERFORD H. PLATT

As a “senior citizen” myself, most of my older friends and mentors are dwindling away. On Tuesday evening, May 27, a longtime role model and friend, Alexander Polikoff, passed away peacefully in Keene, New Hampshire at the age of 98 with his family at his side. Although I saw more of Alex at our monthly lunch and conversation visits over the past three years than previously, I have known and admired him as a brilliant and tenacious civil rights lawyer since my early career as a fledgling environmental lawyer working in downtown Chicago in the late 1960s, near his public interest law firm.

By JOHN PARADIS

President Trump and his MAGA movement don’t own patriotism or the American flag. Both belong to all of us.

Thursday evening a small crowd of mostly senior music fans were waiting for the doors to open at the Parlor Room for singer-songwriter John Gorka. The forecast had said no rain. So, of course it decided to rain. Light, then heavy. Some had brought their umbrellas, many had not. My wife was trying to stay a little bit dry under the scant cover of a tree. A gentleman came walking by, with his umbrella. He paused, then walked over and handed his umbrella to my wife. And then walked away on down the street. Simply donating his umbrella to my wife. After the show, I left his umbrella on the front porch of the Parlor Room, hoping he might walk by and see it. Thank you sir. Your act fit perfectly with Gorka’s music.

By MARIEL E. ADDIS

In 2016, I told a woman I first met in 1987, and married five years later, that I would be transitioning to female. It had been a rocky nine years since I first came out, and, at the time we had been separated for nearly three years. In return, I was told that I would lose far more than I’d ever gain by transitioning to female.

By CAROLYN BROWN

“Tell Her This,” a podcast sharing women’s stories, will have a live show at Bombyx Center for Arts & Equity in Florence on Friday, May 23, at 7 p.m., preceded by a show featuring live stories told by local women at 7 p.m. the day before.

Before attending the March 2025 production of Hadestown at Northampton High, I consulted my classical mythology anthology and read the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. The production exceeded my high expectations. It was excellent. I had so much fun. The ending of the play, however, left me wanting this version: As the couple near the end of the journey from the underworld, Eurydice stubs her foot and involuntarily cries out. Orpheus, on hearing her distress, involuntarily turns around to see if she needs his help. That breaks the oath: his goodness, not jealousy. The moral is we cannot escape our reflexes, no matter how much we’d like to think we can.