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By CHRISTI PAYNE and GREG DARMS

My husband and I moved to New England from Oregon five years ago, not knowing for sure where we would end up, and fortuitously landed in Shutesbury. We could not have chosen better than this forested rural hilltown we now call home.One of the very...

By JOANNA BUONICONTI

Ever since I was a little girl, I have had these life goals instilled in me: to go to college, graduate with a high GPA and find a job. It’s hard to articulate how completing these milestones has been tied to my sense of self-worth because they have...

By SUSAN J. TRACY

In addition to the recent carnage in Nashville, last spring 18-year-old shooters in separate incidents killed 10 adults in Buffalo, New York, and 19 children and two adults in Uvalde, Texas, 10 days apart. Both shooters were using semiautomatic...

By MICHAEL DOVER

Dear President Biden:I congratulate and support you on your decision to run for reelection. The legislation and policies you have implemented are already strengthening the country economically, environmentally and morally.However, the extremist MAGA...

By U.S. REP. JIM MCGOVERN

Last month, House Republicans brought to the floor H.R. 5 — a bill I call the “politics over parents” act, which would supercharge book bans like the ones Gov. Ron DeSantis has imposed on Florida and bring them to states across America, including here...

By SARA WEINBERGER

On the first Sunday in February, I ascended the steps of New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, bought my ticket, and headed for an exhibition that friends had urged me to see. “Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield South Carolina,”...

By ROB MOIR

Massachusetts officially declared April 24 as Right Whale Day to raise awareness about the endangered. North Atlantic right whales, the state’s official marine mammal.Right whales have been coming to Cape Cod Bay in April for as long as there has been...

By TOLLEY M. JONES

“What upon Earth is the matter with the American people? Do they really covet the world’s ridicule as well as their own social and political ruin?” — Frederick DouglassI am still so tired.I am tired of having so many upsetting and horrible things...

By RANDY KEHLER

My partner Betsy and I have often been referred to, usually derisively, as “tax resisters,” or “tax refusers,” which implies that we are people who refuse to pay all taxes, across the board. In fact, we’ve always paid all of our state and local taxes....

By JOHN PARADIS

First impressions are important.“I know what I don’t know,” says Dr. Jon Santiago at a recent meeting with veterans as Gov. Maura Healey’s secretary of veterans’ services, a newly created cabinet-level position.Santiago approaches this new chapter in...

By GENE STAMELL

I need a new cellphone. My iPhone 8 is more than just six generations old; it is cracked and crotchety, begging to be replaced. And, unfortunately, I am wedded to purchasing iPhones. I have used Apple products, exclusively, throughout my...

By JAMES LEVINE

‘Childhood trauma.” We hear these words so often that they’ve lost any kind of concise meaning. Virtually all children confront disturbing experiences, and rates of their diagnosed mental struggles have increased significantly, but not every one of...

By ROB OKUN

“Until people start to go into the streets and protest, we’re not going to see the changes … If you don’t have the people rising up, like what they did with civil rights, like what they did to end the Vietnam War … If you don’t have that,...

By JOANNA BUONICONTI

Five mornings of the week, I am awakened by the sound of soft footsteps echoing around my bed. They serve as the preamble for moments later when my nurse of the day peels off my sleep mask covering my eyes, allowing the morning sunlight to temporarily...

By RENEE SEACOR and JOHN MAGURANIS

City dwellers take many forms. In Boston and cities across Massachusetts, hundreds of different species call our cities home, including foxes, raccoons, bald eagles and coyotes.It’s surprising for most urban dwellers to learn that species such as...

By ALAN KANNER

Two months after President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, here is another address and it is essential that another State of the Union be heard. Ladies and gentlemen, I want to inform you that the State of the Union has weakened. Not since the...

By RUTH CHARNEY

‘Our death panel is meeting,” we tell each other, with a sly smile. Thinking it’s sort of funny, sort of nice, sort of not nice. After all, it’s our four adult kids we’re talking about.Our kids wanting to be strategic, ahead of the game. Although we...

By NANCY HAZARD

Recently, five high school students talked with folks gathered at Episcopal Church of Saints James and Andrew in Greenfield. Each person eloquently shared their story of when they became aware of climate change, their fear and anxiety about it, and...

By CARRIE N. BAKER 

March is women’s history month — a time to remember and celebrate the important contributions women have made to American history. As a professor at Smith College, I have in recent years been helping to recover the story of a nineteenth-century...

By RUTHERFORD H. PLATT

Amid the deluge of political, war, and economic news, a new report from Antarctica caught my attention: Floating pack ice surrounding the frozen continent has shrunk to the smallest extent since monitoring by satellite began in 1979.As reported in The...