Stop the double standard and tell the truth about Ukraine

By ALLEN J. DAVIS and TOM WEINER

The first casualty of war, as many have noted, is the truth. This war is no exception.Why was it acceptable for the U.S. to give an ultimatum to the Soviet Union to remove its missiles from Cuba in 1962, thereby almost igniting a nuclear holocaust?...

Forests and grasslands needed to feed humanity 

To combat climate change and feed humanity, we need both forests and grasslands. Forests and grasslands both provide critical ecosystem services — like storing carbon and providing wildlife habitat — and both deserve protection. Grasslands are...

My Turn: Why we mark International Respect for Chickens Day

By KIM CLARK

Thursday, May 4 is International Respect for Chickens Day! This day was declared in 2005 to promote compassion and respectful treatment of chickens and other domestic fowl.Before you begin to guffaw at a day dedicated to fowl, please take a minute to...

Guest columnist David Gottsegen: As war rolls on, support for Ukraine must continue

By David Gottsegen

With the approaching anniversary of Russia’s unprovoked onslaught on Ukraine, I think back to the Dec 5 column in the Gazette by the Rev. Peter Kakos on “defusing Ukraine.” He wrote of his hopes for an “irenic” peace, a hope that “both warring...

My Turn: In the fight against logging, conspiracy takes the (profitable) reins

By KATE LINDROOS CONLIN

The Massachusetts-based Partnership for Policy Integrity has been a vocal opponent of wood harvesting on public lands. They believe that ceasing to harvest wood would “expand our natural forests’ ability to store carbon.” This, of course, assumes that...

Farmland for food not lights 

There are positive ways to satisfy our needs for renewable energy, food, and forest carbon sequestration.Just as it is counter-productive to attempt to reduce climate change by logging carbon-sequestering forests, in order to build large solar arrays,...

My Turn: White Christians still taking native children

On Nov. 9, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case challenging the constitutionality of the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), which gives a preference for Native American people to foster and adopt Native American children. The lead...

Pushback: A resolution to abolish home equity theft

By AL NORMAN

Tonight, the Greenfield City Council may take the first step towards ending an unconstitutional state law that has come to be known as “home equity theft.”Massachusetts is one of only 13 states that allows home equity theft. In Alabama, Arizona,...

Cellphone pouches are a bad idea

By Eve N. Bogdanove

Facebook is exploding about Superintendent Christine DeBarge’s decision to buy Yondr pouches to control student cellphone use.Here’s what parents are saying: It criminalizes student behavior rather than responding to needs. It show a lack of real...

Who is on our currency and why?

One dollar bill — George Washington (1732-1799).  He was commander of the Colonial Army in the Revolutionary War with England to gain our independence (1775-1783).  Washington was our first President of the United States of America (1789-1797).Two...

Speaking Out with Carrie N. Baker: State law should recognize coercive control is domestic abuse

By Carrie N. Baker

When the Connecticut mother of five Jennifer Dulos left her husband in June of 2017, she sought a restraining order against him. A judge denied her request because she could not show he physically abused her.In May of 2019, as she returned home from...

Post Offices serve as lifeline

It is a great honor to serve Bernardston as your new Postmaster. In my years with the United States Postal Service, I have seen firsthand the role the Postal Service plays connecting neighbors and our community to the nation. Our Post Offices serve as...

My Turn: Correcting the record: Shays Rebellion was no Jan. 6

By DANIEL BULLEN

With the anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection, Michael Steele and Miles Taylor published an article on MSNBC that invoked “Shays’ Rebellion” as a historical precursor for the insurrection, but these two events have very little in common, and come...

My Turn: More research needed on industrial solar arrays

By DEVLIN SELMAN

Not all industrial solar arrays are a “sunny” great thing. Large solar companies such as Nexamp offer “too good to be true” incentives for landowners to lease their land and build a solar “farm” to capture the sun’s energy so they can do “good!” We...

My Turn: Ben Franklin repented owning slaves

By CAROLE GARIEPY

I’m spoiled. My husband, Gerry, reads aloud to me every day, a shared time with stimulating topics we can think about and discuss together. He just finished reading “The American Story,” by David Rubenstein, which is about interviews with authors who...

My Turn: Good-bye Columbus and what might have been

Few historical figures have undergone such a radical transformation in recent years as that illustrious Genoese, Christopher Columbus. From being one of the most revered explorers who bravely sailed the ocean blue, he is now condemned as the worst...

My Turn: Time to retire the Northfield Mountain Pumped Hydro Storage Station

By SUSAN OLMSTED

After reading Alicia Barton’s (CEO of FirstLight Power Resources) My Turn column (April 23) promoting the Northfield Mountain Pumped Hydro Storage (NMPHS) Station as “an asset in fight against climate change” and “… the largest clean power producer in...

Opting out of MCAS

Recently Interim Superintendent Houle offered two informational sessions to the public regarding in person learning and during the first of those sessions she stated that parents are not allowed to opt their children out of the MCAS. That is wrong,...

The dangers of cell towers

By DAVID O. CARPENTER

I am a public health physician who has been involved in issues related to electromagnetic fields (EMFs) for several decades. I have served as dean of the School of Public Health at the University at Albany/SUNY. I have edited two books on effects of...

Teacher fails entire class

By DAVID SIANO

This article is the perfect analogy using grades instead of dollars to show what you can expect with the radical Democratic Socialist plans of Biden, Sanders and Harris.An economics professor at a local college made a statement that she had never...