Samantha Giffen and Angela Mills: Heartfelt thanks to 2025 Rubbish Roundup sponsors and volunteers

We are writing to celebrate and express our heartfelt gratitude for our incredible Amherst community! On a drizzly Sunday, April 6, nearly 200 residents joined forces all over town for the annual Amherst Rubbish Roundup! Volunteers from all Amherst districts came in support of this community cleanup to beautify our beloved town. These amazing volunteers braved busy roadsides, bustling sidewalks, downtown parking areas, quiet conservation trails, and public school lands to collect an impressive 184 bags of garbage and recycling.

Guest columnist Carrie Kline: The elephant in the room — nuclear weapons

BY CARRIE KLINE

Changes are coming so quickly these days that it’s hard to address anything that isn’t bleeding and burning. And yet, some issues that are urgent are largely silent, that is, until they explode. We are on the brink of disaster. Nothing can compare with the immediate decimation of life on earth as we know it. With this in mind, and motivated by the passage of resolutions in other cities and towns in our area and throughout our commonwealth, nation and world, I am bringing a Resolution in Favor of a Nuclear Weapons Freeze to the Sunderland Town Meeting on April 25.

Guest columnist Jack Czajkowski: Great gains in climate change work, much more to do

By JACK CZAJKOWSKI

Five years ago, then Hadley Selectboard member Christian Stanley got approval for and began the Hadley Climate Change Committee (HCCC) in our town. The first few meetings took place just as the COVID pandemic began and with a handful of fellow citizens we joined together and began brainstorming what we could do to make our town buildings be more energy efficient.

Martin Wohl, Mandy Gerry, and Liz Horn: Remembering Dr. Melvin Hershkowitz

It is with great sadness that we learned of the passing of Dr. Melvin Hershkowitz. In the relatively short time he graced us here in Northampton so many benefited from his experience, wisdom, and largesse. While originally coming to Northampton to be close to his beloved daughter Marie, we found him engaged with so many facets of Northampton and regional life.

Danielle Miller: Will never regret vote for Trump

As Democrats resist President Donald Trump here in Franklin County and throughout the United States, those of us on the right try our best to ignore their hysteria. These activists can’t fathom Trump’s appeal and are hopping mad that he has returned to the White House with “an unprecedented and powerful mandate.” The man is almost 80, but he’s still full of vim and vigour (and you’d swear he’s 20 years younger than Joe Biden). Kamala Harris, on the other hand, was just full of hot air. And, honestly, I will always feel immense joy over the fact that this unintelligible candidate failed to win a single battleground state in her doomed bid for the presidency.

Kristin Lacey: McGovern town hall woefully insufficient

At last Wednesday’s town hall with U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern at UMass Amherst, university community members asked specific, thoughtful questions; meanwhile, all McGovern’s answers were platitudes about the power we the people have and jokes about Russian influence. Enough. We know Donald Trump is a disaster and we are asking what Ywill do; all our elected representatives can offer is “Trump bad” and “we are holding a lot of town halls.” We need our elected leaders putting themselves on the line with real action, like Sen. Van Hollen traveling to El Salvador. Anything less is cowardice. At least McGovern admitted in response to what Congress is doing to protect due process: “not a goddamn thing.” And that’s what McGovern offered us in his town hall, too.

Jeanne Armstrong: It is time to be counted

Phone call from my frothingly irate, 84-year-old brother. “Trump is cutting off funding to Harvard. You can’t do that to one of the best universities in the world!” says this graduate of Stanford. “I’m sending a donation. What address shall I use?”

Guest columnist Julia Brown: Ignorance for sale

By JULIA BROWN

To the question why so many people voted for Donald Trump, Democrats commonly reply: ignorance or lack of information — a deficiency of facts, of the knowledge necessary to make a reasoned decision. This was my working definition of ignorance until several years ago, when I began an email exchange with a childhood friend who is a passionate Trump supporter.

Guest columnist The Rev. Peter Kakos: The butcher and the megalomaniac

By THE REV. PETER KAKOS

On Monday, April 7, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slipped into the White House for a brisk meeting, most likely exchanging latest plans for a Palestine-cleansed Gaza (West Bank, next ), riding high on an additional $8.8 billion from Congress, to stockpile his arsenal in their relentless pursuit of the eradication of an ancient people.

Guest columnist Allen Woods: Morning in America? Or mourning?

By ALLEN WOODS

In 1979, President Jimmy Carter gave a heartfelt, but politically disastrous speech. He described an American “crisis in confidence.” People faced a stubborn Mideast hostage crisis, long lines at gas stations for scarce, expensive gas, the highest inflation rate of any presidential term in history (almost 10%!), and unemployment rates of nearly 8% (inherited from the previous Ford administration).

Columnist Rev. Andrea Ayvazian: Boomers are back in the fight, gracefully

By THE REV. ANDREA AYVAZIAN

OK, boomer.

Guest columnist Ben Grosscup: Anti-Trump resistance can’t be ‘hands off’ on militarism

By BEN GROSSCUP

On April 5, people in western Massachusetts and throughout the U.S. demonstrated against the Trump Administration’s escalating attacks on what’s left of our tattered social safety net and personal rights. Rallying around the hashtag #HandsOff, the website coordinating the actions included essential demands such as “Hands off Social Security, Medicare, and Personal Data.”

Benjamin G. Clark: McGovern’s complacency a reflection of our failing system

U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern’s complacency and inaction felt less like a personal failure and more like a symptom of the Democratic Party itself. Instead of providing clarity or hope, the recent town hall at UMass Amherst on Wednesday seemed to be just another reason to disengage from the dire state of American politics completely.

Cynthia Mahoney: All in for families as School Committee candidate

As an April 14 Gazette story stated, several members of the Northampton School Committee will be stepping down at the end of their terms, and I wish to thank all the School Committee members for their work. Special education is both a personal and professional passion, so I’m delighted to announce that I’ll be a candidate for Northampton’s Ward 6 School Committee seat.

Letter: Judges defend the Constitution

The silly cartoon in the April 14 Gazette might lead unwary readers to assume that it is only Democrats and “leftist judges” who are shooting down Donald Trump’s executive orders. This is not true. To their credit, a number of Republican-appointed members of the federal bench have ordered temporary halts to those decrees. Some were appointed by Ronald Reagan, some by George W. Bush, and a few by Donald Trump himself. On the same day that the cartoon appeared Trump declared that he could deport U.S. citizens without trial to the infamous prison in El Salvador, which, according to him, is beyond the reach of American courts. This is in direct defiance of the recent rulings by the Supreme Court, which, the last time I looked, is not dominated by leftist judges. Perhaps the Gazette could use a bit more sense in the choosing the cartoons it puts on its editorial page.

Columnist Russ Vernon-Jones: Love in a time of crisis

By RUSS VERNON-JONES

The COVID pandemic — with its fear, and its quarantine, and its ongoing recommendations for limiting social contact — is still affecting us. Even if we are not among the many unfortunate individuals who are still ill with long COVID, our situation has changed. We are now living in a society where loneliness has increased and trust has decreased. As Jeet Heer wrote in The Nation, “In the wake of COVID, Americans have become more individualistic, more conspiracy-minded, and less committed to collective social effort.” We tend to be more separate from each other.

Jennifer Nery: Let's focus our energies on a positive and productive City

I am the treasurer for the Campaign to Elect Laurie Loisel. People presume it’s a rather boring job, and it’s not all fun, but I find it exciting because money is energy. Potential energy, to be precise. For us ordinary, non-Elon Musk types, work is converted to money, and money is transformed into things. Often those things are personal needs, like housing and food for ourselves and our families. But some money can catalyze improvements in the community and the world.

Virginia Hajdamowicz: Fresh perspective needed for Granby town clerk

I would like to formally introduce myself as one of the two candidates for the position of Granby town clerk. My name is Virginia Hajdamowicz and I believe we need a fresh set of eyes and a different perspective to improve our town. At my current position as the administrative assistant to the superintendent of Granby Public Schools, I have increased the communication and transparency among the district and to the families in my first few months. I have improved the school’s social media pages including Facebook and the website and I strongly believe I could do the same for the town.

Guest columnist William Lambers: Easter baskets can save lives far away

By WILLIAM LAMBERS

The joy of finding an Easter basket filled with food and gifts is something you never forget. Even greater is the feeling of giving an Easter basket of food to someone in need. This has been a great tradition for many years.

Guest columnist Marilyn Marks: Human kindness radiates from the inside out

By MARILYN MARKS

During these times of political, economic, and climate turbulence, anger and alarm surge and tensions run high. In responding to our poly-crisis situation, we quickly assign blame. However, pointing the finger at Washington, D.C. and shouting “Tyranny!” is ideally balanced with uprooting the tyranny we may unknowingly carry within ourselves.