Letters from our Readers
Back Talk: Cyclists Beware and Holyoke Charter Schools
Vertical Grates a Danger to Cyclists The last part of my bicycle commute from Greenfield to Gill is the Gill-Montague Bridge. I had been enduring black hole potholes, asphalt that was worn down to dirt, and trucks and cars barrelling within feet of me. My vision of...
Backtalk: Immigration celebration, saving water, and love for old lesbians
Celebrate Immigration I think the people of Northampton and the whole Pioneer Valley should take the lead and turn the arrival of refugees to our area into a celebration. Our country’s founding principles are based on no discrimination. Instead of fearing these...
Back Talk: How About Some Decent Health Care Over Here?
Gratitude’s Nice, Affordable Healthcare is BetterThis past Grandparents Day some grandparents across our nation might get a telephone call or a note from a loved one. It is more important to focus on more crucial issues facing older Americans.Retirement and how to...
BackTalk: A New Slogan for Trump, The Clintons by Andrew Loyd Webber
Editorial Art Did you know Cinemadope columnist Jack Brown is also a talented illustrator? See his Trump campaign poster and more Brown art at jackjohnbrown.com. The Rich Get Richer If you ask enough people in our community if they’re able to sustain...
Backtalk: No to GMOs, Right to Roam, and Hot Takes on Pearl Street Nightclub
Avoid GMOs; go organic Farmers have increased their pesticide use on GMO crops three-fold compared to standard conventional use; that’s enough reason to avoid GMOs (“Vermont’s Short-Lived GMO Experiment” Aug. 11-17, 2016). Most GMOs (genetically modified organisms)...
Backtalk: Irate over Iraq, Going Green, and Cat Burglars
We’re Back, Iraq Recent headlines announcing more U.S. troops to Iraq made me feel like the character in Bill Murray’s movie Groundhog Day, and with good reason … The politicians in Washington have been duped into believing that more violence will solve the problem...
Back Talk: There is money to be made with co-ops
Cooperative Behavioral Health Care Deserves a Shot The Valley Advocate’s excellent piece on cooperative businesses (“Surprise! It’s a co-op. Any business can be a worker-owned business,” Aug. 4-10, 2016) was just the sort of education and inspiration we need to stem...
Back Talk: Inspired by Erykah, Disgusted by Gerena
InspiredI am truly inspired by Erykah’s courage (“In Her Own Words: Incarcerated in a Greenfield men’s correctional facility, Erykah Carter documents her transition”). Even as painstaking as it must of been. The feelings of being scared, or accepted by not...
Back Talk: Why not deport criminals? Mourning So Many
Why Not Deport Criminals?The following is in reference to the article, “Between the Lines: Report a Crime, Risk Deportation” June 9-15, 2016. Why is it a bad thing to deport people who are here illegally who have committed not one, but two crimes? I’m not versed...
Back Talk: Mental for Basemental
Mental for Basemental I’ve been a reader of the Advocate for many years and I just wanted to say that I have really been appreciating Will Meyer’s Basemental column over the last several weeks. I’ve been to some of these basements and DIY venues...
Guest Column: We had our own Brock Turner situation in the Valley
We Had Our Own Brock Turner Situation in the ValleyThe sentencing of Brock Turner by California Judge Aaron Persky has sparked a national discussion of how we hold young drunk college men accountable for sexual assault. The general sentiment is that Persky was far...
Back Talk: ‘As a firearm-owning gay man, I thank you!’
Guns ‘N’ Education “The Kirk Whatley Challenge: Before you write guns off, shoot one — safely” (June 16-22, 2016) by Hunter Styles attracted a lot of attention online. We posted the article to Facebook along with the question: Can you truly be anti-gun without first...
Back Talk: What Killed the Monkey; Pride Month Massacre
What Killed the Monkey Facebook reactions to “Gross Negligence Alleged in Death of UMass Lab Monkey”William Robinson: Sounds like the incident didn’t have much to do with the nature of the research itself, but a veterinary mishap resulting from pure accident —...
Back Talk: What is Columbus Day Really?; Triple Beef
What is Columbus Day, really? Interesting article by Kristin Palpini (“Between the Lines: Columbus, Genocidal Slave-Traders Should Not Get Their Own Holidays” May 26-June 1, 2016). As a child growing up in the ’60s and ’70s I learned from my family and...
From Our Readers: Assault on assault weapons; Fossil fuels run UMass
Assault on Assault WeaponsEditor’s Note: Earlier this month, residents of Longmeadow voted on three proposed measures to ban all assault weapons from the town, keep a more detailed catalog of guns kept in town, and to ban any firearm from public buildings and...
From Our Readers: Random acts of kind driving! Pot is not harmless May 12-18, 2016
Pot is not harmlessIn March, I was invited by community members to speak to students at Mount Holyoke College about the current science of marijuana, an issue I have devoted much of my career to understanding. I was surprised and saddened that a letter writer from...
Letters to the Editor: Divestment victory at UMass? (April 28-May 4, 2016)
So, that’s what victory looks likeDivest UMass supporters are close to victory. [“Scene Here: #DivestTheRest,” April 21-27, 2016.] What kind of victory? Well, as you explained in last week’s issue, a $5 million divestment from “dirty-energy...
Letters to the Editor: Get real about pot, local suicide prevention – April 21-27, 2016
Time for truth in cannabis scienceThe other night, I attended a lecture at Mount Holyoke College by Dr. Jodi Gilman, neuroscientist and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. Her talk was advertised as a broad overview of the science of marijuana, focusing on...
From Our Readers: Praying for Bernie, GMO veggies or hunted deer meat?
Praying for Bernie I am praying for a Bernie Sanders presidency. If we want our compassionate world to come truly, in our heart of hearts, then we say to each other we are ready to take the steps and say the words to invite that world. Bernie is the only candidate who...
Guest Column: Two Years, Two Lockdowns – Guns and campus life
By Tess Halpern, Daily Collegian I have only once cried in school that I can remember, and it wasn’t because I was hurt, heartbroken, or had just failed a test; it was because I was scared. Sept. 24, 2014, in the beginning of my senior year in high school, my...
From Our Readers: Slavery study would be divisive, Corrections
Slavery study would be divisive Your expectation that HR 40 has no chance is valid (Between the Lines: Congress Keeps Killing Conversation on Race” Feb. 18-24, 2016). The concern is that after the conclusion of the investigation there will be a louder call and greater...
From Our Readers: What’s up with WMUA? Readers weigh in on pit bulls
WTF WMUA? UMass Amherst radio station WMUA’s draconian reduction of community programming warrants focusing the spotlight of public scrutiny on this newly minted, institutionalized contempt for the community. In one instance, the student leadership of WMUA, acting...
From Our Readers: Clinton stonewalls on status quo, co-op revolution
Healthcare: More Bern for Your Buck As a surgeon, I have participated in our healthcare system since 1979. I have witnessed the attempts of medically naive politicians seeking to reform our compromised healthcare system. Bankrolled by health industry lobbyists, these...
From Our Readers: My trip to Westfield was awesome; More ways to volunteer
Many ways to volunteer I read your article about volunteering, “Giving Back” (Dec. 24-30, 2015), and I was a little irritated. Why is it that when someone says “volunteer,” the focus immediately goes to homeless/food banks/shelters. There are other organizations that...
From Our Readers: Halos and Horns, you’re doing it wrong
Halos and Horns: You’re doing it wrong Editor’s note: One Dec. 31, 2015, the Advocate came out with its annual Halos and Horns, an edition dedicated to skewering and praising the people, places, things, and events of 2015. Here’s some reader reaction: Responding to...
From Our Readers: Social media mobs bully those who make mistakes
Social media mobs bully those who make mistakes In place of the N-bomb, I would like to offer the P-word – p-r-o-p-o-r-t-i-o-n-a-l-i-t-y. Nowadays, a person makes an error, uses a nasty word, commits some politically incorrect faux pas and the hunt is on! Go...
From Our Readers: Voting on holiday, Democrats will do more harm to drug laws
Voting on holiday Your recent column (“U.S. to blame: Government at fault for low voter turnout,” Nov. 26, 2015) about the lack of voter turnout missed, I think, an answer. Make Nov. 4 a federal holiday. Democracy, anyone? Michael D. Joyce Wendell Democrats will do...
From Our Readers: Puerto Rico nationhood, women in film?
What about women in film? As an area film teacher and filmmaker, I was thrilled to see your “Film or Die” Dec. 17, 2015. Tobin, Skolnick, Baldassaro, Levigne and Hott have wonderful stories, and I’m happy to know that other filmmakers are enjoying the Valley. However,...
Rev. Swan: Blacks Are ‘Junkies,’ Whites Have a ‘Disease’
It is glaringly obvious that policymakers are going easier on today’s heroin users, because many are white and often affluent, than in previous years when the addicts were identified as largely black, disenfranchised, and economically bereft. Gov. Charlie Baker’s...
From Our Readers: ‘treat and street’ is beat, Brownies is badge of honor, and more Chicopee love
‘Treat and street’ is no way to help addicts There’s much talk lately about the serious drug problems in Massachusetts. Having witnessed the struggles of friends with the system I have some strong opinions on the subject. Firstly, I could never fathom why drug...
From Our Readers: Missed connections, disenfranchised republicans and anti-poor
Missed connection in Paris Before the horrendous Paris attacks happened, before we were shocked once again by the brutality and scale of modern day terrorism, there was another story that came out. CNN as well as ABC News reported that a U.S. drone strike had possibly...
From Our Readers: Is Agawam HS’ team name offensive?
Facebook: Is Agawam HS’ team name offensive? Editor’s note: The below comments were left on the Advocate’s Facebook page in response to a guest column, “These Brownies Have Got to Go” Nov. 19-25, 2015. George Green: Where did these two writers get their information,...
From Our Readers: Getting away with rape, Springfield is a transportation desert
Getting away with rape Editor’s note: This letter is in response to “Owen Labrie, rapist or simply a jerk?” Nov. 19, 2015, an editorial in which editors Kristin Palpini and Jeffrey Good wrote about their interpretations of the sexual assault verdict. Good says Labrie...
From Our Readers: ‘Sorry, but what about the police?’ ‘Old fogies in yoga pants?’
Sorry, but what about the police? I am very sorry for the families and friends whose loved ones have died due to police action and/or while in police custody in 2015 in the U.S. (“Doesn’t Count: Deaths by police are not tracked in the U.S.” Nov. 12-19, 2015). I am...
Put Down the (Mega)phone: A Northampton chef’s review of Yelp reviews
She smiles at you from across the table as she delicately moves the hair from her face. The lights are dim and the murmured conversations reverberate off the warm decor as the waiter pours the carefully selected wine. We ask for a moment to discuss the menu and take a...
From Our Readers: “Drowning in craft beer,” “Lube doesn’t solve all”
Drowning in craft beer Dear well-intentioned, creatively-spirited, entrepreneurial-minded, mechanically-gifted, young white men, Please refrain from moving forward with your impending craft brewery project, as we here in the Valley have gone well beyond the number of...
From Our Readers: More to love about Greenfield; Sedaris, for mature audiences only
Sedaris, for mature audiences only I was hoping to see a review or a letter or two in the Oct. 22-28 issue of the Valley Advocate regarding David Sedaris’ performance on Oct. 13 at The Academy of Music. I had seen him twice before, but this program was different in...
From Our Readers
Stop animal cruelty in Massachusetts Animals in factory farms often spend their entire lives cruelly confined in spaces so small that they cannot extend their limbs or stand up. This is not only inhumane but it is also unsanitary and unhealthy for people who consume...
Poem: Bus-Ride in a Bottle
On the bus to Northampton from Amherst, I was sitting across from an old man with the wrecked blue eyes of a sunken mariner. Eyes so wet and blue and seen-through as any screen-door of the Deep South ever was, that to be caught looking into them was to be trapped in...
From Our Readers: Baby-killing clinics and ‘law-abiding’ gun owners
Baby-killing clinics don’t deserve support Editor Kristin Palpini says, “Abortion isn’t the murder of a baby” (Between the Lines: Defund cancer screenings? Oct. 1-7, 2015). Excuse me? Of course it is. What a despicable sentiment! Planned Parenthood is in the business...From Our Readers: Gun owners should carry insurance; Marijuana bust right or wrong?
First Head People tend to travel in the direction they are looking. It is obvious that the lady from Wilbraham who wrote the recent letter entitled “Bad Bible” is one of the multitude who sit in front of their televisions and inhale reams of anti-Christian twit...
From Our Readers: ‘White people in danger, too’; ‘Go Marthas!’
Unite community around treating addiction I read the article about community opposition to new drug/alcohol treatment centers in Greenfield and Springfield (“Not In Our Backyards” Sept. 24-30, 2015) with great interest. It’s hard to oppose a community uniting for...From Our Readers: Help everyone; legalize recreational drugs
Kalliope Jones’ privilege Editor’s note: This comment was made online under the article “Kalliope Jones Takes it to the Web.” True, this is an important problem. You undermine the conversation, though, when you do the following: Scapegoat individuals rather than look...From Our Readers: Jazz Fest marred by ‘loud mouths;’ Bad Bible
Jazz Festival marred by ‘loud mouths’ It was impossible not to notice that during the painstaking and brilliant jazz performances occurring Saturday afternoon on the main stage of the Northampton Jazz Festival, a constant din of beer-induced mouth-noise loomed over...
From Our Readers: Change the conversation with #EachLifeMatters
Change the conversation with #EachLifeMatters I am a black man who is troubled by #BlackLivesMatter. A human being is a microcosm of humanity, yet as Father Zossima remarks in The Brothers Karamazov, “It is easy to love mankind, but much more difficult to love a...
From Our Readers: No time for a tree house; Feminism and lingerie don’t mix
No time for a tree house Very seldom do I read an article in the Advocate that makes me want to respond. My first and last thought to this article, “Let Brandon Have His Tree House Already,” Aug. 27-Sept. 2, 2015, was where is this author’s head. Before people get...From Our Readers: Don’t take pregnancy for granted; On Trump and abortion
Sanders is a champion of the working class Bernie Sanders, in contrast to the last five American presidents, is like a soothing summer breeze (“Citizen Sanders,” Aug.13-19, 2015). He has no cloaked agenda. With Sanders everything is up front for you to like or...
Letters From Our Readers: Aug. 27-Sept. 2, 2015
Social good or Catholic bashing? In a coincidental twist, right before coming across Editor Kristin Palpini’s article, “Catholic Church Shirks Duty to Aging Religious,” Aug. 6-12, 2015, I read that the Diocese of Springfield donated $1 million dollars to the Sisters...From Our Readers: Protect Planned Parenthood, life-saving abortion
Don’t Defund Planned Parenthood Why are Republicans still trying to defund Planned Parenthood? Don’t they know that by providing millions of women with effective birth control, Planned Parenthood is preventing the abortions that would result from the unwanted...From Our Readers
Editor loves murder of unborn children Kristin Palpini is a proud pro-abort who says that killing the unborn is a “medically necessary procedure” that should be “acceptable” (“Why I Am Pro-Abortion,” July 30-Aug. 5, 2015). Of course, she’s lying. According to...
Posted: Facebook comments in response to last week’s abortion story
Soon after we posted a link to Editor Kristin Palpini’s article “Why I Am Pro-Abortion And You Should Be Too,” to Facebook, the comments came pouring in. Here’s what readers had to say about the staunchly pro-choice Between the Lines that ran in the July 30, 2015...Guest Column: An open letter to Gov. Baker, renewable energy alternatives to the gas pipeline
Open Letter to Gov. Baker: Renewable energy alternatives to the gas pipeline We call on you to support Attorney General Maura Healey’s planned evaluation of all energy sources — including efficiency, demand response, and renewables — by their availability, cost,...Letters From Our Readers, July 23-29, 2015: The Civil War was about slavery. Deal!
The Civil War was about slavery. Deal. I just read the letter from Joe Bialek (“Gun control and the Confederate flag” July 9-15, 2015). His comments and ideas regarding guns and the stars and bars were very reasonable and thoughtful. As for the end of the letter, he...From Our Readers, Hold the accolades for Northampton police
Northampton police and race: Hold the accolades A few years ago, while sitting at my desk, I saw a tall, thin white man dressed in a black jacket, black jeans, and a watch cap, trying to climb into my neighbor’s window. I called the police. A few minutes later they...
From Our Readers, July 2-8, 2015: Let freedom explode!, calling out pooshoodog
Let freedom explode In addition to New York, in the past 10 years or so, the following states have liberalized their laws relative to the sale and use of consumer fireworks: Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Utah....From Our Readers: Listen up, lady writers, let a man explain
Listen up, lady writers, let a man explain Editor’s Note: This comment appeared online at www.valleyadvocate.com under the article “Stories From All Directions: Tackling the gender gap in publishing.” Where women miss out [in getting their writing published] is in...From Our Readers: June 25- July 1, 2015: The ‘S’ word, and baseball in Springfield
The S-word Bernie Sanders’ presidential candidacy has brought the “s-word”— socialism — back into the American political vocabulary. But what does it actually mean? Dictionary definitions are useless. Tea partiers call President Obama a socialist. The third letter in...
Posted: Comments on the Valley Advocate’s Facebook page
This week instead of letters, the Advocate is featuring Facebook comments recently posted on our page. You all are poignant and hilarious; keep commenting and sharing. Everyone else, like us on Facebook and join the discussion. Sometimes protesting is a lonely job....From Our Readers: June 11-17, 2015
It’s time for baseball in Springfield I have been following the debate surrounding the Pawtucket Red Sox (AAA affiliate of Boston Red Sox) and the efforts to build a new $85 million dollar baseball stadium in Providence. Rhode Island House Speaker Nicolas Mattiello...E-Edition
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