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Taylor Swift won this year’s Super Bowl. I mean… the Kansas City Chiefs won this year’s Super Bowl. If you don’t know by now, pop star Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs’ tight end Travis Kelce are dating. The relationship caused a media stir as...

I watched a lot of college football this year and am happy it’s over. Next year will be longer as eight teams are added to the playoffs. Baseball in November, basketball and ice hockey in June, football in February — will seasons ever...

Recreational running has been part of mainstream American culture for fifty years. Nowadays anyone wanting to run a 5-kilometer road race can find one somewhere nearby. Marathons have grown so popular they have waiting lists.Track meets are different....

By JONATHAN KAHANE Now that some of the dust has settled since my last guest column [“Haunted by questions with no good answers,” Gazette, Dec. 28], I will take this opportunity to try and rectify distortions that were submitted in letters during the...

By RICHARD FEIN

Gaza’s civilian population: Hamas has ruled Gaza since defeating the Fatah faction in 2006 elections. Hamas then killed 459 Fatah operatives. The general population has suffered as Hamas expropriated billions of dollars in foreign donations and local...

By ANDREA AYVAZIAN

Earlier this month, I was asked to offer the benediction at the Northampton inauguration ceremony, when elected officials are sworn in to their positions of leadership in our city — a request that I was honored to fulfill.These inauguration...

By RUSS VERNON-JONES

Last month I wrote about the damage the U.S. is causing to the global climate by exporting huge amounts of oil and LNG (liquefied natural methane gas) — the most of any country in the world. I shared the information that the fossil fuel industry wants...

By JOHANNA NEUMANN

Happy 2024. After my last column, I got feedback from a reader who pointed out that I missed a topic in my round-up of environmental progress in 2023. She mentioned that I had completely failed to mention Amherst voters overwhelmingly approving plans...

By PATRICK O’CONNOR

There is a crisis in Holyoke’s public schools. Each year, a classroom-sized group of students with learning disabilities drops out. These students are then more likely to be arrested and jailed on Holyoke’s streets. Although unintentional, we are...

By JOHN P. DIBARTOLO JR.

I have long resented and resembled the pejorative characterizations of liberals made by conservative news media pundits. I am a real-life Volvo-driving, oat milk latte-drinking, composting/recycling, vegan, atheist, feminist, Liz Warren-voting trial...

By DAVE KING

Here we are again, another Martin Luther King Jr. Day, when we all look forward to legions of politicians trotting out MLK’s “I have a dream” speech to remind us we should be striving together in harmony for a world where all peoples can enjoy our...

By RAZVAN SIBII

Last month, my column was an end-of-the-year top 5 list of hypocrisies that poison our current discussions about the migrant crisis at the southern border [bit.ly/3RLgE6s]. I think I got more emails about that column than about any other I’ve written...

By GREG REYNOLDS and JESSE PORTER-HENRY

Saying that we were moved barely begins to describe how we felt on Jan. 8 when student after student spoke on educators’ behalf at the Hampshire Regional School Committee meeting. Current students, recent grads now in college and those who are into...

By CYNTHIA LORING MACBAIN

For 32 years, I was a volunteer with the Alternatives to Violence Project in New York State maximum security prisons: Sing Sing, Elmira, and the last years in Auburn Correctional Facility.A mantra among men incarcerated for violent crimes is “A man’s...

By ROB OKUN

Let’s start with some basic assumptions: 1) Israel is not Jewish — just as the U.S. is not Christian. 2) Palestine is not Muslim. 3) Hamas perpetrates heinous acts, puts civilian lives in peril, and regularly violates the “rules” of war. 4) Israeli...

By DANIEL CANTOR YALOWITZ

“True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.” — Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Stride Toward Freedom (1958)The wars that rage around the world are not only to be found elsewhere, beyond our soil and nation. Yes,...

By BILL NEWMAN

This is scary. The number of books being banned in school libraries is spiraling upward. Nationwide, for the 2022-2023 school year, PEN America substantiated 3,362 school book bans that targeted 1,557 unique titles. That’s a 33% increase from the...

By BOB NAGLE

According to Frontiers in Psychiatry, 3.06% of people living with bipolar disorder experience psychiatric hospitalization. Upon awakening, I found myself emotionally mired in a wellspring of despond. What happened? My life of strife...

By KAREN GARDNER

It’s the Name That President game show! And you, our contestants, are here to show your mettle and knowledge by matching the correct president to his statements and accomplishments. What fun!In today’s game, you have a choice between President X and...

By DR. MATTEO PANGALLO

In his Dec. 22 letter, ‘The fallacy of gun control,” William Aherin repeats without qualification certain assertions he made in a similar letter in June 2022 — namely, that gun control “doesn’t work.” As in the previous letter, the writer does not...