Opinion
Guest columnist Anthony Fyden: A new voice on the Hadley Planning Board
By ANTHONY FYDEN
What will Hadley look like in five years, or 10? What kind of town will we leave our families and the next generation? I believe that Hadley is at a crossroads, and I’m running for Planning Board to help chart a path forward. Like other western Massachusetts towns, Hadley is facing immense pressure — much of it generated from Boston — to reshape our communities, to conform to a vision driven largely by state politicians. We’re being forced to bear the brunt of economic, housing, and energy crises that we did not create and that we’re not in a position to fix. I believe that the residents of Hadley should drive decisions about our future, not state politicians who rarely, if ever, set foot in town.
Guest columnist Gene Stamell: The struggles and redemption of the semicolon
By GENE STAMELL
I don’t know about you, but I love a well-placed semicolon; it evokes a sense of drama, an air of anticipation of things to come. Yes, the human race could survive without this punctuation mark, but at what cost? Let us pause briefly (a bit of semicolon humor) and consider the situation.
Guest columnist Peter Demling: Pathways to peace
By PETER DEMLING
The world is in a difficult place today, to say the least.
Local and Green: Energy independence needed to keep us safe
By DARCY DUMONT
At the outset of the COVID 19 epidemic, I wrote that towns need to be resilient to climate impacts in addition to the impacts of a global pandemic. We hadn’t foreseen the extent of the pandemic and it opened our eyes to imagining other risks that might come in the future. Around that same time, towns in the commonwealth created Municipal Vulnerability Plans to address our potential economic, infrastructure and societal risks and vulnerabilities to climate change. Many of the risks identified in those plans would also exist in other potential catastrophes. An example is Amherst’s plan.
Ben Palkowski: Freedom until the end
One thing I enjoy most about being an estate planning attorney at Old Colony Law is that feeling in the room when our work with a client is complete. Clients have the confidence that their loved ones are protected and that their estate plan now gives the full force of law behind their personal wishes. If you do not have an estate plan, however, then you leave it to the commonwealth to decide how your assets are distributed upon your death; your family could have to pay more taxes; and a court could appoint someone to manage your finances and health care.
Dr. Kate Clayton-Jones: Support home care for elders
If you are an aging adult with needs in home care, or you are caring for a loved one who wants to remain at home, you should support Gov. Maura Healey’s proposed supplemental budget (H.4003) for FY25 which includes $60 million to help address the deficit in FY 2025 funding for the State Home Care Program. It would allow caregivers to be compensated while caring for a loved one.
Jeanne Armstrong: It is time to be counted
Phone call from my frothingly irate, 84-year-old brother. “Trump is cutting off funding to Harvard. You can’t do that to one of the best universities in the world!” says this graduate of Stanford. “I’m sending a donation. What address shall I use?”
Guest columnist Jack Czajkowski: Great gains in climate change work, much more to do
By JACK CZAJKOWSKI
Five years ago, then Hadley Selectboard member Christian Stanley got approval for and began the Hadley Climate Change Committee (HCCC) in our town. The first few meetings took place just as the COVID pandemic began and with a handful of fellow citizens we joined together and began brainstorming what we could do to make our town buildings be more energy efficient.
Columnist Johanna Neumann: Let wildlife roam — An important new wildlife bill can help reconnect critical habitat
By JOHANNA NEUMANN
Humans are great at building things, but it’s also beginning to dawn on us that these impressive and sometimes magnificent structures also impact the other creatures that we share this earth with.
Guest columnist Tom Waskiewicz: Roots of wisdom — How small farms preserve their way of life in western Massachusetts
By TOM WASKIEWICZ
Small family farms are more than businesses; they are a way of life, shaped by generations of experience, sacrifice, and resilience. Every field plowed, every seed planted, every harvest gathered carries with it the wisdom of those who came before. But there’s no handbook for passing down this knowledge. Instead, it happens in the quiet moments — side by side in the fields, in conversations at the kitchen table, in the habits formed over years of hard work.
Connie Kruger and Susan Tracy: Support Jones Library renovation and expansion
We have always been in favor of the Jones Library renovation and expansion. We think the improvements to the HVAC system and teh climate controlled space for Special Collections alone make it a worthwhile project. The addition of dedicated children’s and tenn space, in addition to the expanded ESL space and teh new display space for teh African American Civil War tablets, speaks to those citizens in our community whose interests and needs can be easily overlooked. The fact that the renovation doesn’t use fossil fuels and advances the building to a net-zero structure gives it another great advantage over the current structure.
Eli Tannenbaum: Fighting money in politics: Democracy’s overlooked challenge
As pro-democracy protests spread across Massachusetts and the nation, many still overlook a primary ailment of our broken democratic system: in today’s elections, the candidate with the most money almost always wins. Campaign finance reform seems impossible, especially since the 2010 Supreme Court decision, Citizens United, which ruled corporate spending limits unconstitutional. As a result of Citizens United, political power in America has shifted dramatically towards wealthy corporations and billionaires. Americans on all sides of the aisle have lost trust in our democratic process — a February poll found that 72% of Americans see money in politics as a “very big problem,” more than any other issue polled.
Benjamin G. Clark: McGovern’s complacency a reflection of our failing system
U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern’s complacency and inaction felt less like a personal failure and more like a symptom of the Democratic Party itself. Instead of providing clarity or hope, the recent town hall at UMass Amherst on Wednesday seemed to be just another reason to disengage from the dire state of American politics completely.
Guest columnist Kristin DeBoer: Let’s stand together for the valley you love
By KRISTIN DEBOER
Guest columnist U.S. Sen. Edward J. Markey: Fighting for our farmers
By U.S. SEN. EDWARD J. MARKEY
Western Massachusetts farmers are used to facing and overcoming challenges — from late frosts and damaging storms to droughts and soil erosion, and more. What they’re not accustomed to is the president of the United States standing in their way of earning a living and bolstering our local economies.
Stephen Armstrong: Bird flu, RFK Jr. and the price of eggs
If I had one wish for government officials (not that I have only one), it would be that they understand exponential equations.
Frances Henry: Ignorance on parade
In today’s news is announced widespread elimination of an “alphabet soup” of divisions and programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Georgia. When government agencies and scientists are categorized as alphabet soup, I know ignorance is on parade. Eliminated has been the Division of Violence Prevention, part of the injury center at CDC. I know the people wielding power do not know, nor do they care, about the leadership of this division across all forms of violence from suicide to elder and child abuse, domestic abuse, sexual violence.
Guest columnist Ryan Voiland: Slashing of farming, food support senseless
By RYAN VOILAND
The following speech was delivered by Ryan Voiland at a farmers’ rally opposing cuts to USDA and other federal programs that are negatively impacting farms and agriculture in the region and around the country. The rally took place on Sunday, March 23 in front of Hadley Town Hall.
Guest columnist Shalini Bahl: Beyond boycotts — Mindful spending’s real impact
By SHALINI BAHL
Elisa K. Campbell: Thoughts on driving through Northampton
Recent discussion in the Gazette about the Main Street project causes me to think it may not be too late for me, a non-Northampton resident, to comment. I live in Amherst. I shop occasionally from a few stores in Northampton; more often, I go there to cultural events at the Forbes, or the Academy of Music, Look Park or Smith College.
