Whither Northampton?
I'm writing to express my heartfelt sympathy to Northampton for the election results, and for the ongoing erosion of the town I knew and loved. Your leader doesn't understand or care about your beauty, history, and character: you are in a spiritual downturn, not just an economic one. And you lack the visionary, collaborative leadership to reverse this trend.
Mayor Higgins and her cohorts will offer platitudes like "Change is inevitable," while Smith College will assert that 'institutions have a right and obligation to grow and change to meet demands." Progress, growth, and change can happen without losing the character and cultural life of neighborhoods and communities. But it must be done with care, participation and respect. Private colleges and developers don't see it as their job to maintain the distinct natural environment, history, and cultural heritage that makes you special. You're now a city that's divided almost cleanly in half, as the election numbers show. Northampton, I'm deeply saddened by your loss. For centuries you've given us a beautiful sanctuary, and you don't deserve to be treated with callous disregard by those who can't see beyond immediate, short-term, economic gain.
Ann Foley
Berkeley, Calif.
Former 5th-generation Northampton resident
Don't Suppress Fever
What is missing from public discourse over the swine flu pandemic is any discussion of the contribution made by ill-advised medical treatment to the disease's mortality and morbidity. Tom Vannah, fearing for his sick little girl [Between the Lines, Nov. 5, 2009], gives her the "recommended dose of acetaminophen." That's what doctors tell people to do, apparently having forgotten a core lesson of physiology: a fever is the body's main defense against a viral illness. Not a piddling fever of 100 or even 102, but a nice strong fever of 103. Reduce that fever with aspirin or Tylenol or any other antipyretic and you guarantee a longer, more difficult convalescence—if not worse. The Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-19 was so deadly because what started out as influenza morphed into a rampaging pneumonia that killed within hours—but that came after treatment with aspirin, which was the new wonder-drug and liberally misused. Healthy adults were essentially dying of Reye's syndrome provoked by suppression of their fever.
Dale C. Moss, Classical Homeopath
via email
