Between the Lines
Correcting The Record: You Should Wear Masks
Now firmly in the second month of intense disruption caused by the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, it’s getting clearer to see that information is among our most highly prized assets as we continue to shelter in place and undertake other efforts to flatten the...
We needed unemployment reform years ago, and there’s a crisis now
I’m sad to report that I was among those laid off last week by Valley Advocate parent company Newspapers of New England, which also owns the Daily Hampshire Gazette and the Greenfield Recorder. As you can see, I’m still here writing the Advocate’s...
Editorial: A pandemic is a time to remember the vulnerable
As news pours in regarding the coronavirus, it is becoming clear the scale of how many people’s lives are affected in such dramatic ways. In terms of the Advocate’s function as the keeper of the community calendar, we’re having to reinvent as we go with the vast...
Editorial: Investigating the treatment of asylum seekers in the U.S.
This week, the Advocate begins a three-part series by Luis Fieldman about asylum seekers who have made it to western Massachusetts, and those who have helped to get them here. Political stability is something we in the United States take for granted. Even having the...
Editorial: Lessons from a less-than-super Tuesday
It’s Opposite Day in the Democratic primary. Super Tuesday was forecast to be a major victory for the progressive movement, culminating in a possibly insurmountable delegate lead for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, with moderates hopelessly divided. Instead, former Vice...
Editorial: Preserving community amid a communicable disease
I’ve watched with growing concern the reports about the coronavirus morphing from an outbreak local to a region of China into what health experts are warning could become a full-blown pandemic. It’s important to state up front that the risk of contracting the virus in...
Editorial: It really is time to abolish ICE
Tactical forces are descending upon Massachusetts. What is the existential threat that brought this about? A hunt for the undocumented among us. WBUR reported last week that “SWAT-like immigration officers” are in Boston, and possibly will be coming to other parts of...
Endorsement: Bernie Sanders for President
Democrats, and truly all Americans outside of the president’s devoted base, have now been spending years trying to think up who best to challenge Trump to vote him out of office. The editorial staff at the Valley Advocate is unanimous. Our choice is Vermont Senator...
Editorial: Needless election tech — and the Iowa Caucus — need to go
In years past, there may have been times for me when the beginning of February was a time to look forward to the Super Bowl, or even the State of the Union with other presidents. This year, it was all about the Iowa caucus. After more than a year of anticipation, we...
Editorial: The slow progress of East-West rail
With recent success in the expansion of North-South rail, in some ways it feels like there is momentum finally building for an East-West line. However, Gov. Charlie Baker seemed to throw some cold water on that last week during the opening of a handicapped-accessible...
Editorial: We Can’t Afford To Let Them Divide Us
It was probably inevitable that — with so much at stake — the tone of the Democratic primary would ratchet up. Supporters of various candidates who believe in the vision of those candidates can look at the world, at the conditions that brought us President Donald...
Editorial: Problem gambling data collection is coming too late
In a spectacular example of closing the door after the horse has already run off, the city of Springfield now has a new program to collect data on problem gambling, also known as compulsive gambling — nearly a year and a half after the MGM Springfield Casino has...
Editorial: ‘The Moment We All Feared’
“The moment we all feared is likely upon us. An unstable President in way over his head, panicking, with all his experienced advisers having quit, and only the sycophantic amateurs remaining. Assassinating foreign leaders, announcing plans to bomb civilians. A...
Editorial: Another Year, Another Women’s March
If there’s one good thing the Trump presidency has brought us, it’s the annual Women’s March. Begun as a response to Trump defeating Hillary Clinton, the first woman to earn a major party nomination in the United States, the march attracted nearly half a million...
Editorial: Advocates for human rights deserve to be heard
This week a disgusting lawsuit — that tried to censor a Palestinian human rights panel that in part dealt with how Palestinian voices are censored — was dropped. Three anonymous students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst tried to stop the May event, titled...
Editorial: Don’t Let Big Money Win the Argument Over Medicare for All
Every year around this time, I take a look at my pay stubs and look at the accrued total I’ve paid in health insurance premiums. This year, it will be almost exactly $5,000, which doesn’t include the additional copayments as well as the hundreds spent on dental...
Editorial: Support for those seeking sanctuary
It was as recently as October when I used this space to observe the two-year anniversary of Lucio Perez taking sanctuary in the First Congregational Church in Amherst. A resident of the Valley for nearly 20 years, Perez is married and has three children who are U.S....
Editorial: Automation without oversight has deadly consequences
In March 2018, a 49-year-old woman named Elaine Herzberg was struck and killed by an Uber-owned self-driving car in Tempe, Arizona. Last week, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released a summary of its report on the accident, and the results are quite...
Editorial: Use your billions on something other than running for president
There has rightly been much interest in the Democratic primary, both from voters and from potential candidates. By spring of this year, it became clear we had a record number of people running to be the one to take the dishonest, racist Trump out of the office of...
Editorial: Battling ALS, David Kaynor continues to inspire
One of the first ways I got connected to Western Mass was through the vibrant contra dance community that continues to exist here. When I first stumbled on contra dance in 2002 in southwestern New Hampshire where I grew up, most agreed that some of the best dancing to...
Editorial: Addressing a fading news industry
Usually, we the journalists don’t like being the story. It’s much more comfortable reporting the news of events with which we’re not directly involved, but there are times it has been unavoidable. Over the past couple of years, the Advocate has been the subject of...
Editorial: The Horrors of Unfair Prison Visitation Practices
As we come upon Halloween, that night of frights, there’s a bill going through the Statehouse now that addresses real horrors with our prison system. As reported in Tuesday’s Daily Hampshire Gazette by writer Noor Adatia, Nia Reid-Patterson explained through tears...
Editorial: Two-year immigrant sanctuary milestone is our shame
Two years. That’s how long it’s been that Springfield resident Lucio Perez has been forced to live in sanctuary at the First Congregational Church in Amherst. Before taking the extraordinary step to escape an immoral deportation order — based on a minor charge that...
Editorial: Vaping ban the latest in a series of troubling state actions
We’re now about three weeks into Gov. Charlie Baker’s unilateral four-month vape ban. How did we get here? It’s really not clear. Very little information has come out of the Governor’s office to justify what has appeared to be a knee-jerk reaction to recent reports...
Editorial: Years-long Debates Boil Down to One Ballot in Greenfield
We’re less than a month out from Election Day 2019 — Tuesday, Nov. 5 — and while there won’t be candidates for state or federal office on the ballots, there will be a number of important local elections decided. But there are few places that will see as many important...
Editorial: Animal rights is the elephant in the room for the Big E
It is long past time the Big E ended displays involving wild animals — or what should be wild animals — held in captivity. As if to prove the point, earlier this month, Beulah the elephant, owned by R.W. Commerford & Sons Traveling Petting Zoo in Goshen,...
Editorial: Biden’s Electability Argument Is Crumbling
I’ve never been an enthusiastic Joe Biden supporter. His history on criminal justice — supporting harsh sentences for drug crimes and the War on Drugs — his mishandling of the Clarence Thomas hearings, his vote for the Iraq War, and his lack of support for Medicare...
Editorial: Where is Elizabeth Warren’s endorsement in the Neal-Morse race?
Massachusetts Senator and presidential Front-Runner-To-Be Elizabeth Warren made waves this week by endorsing two progressive Democratic challengers to sitting conservative Democrats in districts in Illinois and Texas. These insurgent candidates — immigration lawyer...
Editorial: The Life of Frances Crowe
As all the world knows, Frances Crowe is an activist institution in the Valley, and well beyond. And that’s why, even having lived the full life she did, the community still feels her passing deeply. But in her 100 years, we can all find some inspiration. I’m proud to...
Editorial: Fear of ‘straight white guys’
Perhaps the two most visceral issues of our modern political era collided last week in the words of Greenfield City Council President Karen “Rudy” Renaud — immigration and gun violence. While defending her Safe City Ordinance, which essentially prohibits local law...
Activist leader Michaelann Bewsee would not stand for injustice
The city of Springfield and the activism community reaching much further lost a committed champion this week as former Arise for Social Justice executive director (and former Valley Advocate staffer) Michaelann Bewsee died from complications of lung cancer. She was...
Editorial: Conspiracy theories or not, prison reform is needed
The suicide death in jail of billionaire and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has sparked confusion and outrage across the nation, and many ill-founded conspiracy theories online. Many are rightly worried that Epstein’s rich and powerful associates who may have...
Editorial: Paying Homage to the Nuclear Resistance
Seventy-four years ago this week, the United States did the unconscionable: we dropped nuclear weapons on two cities — Hiroshima and Nagasaki — killing and maiming hundreds of thousands of people, and vastly increasing the rates of cancer and other radiation-linked...
Editorial: Performing at a 24-hour ‘413 Says #ClosetheCamps’ event
For 24 continuous hours this past weekend, musicians, theater groups, comedians, jugglers, kirtan singers, yoga enthusiasts, and a long list of other artists in the Pioneer Valley came together to say, “Close the Camps” along the southwest border, where thousands of...
Editorial: It’s So Hot that Iceland Lost a Glacier
In Los Angeles, an all time high temperature of 111 degrees Fahrenheit was recorded. Montreal, Canada, also recorded its all-time high. Death Valley experienced the hottest month ever recorded on Earth, with an average of 108 degrees. Japan set a new national...
Editorial: White Supremacy in the White House
It used to feel worthwhile to list off the terrible things that Donald Trump has done since assuming office in the beginning of 2017 — particularly the examples of his blatant racism. The Advocate did as much in a story at the beginning of 2018 pushing back on when he...
Editorial: Greenfield gets another shot at a Safe City Ordinance – Don’t blow it
It’s back. Greenfield’s “Safe City Ordinance,” which was voted down in a 6-4 vote in 2017, has been proposed once again by City Councilor Karen “Rudy” Renaud. The ordinance, which would prohibit city officials from asking about a person’s immigration status or to take...
Editorial: A moral and humanitarian crisis at the border
Independence Day is here again — the 243rd anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. But as we celebrate the foundation of this country, it is difficult to ignore the human rights abuses being perpetrated in its name on our southern border. The...
Editorial: How do you solve a problem like Eric Suher?
Last week, New England Public Radio published a report quoting multiple former employees of the Iron Horse Entertainment Group (IHEG) alleging labor violations, including improper payroll deductions (also known as wage theft), late paychecks, and failure to post...
Editorial: Pioneering a Journalism Support Model in the Pioneer Valley
I was on a hike with a friend and former colleague in 2012 when I first seriously considered the idea the Advocate is now undertaking. As we talked, it didn’t take us long to get to our frustrations that so many journalistic organizations were on shaky financial...
Editorial: A Focus on Some Good Political News
Often this space is used to chide lawmakers for cowardice, stupidity, greed, or cruelty … and rightly so. But every so often, politicians get it right, and it’s important that we celebrate those times as well as bring attention to when our leaders fall short. So below...
Editorial: Just Impeach Him Already!!
Honestly, I was not among those who thought the Mueller report would ignite impeachment proceedings to remove Donald Trump from the presidency. I did follow along with sickening dismay at news reports of Trump’s efforts to obstruct the investigation, but I doubted...
Editorial: Looking beyond recycling for climate change solutions
Last week an item in the Advocate’s calendar was a “climate crisis grief-sharing gathering” in Northampton. The description read as follows: “Home gathering to share grief, fear, anxiety, despair, and anger about the climate crisis.” Participants were encouraged to...
Editorial: If It’s Not Your Body, It’s Not Your Business
I was 17 when I had my first abortion. I was not ready to become a mother. I was still in high school, no money in the bank, and admittedly still a child myself. I know if I didn’t have that choice, my life would be 100 percent different than it is today. Sometimes I...
Editorial: Even Politicians Are Beginning to Support Medicare For All in Mass
Earlier this week, both Holyoke and South Hadley overwhelmingly passed municipal resolutions in support of Medicare for All legislation. A few weeks earlier, Boston’s City Council did the same. They join Northampton, Cambridge, Williamsburg, and assorted other...
Editorial: We Need To Support Healthy Food Programs For Low-Income People
With the constant hum of negative political news at the national and international level, it’s easy to miss the fact that we may be on the verge of something very positive on the local and state level with regard to food and hunger. The centerpiece has been a...
Guest Column: Richard Neal and the sabotaged free tax filing program
This is a story about what happens behind closed doors in Washington, how politicians quietly sell out the public interest to lobbyists and campaign donors, and how both groups then manipulate the truth to get away with it. Our main characters: The powerful tax prep...
Editorial: We’re Living in a Teachable Moment On Vaccines
Last week, a Facebook comment thread on a Valley Advocate parenting column about dealing with tantrums went in an unexpected direction. Despite the article having nothing to do with vaccines, a reader took the opportunity to rail against them and espouse conspiracy...
Guest column: Richard Neal Auctioning Away Our Seat In Congress
Three weeks after U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, D-Springfield, won his 16th term in Congress last November, he threw himself a giant weekend celebration. You probably didn’t get an invitation. Instead, according to the narrative that emerges from Neal’s Federal Election...
Editorial: Human Support for Striking Stop & Shop Workers
Since Thursday, April 11, Stop & Shop workers have been on strike, picketing what their union says is an unfair contract deal with owners of the grocery store chain. Hanging in the background of this dispute is one of the great demons of employment today — robots....
Editorial: Half-baked Plan Not Good Enough for Hampshire
Although the future of Hampshire College still remains uncertain, there’s a lot to be said for the strong level of support for the experimental 1960s-established college among Valley residents, alumni, students, faculty, and staff in advocating for an independent...
Editorial: Policing the Police in Springfield
Last week, 14 Springfield police officers were indicted by a Worcester-based grand jury. It was in connection with a 2015 alleged assault on four people following a disagreement at a city bar. Some are charged with assault and battery, and others for covering it up....
Editorial: Compassion Needs to Cut Through the Distractions with Gun Deaths
Following the Parkland shooting last year, I was inspired by the activism of many of the student survivors, who marched to their state capital and lobbied Washington for gun control. The Advocate did a story about how those students were inspiring students in our own...
Editorial: Still At It After 45 Years
Astute readers will no doubt observe the “plus” sign after the number 45 on this week’s cover. That is us coming clean that, no, this is not exactly our 45th anniversary issue. We wanted to bring you something like Chris Goudreau’s vast history of the Advocate...
Editorial: So Long, Sam’s Pizzeria
Last Saturday night after returning home from The Big Surf Dance, an indoor, 12-hour winter music fest supporting veterans transitioning into housing, at Hawks & Reed in Greenfield, I heard the sad news that Sam’s Pizzeria in Northampton was closing after 12 years...
Editorial: Massachusetts must consider supervised drug consumption sites
This past week, the state Legislature’s Harm Reduction Commission — the advisory group looking at solutions to the drug epidemic — released its report. As expected, the commission, which is made up of current and former drug users as well as doctors, government...
Editorial: The ABCs of the #FakeNationalEmergency
It was, to put it mildly, an act of moral turpitude and callous disregard for the suffering of separated families and victims of violence when President Donald Trump announced he would be circumventing Congress to declare a national emergency that, by his own...
Editorial: Back in the Weekly Swing
Excitement. Elation. Eagerness. Those were the emotions that bubbled up when I got the news that the Advocate would be returning to a weekly schedule, and that after six months performing other roles in the company I was being asked to return as its editor. What you...
Editorial: Vote for Chelsea Kline for State Senate on Sept. 4
So often with candidates running for public office, one must rest the decision to vote for them primarily on their words. In her short political career as a candidate for state Senate, however, Chelsea Kline has amassed some impressive actions. Kline is running in the...E-Edition
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