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By PATRICK O’CONNOR

There is a crisis in Holyoke’s public schools. Each year, a classroom-sized group of students with learning disabilities drops out. These students are then more likely to be arrested and jailed on Holyoke’s streets. Although unintentional, we are...

By JONATHAN KAHANE Now that some of the dust has settled since my last guest column [“Haunted by questions with no good answers,” Gazette, Dec. 28], I will take this opportunity to try and rectify distortions that were submitted in letters during the...

By JOHN P. DIBARTOLO JR.

I have long resented and resembled the pejorative characterizations of liberals made by conservative news media pundits. I am a real-life Volvo-driving, oat milk latte-drinking, composting/recycling, vegan, atheist, feminist, Liz Warren-voting trial...

By DAVE KING

Here we are again, another Martin Luther King Jr. Day, when we all look forward to legions of politicians trotting out MLK’s “I have a dream” speech to remind us we should be striving together in harmony for a world where all peoples can enjoy our...

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 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 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 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...

Dr. LYNNETTE WATKINS

To members of our community: As we approach the conclusion of 2023, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the journey we have shared this year and provide you with an update on recent developments at Cooley Dickinson Hospital. This year has been...

By The REV. JULIE G. OLMSTED

In the Sermon on the Mount in the Bible, Jesus tells his audience: “Take out the log in your own eye before you can expect to remove the speck in your neighbor’s.”It is a friendly (and somewhat comical) admonition to discipline oneself not to judge...

By ERIC COCHRANE

Two years ago, before I moved to Somerville, a neighbor asked my thoughts on development in western Massachusetts. I have pondered the question, and have concluded that mixed-use development, when built densely and with universal design in mind, is a...

By JONATHAN KAHANE

Last week I ran into a woman I know from town in our local library. I stopped to say hello and to wish her and her family a happy holiday season. At one point during our conversation, she asked me what the subject of my next column in the Gazette...

By THE REV. PETER KAKOS

Since you must know that hundreds of thousands of displaced women, children, and elderly of war-ravaged Gaza face cruel, imminent deaths due to starvation and infectious disease brought on by the relentless bombardment by the Israel Defense Forces,...

By MOLLY ARONSON, AVIV NISINZWEIG and KAIA JACKSON

What do we do with all our pain? On Saturday, Dec. 16, we walked.More than 500 of us — American and Israeli Jews, Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim community members, antiwar activists, allies — in a 25 Mile March for Palestine.Over the course of 14...

By MICHAEL STEIN

As a political theorist I think about democracy more than most, and this fall, as an incumbent running for re-election to the Northampton School Committee, I had an intimate view of our local political culture. What I observed was a vague yet vocal...

By MATT L. BARRON and JON WEISMANN

On Dec. 11, the U.S. House passed the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act, legislation to require Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) to disclose drug rebates and discounts, revealing what they pay drug makers for prescription drugs. The bill would also...