Opinion

Guest columnist Gwen Agna: Why I voted for school board budget

By GWEN AGNA

I write, on my behalf and only my behalf, to clarify my reason for voting for the level services budget for the Northampton Public Schools.I did not vote for it because I think there are millions of dollars being socked away irresponsibly by our...

My Turn: Quabbin region will never see any bounty

By MIKE MAGEE

 Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Never again should the residents of the Quabbin region be fooled into believing that they will see any benefits from the Quabbin Reservoir.In the 1930s, the state took the entire towns of...

Frank Higbie: Don’t cancel student debt

I visited Northampton on the first weekend of May and picked up a copy of the Gazette and a front-page article about the pains of student debt caught my attention. All too often I read similar articles about today’s snowflake generation pleading for...

Guest columnist David Narkewicz: Fiscal Stability Plan beats school budget overreach

By DAVID NARKEWICZ

Since leaving office I have avoided the public spotlight, but recent controversy regarding Northampton’s budget and the city’s Fiscal Stability Plan compel me to offer some historical perspective.When I was sworn in as mayor in 2012, our finances...

Columnist Bill Newman: Laurels and the laureate

By BILL NEWMAN

This column is about my daughter Jo, her daughters Kobin and Ramona, a horse named Lady and the U.S. Poet Laureate, Ada Limón. And it also isn’t.Kobin is five, almost six. Ramona is three, close to four. Jo, the girls and their dad, Jo’s husband Dean,...

Rebecca Lee: Counter corporate capture

In Olin Rose-Bardawil’s column “Corporate capture a grave threat to citizens” [Gazette, April 11], he argues that corporate involvement in agencies is determining federal regulations, which results in increased profits for industries, leaving people...

Jim Reis: Northampton school budget — What went wrong?

What happened? Clearly something went wrong the last couple of years in budget planning for Northampton schools. We don’t need to blame individuals, but we do need to understand the faulty process that led to this crisis to avoid this happening again....

Columnist Olin Rose-Bardawil: American dream out of reach for many

By OLIN ROSE-BARDAWIL

We live in a society that often tells us to form opinions that neatly conform to one ideological side or the other. Yet when it comes to the most important issues, it can be unhelpful to come to such rigid conclusions. F. Scott Fitzgerald was right...

Martha Jorz: Stop supporting UMass and Raytheon

To those protesting the war and genocide in Gaza, refusing to support those institutions with monetary gifts is also an option. If we stop financially supporting and investing in those institutions that make the production of weapons of war possible...

Tony Giardina: Faith and inclusion

I am writing in response to MarielAddis’ column “Under seige from all sides,” [Gazette, April 18] where the writer bemoans Pope Francis’ recent remarks questioning gender theory and “sex changes” as “grave threats” to humanity today. Like all...

John Frey: School Committee must practice prudent fiscal management

I am a Northampton public school parent who wants our schools to be funded as robustly as possible. But the arguments made by Northampton Ward 4 School Committee member Michael Stein (“Serving educational needs shouldn’t be ‘aspirational’,” Gazette,...

Doron Goldman: Israel's situation is complicated

In response to Nancy Grossman’s guest column [“How to keep right on going in Gaza,” Gazette, May 4], my view is as follows: Not complicated — 1) Cease-fire now 2) Hamas is a terrorist organization 3) Netanyahu is a criminal 4) Oct. 7 was a horrific...

Jeanne Horrigan: Amherst seniors grateful for ARPA support

The Amherst Senior Center is pleased to be the recipient of $2.5 million in ARPA funding, to be used for building renovations. These funds represent more than their dollar amount, they are an investment in the needs of the ever-growing population of...

Guest columnist Phil Wilson: Let us pick local town officials by sortition

By PHIL WILSON

Here is a way for Northampton, Amherst, or any local town to become the cutting edge of democracy: Do away with elections.People who consciously scheme to obtain power tend to be, well … power hungry. If you don’t want narcissists and psychopaths...

Joseph Morse: So much to be thankful for

So much to be thankful for … with the war in Gaza so many other world problems have disappeared from the Gazette’s pages. No more climate crisis, no war in Ukraine, no border crisis and no starvation in Sudan. Could it really be that calls for a...

Karen Foster Cannon: Michael Stein does not speak for me

I read with interest the recent guest column by Northampton School Committee member Michael Stein, who used the word “we” on behalf of the School Committee while expressing his individual views and reasons for his vote on the Northampton school budget...

Letter: It's not Us vs Them

I have been very disappointed in the rhetoric around the school budget. The issue began when the School Committee spent one-time COVID money on ongoing costs like teacher salaries. That was a mistake on their part that is causing the current...

Guest columnist Josh Silver: Northampton school budget — Let’s start with kindness, accuracy and respect

By JOSH SILVER

The debate over Northampton school funding is the latest example of the circular firing squad of the American political left. According to the loudest voices for maximum school funding, anyone who points out that the budget recently approved by the...

Kurt Heidinger: Biden breaking law, not students

Because our president, with votes of support from our Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey, is breaking the law, our nation is lawless; and instead of him our college students are, for demanding he obey the law, being arrested and processed as...