Opinion
My Turn: Small miracles do happen
By JOANNA BUONICONTI
As we enter into this fresh new year, I cannot help but be in a deeply reflective state as I find myself pondering what the year 2022 brought into my life — the good along with the bad. It is a tradition I adopted years ago, but recently, I have begun...
My Turn: Northfield unsuitable location for SoulFest event
By SUSAN WRIGHT and BERHARD PORADA
We are writing to express our opposition to the permit requested by the D.L. Moody Center for the SoulFest 2023 concert. We are opposed to this event taking place in our community primarily because of the size of the proposed event, the lack of...
Flummoxed by council vote on French King Highway rezoning
I am completely flummoxed by the Greenfield City Council’s vote not to rezone the French King Highway property for industrial use. Don’t the councilors who voted “no” know that manufacturing — in particular, high-precision metalwork — is part of...
Correcting the record on Farmers Market letter
Life is full of surprises. One surprising thing is when you open the Recorder and find a letter to the editor with your name under it but which you never signed.This was recently the case (“Farmers Market musicians stipend,” Dec. 29). Clearly, there...
Greenfield City Council must ‘do the right thing’
Thank you, Councilor Ricketts, for filing your motion for reconsideration of the City Council’s Dec. 21 vote to not approve the proposed amendment to rezone the land along French King Highway from General Commercial to Planned Industrial. It is very...
Why people flee Massachusetts
It is no secret that people are moving out of Massachusetts. Recent articles on Masslive and in the Wall Street Journal articulate the blue state exodus across our country.Why are reasonable people fleeing this state?Over regulation for businesses and...
Farmers Market musicians stipend
Lost in the shuffle of post-COVID adjustments was the decision by the Greenfield Farmers Market to stop paying its musicians a modest stipend ($50) for two hours of performance.While less egregious than the mayor’s refusal to pay Paul Buchanan his...
New zoning regs a story of the year
One of the biggest front-page Greenfield Recorder news stories of 2022 was the upswell of community activism that led to a significant rewriting of zoning regulations that placed new, clear limits on outdoor marijuana cultivation, and defined the...
My Turn: Gov. Healey’s plan will accelerate the decline of our forests
By MIKE LEONARD
During her campaign, Maura Healey said she had a “forest management plan” but it had nothing to do with forest management. Instead, her plan is to undermine what’s left of the forestry sector here in Massachusetts which will accelerate the decline of...
My Turn: Barbara Walters — Matriarch of the news media
By STEVE E. KRAMER
Talented, dogged, determined, a leader. These labels are typically reserved for male figures in sports and other professions. Too infrequently, the descriptions are assigned to prominent women in their fields.This past weekend, however, a notable...
My Turn: Yes, Trumpism is a cult mentality
By DANIEL A. BROWN
Donald J. Trump exhibits behavior that were your teenage children doing the same, you would ground them for a decade. Any women with a husband who delights in daily lies, insults and cruelty would divorce him in a heartbeat. So how then does Trump get...
Local to Global: Envisioning a world without nuclear weapons
By H. PATRICIA HYNES
January 22 marks the second anniversary of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, a global lifeboat supported by 70% of the world’s countries. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Energy’s 2023 budget request for nuclear weapons’ upgrade is...
Urges permit rejection for SoulFest in Northfield
Although Virginia and Howard Hastings detailed compelling and comprehensive logistical reasons about why Northfield is an inappropriate venue to host the massive Christian music festival SoulFest this summer (“My Turn: The Soul of Northfield,” Dec....
French King Highway rezoning would support living wage jobs
I read in the Recorder that At-Large City Councilor Penny Ricketts had called for reconsideration for her vote on the rezoning of the French King Highway area land that could be supporting real “living wage” manufacturing jobs.The business that wants...
A Plea For Safe Pedestrian Route From Turners to Greenfield
I almost killed someone with my truck last night. I was coming up the hill between Turners and Greenfield, and just as it curves to the right near the top, where the shoulder is less than a foot wide, and there was a car coming the opposite way. I was...
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...
