Opinion
David Gilbert Keith: No time machines
I watched the “Back to the Future” movies with my son many times because he really liked them. For those unfamiliar with the trilogy, “Doc” Brown has made a DeLorean car into a time machine.In “Back to the Future II,” we go to a future America where...
Lois Barber: What a Trump presidency would mean for the environment
Project 2025 provides a detailed description of what a Donald Trump presidency would mean for environmental concerns. Although not yet official policy, Project 2025, put together by the right-wing Heritage Foundation with authors including former...
Jones Library campaign: ‘Amherst’s Living Room’ well worth support
Public support is strong for Jones Library renovation and expansion project. Here’s why.The project remains a singular opportunity to provide the library and community center that area residents want and need. With new bids due at the end of October,...
Guest columnist Matteo Pangallo: MCAS testing requirement imposes constraints, not standards
By MATTEO PANGALLO
It is difficult to imagine a more condescending and erroneous take on Question 2 than the one Ed Lambert of the Boston-based pro-business group Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education attempts to articulate in his Oct. 5 letter [“Weakening...
Guest columnist Joseph Levine: Will brutal campaign to remake Mideast work this time?
By JOSEPH LEVINE
After a year of a genocidal campaign in Gaza in response to the Al Aqsa Flood attacks of Oct. 7 and the recent escalation in Lebanon and beyond, it’s a good time to assess where we’re at, how we got here, and where we’re going.Immediately before the...
Courtney Cullen: Ditch trunk or treat
Trunk or treat ruins Halloween, and I’ve come prepared to back that up. As a child of the ‘80s, there was nothing more exciting than Halloween night. I grew up in a mid-size neighborhood in Appalachia full of a community of ghoulish enthusiasts. I’m...
Guest columnist Robin Goldstein: Listen to our restaurant workers and save their livelihoods by voting ‘no’ on Ballot Question 5
By ROBIN GOLDSTEIN
Imagine this: a high-paid, Ivy League-educated lawyer and nonprofit executive from Los Angeles shows up in Massachusetts and claims that our restaurant workers are being paid a “sub-minimum wage” that’s below the state minimum wage. To solve this...
Brooks Ballenger and Josna Rege: Support the Haitian Bridge Alliance as it fights a racist disinformation campaign
J.D. Vance and Donald Trump have been traveling the United States attacking Haitian American immigrants with disinformation and racist fantasies. According to the nonprofit Haitian Bridge Alliance, a grassroots immigrant advocacy group that has filed...
Darcy Dumont: What sustainable downtown Amherst design can be
By DARCY DUMONT
In the last month, Amherst officials have been inviting the public to weigh in on downtown design standards.Listening and visioning sessions were held and a survey was made available to residents. Because an Amherst downtown of the future will have...
David King: Hamas resistance cannot be overcome with violence
Why this obsession with Hamas? I must admit I was confused by the column “Victory for Hamas, tragedy for the Palestinians” that appeared in the Sept. 23 Gazette. Although the increasingly popular elected authority Hamas, through its military wing the...
Stephen Armstrong: The wages of hate
The United States is within, what? — 20,000 or 40,000 votes of electing an utterly unfit man to be president. Millions of us despise him, but no matter what happens, win or lose, we will have to make compromises along the way, no matter how righteous...
Richard S. Bogartz: What do they see in him?
By RICHARD S. BOGARTZ
There are right-wing conservatives whose dog-eat-dog view of society is so repugnant that I’d never want to discuss politics with them, and yet whom I respect for their rejection of Donald Trump. Dick Cheney is an example. It isn’t that long since my...
Judy Pozar: Auditing the Legislature a ‘waste of time and money’
Ballot Question 1 — to allow the state auditor to audit the Legislature — sounded simple and reasonable enough at first. Then I read the Majority Report in the red “Information for Voters” booklet — a real eye-opener. While the current state auditor...
Guest columnist James Lescault: Amherst Media — A violation of community trust
By JIM LESCAULT
In my 17 years as executive director of Amherst Media, I committed and honored the promotion of free speech for all. This ensured community access to equipment and training in communication technologies; the documentation and conservation of...
Columnist Darcy Dumont Local and Green: Amherst, 2030, the new paradigm
By DARCY DUMONT
Editor’s note: This is part one of a two-part column. The second part will appear in the Nov. 8, 2019 edition of the Bulletin.The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report makes it clear that we must cut our emissions 50% by 2030...
Local and Green columnist Darcy Dumont: Amherst 2030, the new paradigm II
By DARCY DUMONT
Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part column. The first part ran in the Oct. 10, 2019 edition of the Bulletin. What follows is a vision of Amherst in 2030, when there is widespread support for “the new paradigm” of green living.It’s 2030 in...
Anna Nagurney: Kudos to the Easthampton Fire Department and to all blood donors
Thanks to Gazette reporter Alexa Lewis for the excellent front-page article on shortages of blood in our region, and thanks to the Easthampton Fire Department for their community blood drive in partnership with the Baystate Health Blood Donor Program...
Julie Caswell: Vote ‘yes’ on CPA funding to restore, upgrade 1888 Building
I am writing to encourage all Deerfield residents to vote “yes” at the Oct. 7 Town Meeting at 6 p.m. to approve spending Community Preservation Act funds to restore and rehabilitate the historic 1888 Building (the old Grammar School on the corner of...
Jon Nelms: What happened to free speech?
What was most gratifying about university students protesting genocide last spring was that their concern was based on their empathy for people who aren’t one of us, rather than for our troops or spending priorities, as has been the case with past...
Lili Dwight: Deerfield — Finish housekeeping on senior housing
I write to urge my fellow Deerfield residents to vote “yes” on Article 6 at our Special Town Meeting on Oct. 7. This is the final housekeeping step to create senior housing in Deerfield. The vote is not for or against senior housing — we already...
