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By Staff Report

AMHERST — Easthampton, Amherst and Pelham are in the first cohort of Department of Energy Resources’ Climate Leader Communities, recently announced by the Healey-Driscoll administration

In her May 7 column [”Tribe of Radical Allies Against Hate (TORAAH)”], J.M. Sorrell claims to be an ally of Jews, but her type of “allyship” does immeasurable harm. Jews are not monolithic. Jews share as wide a range of ideologies as any group, including far-right authoritarianism, and are just as capable of evil. To deny this is to deny our full humanity, as Jewish Currents editor Peter Beinart points out. No group is pure. I wish it were true that victims of oppression could never themselves become victimizers, but history shows us over and over again that this is, tragically, not the case.

By OLIN ROSE-BARDAWIL

Last month, I was at Umass Amherst attending a Q&A with CliffeKnechtle, a pastor who has gone viral on social media in the past few months for his arguments in support of Christianity. Originally a pastor at a church in Connecticut, Knechtle is partly compelling because of how compassionately and thoughtfully he states his positions. Unlike many evangelists, he does not seem interested in forcing his faith on non-Christians but rather presenting biblical teachings and letting people wrestle with their meaning.

By JOE GANNON

With all the dread and fuming about what Donald Trump is doing to America, a most common response is, this is not who we are! Maybe it is time to consider that this is exactly who we are — who we have become, slowly and carefully over the last 60 years or more.

Rents keep climbing, with no end in sight. So now we have to look elsewhere. Maybe out of state. It is sad.

By CAROLYN BROWN

EASTHAMPTON — The city will bid farewell to its outgoing poet laureate, Carolyn Cushing, and welcome its new poet laureate, Carolyn Zaikowski, this weekend.

I feel I have to react to the April 21 front-page Gazette article with the headline ”Opposition to apartments mounts,” about people trying to stop or downsize the proposed 54-unit apartment complex at the corner of Phillips Place and Hawley Street in Northampton.

By SARA WEINBERGER

The Jewish holiday of Passover, which ended on Sunday, recounts the story of the Jewish people’s escape from slavery in Egypt. Recounting the exodus from Egypt is a call to rise against all the pharaohs, including the pharaoh who occupies the White House. His thin disguise as a crusader against antisemitism is a ruse for decimating free speech and higher education, by scapegoating pro-Palestinians and the country’s most respected universities.

By OLIN ROSE-BARDAWIL

Regardless of where you stand politically, it is hard to deny that what Cory Booker did on March 31 was amazing.

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) infiltrated the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) on March 20. In the flurry of raids and dismantling of government agencies you probably overlooked this egregious act. Don’t. IMLS is the primary source of federal support for U.S. libraries and museums. The agency supports them through grants, research and policy development. The agency has about 75 employees and half of them will be terminated. I live in Easthampton and the local library has been instrumental in providing not only books but courses, book clubs, story times for toddlers, and computer workstations. Over 3,000 people use this library each year. Although books are not being burned literally, conceptually they are being obliterated.

By TOLLEY M. JONES

“Soon ah will be done with the troubles of the world, goin’ home to live with God”

By JOE GANNON

When I saw the above-the-fold headline about a school meeting (“Northampton schools probe staff response to student’s unfulfilled IEP,” Gazette, March 31) I thought, ah jeez, here they go again?

It is a new year and seniors are on the chopping block. Housing is the worst. We cannot find anything. CHAMP (Common Housing Application for Massachusetts Programs) and many housing offices offer help but really give nothing. It is time to change the system. Seniors are people too. Seniors matter.

As our Easthampton High School We the People (WTP) civics team prepares to compete this week in the national WTP civics competition in Washington, D.C., the Easthampton Democratic and Republican committees offer our joint appreciation and support for the team.

We in the Valley are fortunate to have a responsive, caring, engaged congressional representative in Jim McGovern. I’m sure many reading this letter heard him answer questions for hours in his Northampton or Greenfield listening sessions. There was obvious support and appreciation for Rep. McGovern in both standing-room-only gatherings.

I have read Hannah Moushabeck’s children’s book “Homeland: My Father Dreams of Palestine.” It’s lovely: a story of a father sharing memories and stories with his three daughters about his family and the sights and sounds of East Jerusalem growing up.

Easthampton’s City Council is poised to review an ordinance legalizing and regulating short-term rentals in the city. (e.g. Airbnbs) The current draft allows up to 50 properties for this use, including whole houses, apartments, parts of houses, and accessory dwelling units (ADUs). Before the current moratorium on cease-and-desist orders was declared to address this issue, there was no provision in Easthampton’s building code that allowed short-term rentals. So, any entity renting to visitors for fewer than 29 days, other than licensed Bed and Breakfast establishments, were operating illegally.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Visitors from Lexington and Marblehead were among those who came to see “Generic Male,” the off-Broadway physical theater performed at Northampton’s Academy of Music in early March.

I appreciated Rutherford J. Platt’s Feb. 24 column on evil as called out by Rep. Jim McGovern [“Applause for calling out ‘evil’”]. The evil cited was “America’s role as a responsible world power is being diminished: Foreign aid has been thrown into chaos, endangering lives worldwide.”