Amherst community group is a godsend
I write this letter to share my recent experience at Amherst Community Connections. Hwei-Ling Greeney and the workers there helped me when I was down.
They helped me get back on my feet. I want to bring attention to what they did to help me because I am grateful for it all.
I used to be middle class, then a couple of years ago I got down on my luck. I hit a rough patch. My marriage to my wife of 18 years ended. Shortly after that I lost my job and then the room I was renting.
I found myself homeless for part of the time. The rest of the time I was staying with family. This was a situation I never thought I would be in. I’m a positive and ambitious person, so this was hard for me. All I needed was a little push.
I was fortunate to have a couple of people as a support system. One of them told me about Amherst Community Connections and referred me to them.
Last December, I started going to the drop-in hours on weekday mornings at their One-stop Resource Center in the basement of the Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst. Case workers helped me with things such as searching for and applying to affordable housing, applying to jobs, and even getting my license back.
Now, three months later I am back on my feet. I have a job at Amherst College and I have a place of my own once again. I am forever grateful for what they did to help me. When life gets you down like that it is hard to come back.
I just needed a push, a little help, and that’s what they gave me. I don’t regret my experience. I am proud of where I came from and what I went through. Even today I still drop by to say hello and thank them for what they helped me to do for myself. I also stop in to visit with participants to serve as a role model and show them just what they can do for themselves.
Pedro Ayala Jr.
Amherst
A plea to Baker about gas pipeline proposals
Dear Gov. Baker, I heard that you were unable to meet with Francis Crowe of Northampton when she came to visit recently. That’s unfortunate. She has quite a lot of knowledge and understanding. Please consider her message though, and do everything in your power to stop pipelines from becoming reality in our state.
These pipelines have no place in the 21st century. Raising the solar cap does have a place. We are waiting for it to be lifted to be able to add solar to our roof.
Henry Lappen
Amherst
I read the article “Hundreds heard snake island plan” and was shocked by how negative the response was. The snakes will be put on a large island in a lake that can be seen from space. You are not allowed to swim in the Quabbin, and even if you did get onto the island, it is highly unlikely you would be bitten, as there are only going to be two snakes put onto the island per year.
Also, if rattlesnakes feel threatened, they make a distinct rattle sound, hence the name, and give plenty of warning that they will bite.
The timber rattlesnakes need a place to live. There are only about 200 left in Massachusetts, and they will almost certainly go extinct if something doesn’t change. Think of it this way: if there were only 200 humans left in Massachusetts and bears were afraid to put two 8-year-olds onto an island because they were afraid that they would swim off the island and shoot them. It doesn’t make sense.
Also, it is unlikely that the snakes would go to the mainland because they like to stay near the place of their birth. Even if they did make it out of the reservoir, no one has been bitten by a timber rattlesnake in Massachusetts in 50 years.
SYLVIE HOPE
Amherst
The writer is a sixth-grader at Fort River Elementary School.
Black Lives Matter
movement has faults
Personally, I don’t like this self-victimization campaign called “Black Lives Matter” because we are not victims!
We have the resources to build loving and prosperous communities. Besides, nationwide we kill ourselves a whole lot more than police do.
Why are there no protests about that? In fact, cops kill European Americans far more regularly than they do African Americans. And it is not an issue about who loses the larger percentage of their population group when that happens. After all, each human being counts.
If that didn’t matter, then why does anyone bother to go out and vote? Or how would Barack Obama get elected president of the United States?
Hillary Clinton says “women and minorities” all day long, instead of “women and non-European American men.”
That term “women and minorities” totally disrespects, especially African American women, because it suggests that the only real women are European American.
Why aren’t the Black Lives Matter people protesting that? It’s all a sham!
Kwame Bumpus
Amherst
March marked the one-year anniversary since Massachusetts hit the limits on solar power under the net metering program, and I’m deeply saddened to hear about the great number of projects being stalled because of this cap.
Being a northern New Jersey native, my childhood was filled with sights of the heavily polluting electric factories of Bergen and Hudson counties.
To say I was excited to move to Massachusetts, one of the nation’s largest leaders in clean energy, would be an understatement.
That being said, I’ve been deeply troubled to hear of people and businesses who are rejected the right to solar electricity for their homes and offices because the state has reached its solar potential under the net metering caps.
At a time where climate change is so prevalent and threatening to our earth, especially for states with coastal borders like Massachusetts, there is no viable reason why families and businesses who would like solar panels shouldn’t be able to install them.
It’s been a year too long. The time is now to lift the caps on solar power in Massachusetts.
Daniella Roitman
Boston
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