My Turn: Honey bee decline is not the same as pollinator decline

By MARY WESTERVELT

The May 3 Recorder’s front-page article, “Beekeepers report 1.6M colony loss,” reports a worrisome decline in honey bee colonies. However, the article gives the erroneous impression that bee colony loss equals pollinator loss. This is not the case.

Kate Lawless: New round of Biz-M-Power grant funding available

Thank you for your article on the Biz-M-Power grant recipients by reporter Madison Schofield in the May 16 Recorder (“Local businesses get funding boost”). Biz-M-Power is a great program run through MassDevelopment’s Growth Capital Division. Applicants featured were required to work with one of several organizations statewide, such as the Franklin County CDC, to submit applications and set up a crowdfunding webpage. We were proud to work with most of the businesses featured in the story who were able to raise funds to grow their operations. So many great success stories!

Nina Keller: Do better for our firefighters

Our firefighters take care of us. Courage to confront ultimate hazards is unique to first responders. We reciprocate by trying to assure adequate funding for safety equipment and the means to avert conflagration.

My Turn: Expectations of a president?

By MARIE BARTLETT

Dear Trump Supporter: Maybe you voted for Donald Trump because you are worried about immigrants coming across the border illegally, or staying here long after their visas expire.

My Turn: Sturm and Drang

By MARGUERITE MORRIS WILLIS

All of my life I have loved fiction as learning and teaching tools, starting with Nancy Drew. Within that genre of books I am grateful that my granddaughter insisted that I read Harry Potter. In fact now we have a book club of two who are reading a fantasy series, Book 1 in the Poppy War series by R. F. Kuang.

Conor M. Power: Not normal and will not end well

I am 82 years old and an independent voter. I have seen and lived under many presidents, some excellent and some that did not live up to America’s ideals. I can state quite unequivocally that Donald Trump is the most corrupt and inept president that I have ever encountered. I say corrupt because witness his creation of a crypto meme coin that allows anyone in the world, who curries Trump’s favor, to purchase his meme coins (essentially bribes) whose name Trump knows but remains unknown to the rest of us. Or consider Trump’s recent Truth Social message: “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT” right before he paused his tariffs. Marjorie Taylor Greene made a killing and Trump bragged about how his billionaire friends made millions. Or take these ruinous tariffs where exemptions can be purchased with a “donation” to his inaugural fund. Just ask Tim Cooke of Apple who gave a million and received an exemption for iPhones.

Donald Moskowitz: Rebuild our Merchant Marine

President Donald Trump plans to revive the U.S. maritime ship building industry, including levying tariffs and fees on Chinese ships entering American ports. Now Congress must pass the SHIPS Act, which will increase our shipbuilding capacity and hopefully the size of our Merchant Marine. It also could provide economies of scale and expertise to rebuild our Navy.

Judith Truesdell: Birthright citizenship

The May 16 article titled “Supreme Court could uphold birthright citizenship” raised an issue unrelated to the case itself, which was, when or if federal district court judges can issue injunctions for the entire country to pause implementation of presidential executive orders until the cases are settled at the highest level.

As I See It: Right is left and left is right

By JON HUER

Nowadays, you ought to feel like Rip Van Winkle: If you had gone to sleep on Trump’s Inauguration Day and woke up today, you wouldn’t recognize your own America you see. What used to be a slow, boring continental drift in political affairs is now an avalanche every day.

My Turn: Paths to advocate for just and humane treatment of immigrants

By JUDSON BROWN

The Trump administration’s aggressive and highly publicized campaign to deport “undocumented criminal aliens” has swept up non-criminals and fully vetted refugees and documented temporary residents in its dragnet.

Lois Barber: Embodying the life and teachings of Pope Francis

Throughout the world people are honoring the life of Pope Francis who was both a spiritual and political leader. He called on all of us to make it a priority to protect the environment, provide justice for all, especially the poor and marginalized, and to work for peace. In our country flags flew at half-mast in his honor. But to truly honor Pope Francis, it is not enough to lower our flags, light candles, and bow our heads. May we all reflect on and be guided in our actions by the Pope’s words and deeds.

My Turn: Everyone is entitled to due process

By ISAAC MASS

I am a lifelong Republican. I am considering running for Franklin County Sheriff as a Republican in one of the bluest counties in one of the bluest states. Even though we have not had a Republican candidate for sheriff since 1992, I believe it may be possible, because I think that most people know that I am fiscally conservative, socially progressive and committed to reasonable compromise and the rule of law. I think for myself and have no problem standing up to Republican leaders when they do the wrong thing.

My Turn: How wealth and privilege prevent much-needed housing

By MICHAEL SEWARD

Amherst College blithely contributed to the housing shortage in Amherst. That was the takeaway of a recent Gazette article about the liberal arts college’s request to demolish two historic properties, which, according to the article, was purchased to prevent a housing development by outbidding private housing developers with $4.3 million in 2003. It’s an astonishing case of wealth and privilege preventing the construction of much-needed housing, regardless of the detriment to others, while irresponsibly allowing two historic homes to fall into a state of disrepair.

Rachael Cowan: Medicaid HCBS needs your support

Most of us will become disabled at some point in our lives. Whether through accident, illness, or simply old age, we will all join the largest minority in the U.S. For decades, institutionalization was standard for people with disabilities. Conditions were commonly squalid, overcrowded, and abusive.When the deinstitutionalization movement gained momentum in the 1960s and 70s, we developed support systems to help people with disabilities live on their own.

Genevieve Harris-Fraser: The Zionist agenda

There is no doubt that Oct. 7 was brutal and demoralizing for the Israelis. What was especially shocking was that Palestinians finally fought back. It took them 75 years to retaliate, but they finally did. Before 1948, the land that is now called Israel was called Palestine, even when under various empires’ control. But after 500 Palestinian villages were massacred and 750,000 Palestinians were driven off their land and out of their homes by predominantly European-origin Zionist forces, it took the Palestinians (not Arab countries) 75 years to mount a serious retaliation. How dare they? Don’t they know their place? Didn’t the decades-long brutal occupation teach them anything?

Rowan Redman: If you want to use oil, use it on a different planet!

Oil is polluting our land. It’s making it so that it’s hard to grow crops in some places, and also because it’s polluting our rivers, and it’s causing global warming.

Vivian Valle: Don’t kill bugs

Mosquitoes, fruit flies, lovebugs, and cockroaches all have something in common. They are all bugs. Or I could say, all humans kill them. I think that killing bugs is wrong because, first of all, some bugs are pollinators and pollinate our plants, and second of all, the spiders eat these bugs and it keeps them alive. So, in my opinion, you should never, ever kill bugs.

Ramona Brewster: Protect the ocean

I think we should protect our oceans because the sea animals are eating the trash, and some are dying. One thing I think would help is using cardboard containers instead of plastic ones.

My Turn: The Palestinian Arab encounter with Zionism

By CARL DOERNER

Over time, I have gotten to know many Palestinians. Like Jewish people I’ve known, they tend to be bright, inquisitive, and informed. Palestinians often prove generous beyond their capacity to be so. The incredibly sad, hard fact is, were it not for the emerging dominance of aggressive Zionists among Jewish leaders before World War II, their $35 million pre-war transfer agreement with the Nazis to scuttle global boycott of German goods, and their horrific aggression when they invaded Palestine after the war, they precluded any peaceful outcome — for the foreseeable future.

Rory Fern Catao: Save our oceans!

I know you probably don’t want to listen, but listen to this. Stop using cars, they created climate change, which means oceans can rise. I mean they are rising. Why do cars make pollution? They use gas, which pollutes the air. My opinion: I think if we start using electric cars and walk or bike when it’s nice out and you aren’t hurt, then we could slow down climate change, which means no ice melting!