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For those of you who have faithfully read my columns, you know that I rarely write about contentious political issues. There are many reasons why I choose not to do this, but the primary one is that the most prominent political issues are also the...

By MATTHEW MUSPRATT

The recent furor over the Smith College School for Social Work’s decision to retire the word “field” from certain program descriptions for its racial “negative associations” has, perhaps predictably, sounded of America’s sharpest, most current...

By JOHN HOWARD

In March 2023, following a decade of scientific study, stakeholder engagement, collaboration and negotiation, FirstLight Power filed the “Flows and Fish Passage Settlement Agreement” as part of the relicensing of the Turners Falls Hydroelectric and...

By BARRY ROTH

In a recent New York Times column, David Wallace-Wells criticized the current environmental movement for losing its passion for protecting the natural world for its own sake. Instead, he pointed out, a large faction of environmentalists are focused on...

By SARAH BUTTENWIESER and ALICE BARBER

We have been wondering what parents need to hear right about now. This month marks the declared “end” of the COVID crisis. It is a time of implied “get-on-with-its” and “that-was-then-this-is-nows.”Overall, our society tends not to think very...

By JOE BLUMENTHAL

When the Pleasant Street Theater closed in 2012, a new use had to be found for the space. As the owner of the building, I made a deal with the owner of McLadden’s, a Connecticut restaurant chain, to take over the space. At the end of a considerable...

The Northampton Agricultural Commission is an advisory group, composed of farmers who represent and advocate for the farming community in greater Northampton. Over the years we have heard again and again from struggling farmers that the city of...

By JOHN PARADIS

May is National Military Appreciation Month. Designated by Congress in 1999 to honor past and present military members and their families, the month includes several commemorations, including Loyalty Day, VE Day, Military Spouse Appreciation Day,...

By JOHANNA NEUMANN

In the wee hours of the morning of April 14, when it was forecast to be a record-crushing 95 degrees, I met my intern Erica in the parking lot of the Big Y in Palmer. Together, we carpooled to Somerset, on Massachusetts’ south coast for a 9 a.m....

Editor’s note: The following column is in response to recent letters and guest columns about J.M Sorrell’s May 3 column “Misogyny as entertainment and entitlement.” By J.M. SORRELL I was a guest columnist for the Daily Hampshire Gazette for many...

By JIM CAHILLANE

Dear President Biden,Please excuse this overdue response to your vice presidential thank you letter of February, 8, 2012. Congressman Richie Neal gave you a copy of my new book, “On History’s Front Steps,” (2011), covering Northampton’s first 350...

By THOMAS WEINER

I recently learned of a troubling incident. A Black man was teaching his wife how to drive in a parking lot and a white woman called the police. Sound familiar?Such reactions didn’t begin with the Central Park, N.Y. story of that particular “Karen”...

By LAURIE LOISEL

The four heartfelt letters on Tuesday responding to J.M. Sorrell’s May 3 column [“Misogyny as entertainment and entitlement,”] prompted me to write to thank the Gazette for publishing her column, despite knowing it would offend. Not because I agree...

By KAREN GARDNER

I loved reading George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984” back in the day, but I’ve always been grateful that Big Brother was safely contained there in his world called Oceania. But no, Big Brother seems to be quite alive and kicking and growing stronger...

By MARTHA TERRY

Citizens of South Hadley, the Planning Board has proposed a bylaw to permit accessory dwelling units. It allows attached (additions to a house) and interior ADUs, which are both fine with me and just about everyone. But the proposal goes way too far...

J.M Sorrel's column [“Misogyny as entertainment and entitlement,” Gazette, May 3] fails to recognize that the people who started drag were gender non-conforming people of color. They were not cis men, seeking to appropriate femininity from women, but...

By JOHN SHEIRER

When I walk our dog Libby, a little, shaggy, sweet-natured border terrier, through our neighborhood, I can safely predict two things. First, everyone will love seeing Libby. Second, Libby will love seeing everyone.One of our neighbors calls Libby “The...

By CHRISTI PAYNE and GREG DARMS

My husband and I moved to New England from Oregon five years ago, not knowing for sure where we would end up, and fortuitously landed in Shutesbury. We could not have chosen better than this forested rural hilltown we now call home.One of the very...

By MICHELE SPRING-MOORE

Usually I breeze past J.M. Sorrell’s columns, but her latest, published in the Gazette three days before the Hampshire Pride march, was too over the top to ignore. This column created a toxic anti-transgender stew by mashing together her feminist...

By NAOMI DARLING and PRESTON SMITH II

Many well-meaning South Hadley residents say they want affordable housing in South Hadley, but stop short when it comes to supporting the policy changes required to help us reach that goal.For years our town has offered limited housing options to...