My Turn: Who doesn’t want to use a walker?

By RUTH CHARNEY

Granddaughter on phone: “She’s really mad.” Daughter: “I hear her. She’s yelling.”Son on phone to sister: “What a jerk.”Grandma J: “I hate it … It’s … red. I hate it red. Send it back.”Grandma Judy is older than me and I am old. She has survived...

Louise Amyot: Time to get involved

With a new city government team newly inaugurated, hope is in the air so it seemed a good time to check out the city’s opportunities for us to get involved. A quick look at the greenfield-ma.gov website showed an impressive list of openings for...

Theodore Moser: Fear and humanity

In 1933, in his first inaugural address, Franklin Delano Roosevelt asserted, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself …” Fear can paralyze and radicalize. George Creel and Edward Bernays used the Committee on Public Information to prove this...

Elaine Fronhofer: Medicare Advantage policies put profits over people’s care

Al Norman’s Jan. 2 column “Medicare Advantage, and disadvantages” focused on an issue that other local activists, including Valley Action and allied Indivisible groups in New York, have been hard at work on for nearly a year. Thanks to his...

Esme Franklin: Column unfairly targets women

In response to Daniel Brown’s column, “Why are feminists silent about Oct.7?” Recorder, Jan. 4, the writer’s generalized accusation that feminists are committing violence against the Israeli women brutalized on Oct. 7 (or at the very least, that women...

Connecting the Dots: Climate crisis Christmas

By JOHN BOS

This Christmas past I found myself searching for light at the end of the climate crisis tunnel. It was during the week of the shortest day and longest night of the year, a time when ancient holy people lit “yule logs” to push back the darkness and...

The World Keeps Turning: The myths of the Midwest

By ALLEN WOODS

It’s near the end of pandering season in my home state of Iowa — a political season rather than a meteorological one, also occurring in New Hampshire and other states every four years. Suddenly, for a short period, a few states are awash in...

Karl Meyer: Choices in our democracy

“We the People.” Those words have defined ourselves, our collective rights and freedoms since the Constitution was signed in 1789. Though its source is unclear, I’ve always believed, “With great freedom comes great responsibility.” As the 2024...

Todd Damon: Trump is not Hitler

I feel like we are living in increasing dangerous times. The “stop Trump at all cost” movement, fueled by hate, continues to escalate its attacks on the former president.We are now being told, around the clock, that Trump is a Hitler. The same man...

My Turn: Death of children too high a price

By CLAUDIA LEFKO

The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child issued a statement on grave violations of children’s rights in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory on Oct. 13. “We reiterate that the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) requires States...

My Turn: The heartbreak of addiction

By SUSAN AVERY

Dear Son: My December birthday came and went last week. I thought I might’ve heard from you, but I did not. And then came Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and as family and friends gathered at home to celebrate, there was something missing; I didn’t...

Guest columnist Gene Stamell: Imagine no opinions

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 impact...

My Turn: Our tax dollars being used for death, destruction

By KATHERINE GOLUB and STACEY SEXTON

As elected officials representing the people of Greenfield, we face the very real needs of our community every day.Fourteen percent of Greenfielders live below the poverty line. Our schools face an untenable fiscal situation leading to cuts in...

Peggy Warwick: Column on falls sent important message

Thank you Jim Johnson for the column on fall prevention [“Don’t fall,” Recorder, Jan. 2]. It was good to see it included in the sports section, a place where sports fans and many readers of all ages scan the headings. The tips to strengthen the legs...

Gordon Koncal: A job well done

I want to give a "well done" to retired Marine MSGT Jeffery Cochran who works at the VA office there in Greenfield. My brother’s veterans grave marker had an error on it that needed to be corrected. I live in North Carolina and submitted the corrected...

Danielle Miller: Timing of column irksome

It’s so typical of the Recorder to print a pro-abortion My Turn on the first day of the new year. Couldn’t you have at least waited until Jan. 2?Danielle MillerDeerfield

Michael A. Phillips: Money well spent

I’d like to address a couple projects that deserve some recognition. Kudos to MassDOT District 2 for its hard work and long hours excavating and pouring new sidewalks along Sugarloaf Street back in the Spring. With a short time frame and many bad...

My Turn: Why are feminists silent about Oct. 7?

By DANIEL A. BROWN

In 2017, in reaction to the revelations about the sexual misconduct of Harvey Weinstein that led to the creation of the #MeToo movement, feminist activist Eve Ensler (“The Vagina Monologues”) wrote the following: “I’m over the passivity of good men....

Philip Carter: Leverett housing column missed details 

In a Dec. 29 guest column, writer Michael Seward suggests that opposition to the proposed housing development in Leverett is racist and immoral (“Leverett housing a counter to injustice”). However, he neglects to describe the project being proposed.It...

Brian Smith: Why are we destroying ourselves?

I love my spaceship. It’s so fragile and I wish to leave it better than I received it. What say you? This all could end in a minute and we are so oblivious to it.Why are we fighting and not helping? We think we are creators but all we do is destroy....