Rachel Markowitz: The alternative news I needed

Once again I feel compelled to sing the praises of our daily newspaper. Last week, in addition to covering the day’s pressing news stories, the Gazette featured a quieter but no less important item in the B section: retired Hitchcock Center naturalist Ted Watt’s spirited recollection of taking a group of schoolkids on a snowy hike in search of animal tracks [”Learning a Sense of Wonder,” March 19].

Guest columnist Sarena Neyman: Political sadism and defying the power of cruelty

By SARENA NEYMAN

Columnist Carrie N. Baker with Andrea Moore: In defense of higher education and critical thinking

By CARRIE N. BAKER and ANDREA MOORE

In 2021, now-Vice President J.D. Vance gave a speech titled ”Universities are the Enemy.”

Guest columnist Jim Palermo: Government in society’s best interests

By JIM PALERMO

Elisa K. Campbell: Thoughts on driving through Northampton

Recent discussion in the Gazette about the Main Street project causes me to think it may not be too late for me, a non-Northampton resident, to comment. I live in Amherst. I shop occasionally from a few stores in Northampton; more often, I go there to cultural events at the Forbes, or the Academy of Music, Look Park or Smith College.

Joseph Twarog: Praise for city dispatchers

The Northampton city dispatchers deserve recognition for their professionalism, skill, knowledge, expertise and patience in handling emergency calls. They are to be commended for their work. Great job!

Andy Morris-Friedman: Trump Derangement Syndrome is very real

Is it true? I just read that a bunch of Republicans in Minnesota are trying to get Trump derangement syndrome (TDS) listed as a mental illness.

Alan Kanner: Comparison

Donald Trump makes Richard Nixon look like the pope.

Mark S. Augarten: Insurance costs and municipalities

Although not good news, I was glad to see the Gazette’s front page coverage concerning the impact that health insurance costs are having on municipalities and their school districts [”‘Budget buster:’ Spiking health insurance costs burdening local municipal budgets,” March 21].

Sarah Wishnevsky: Russia started it

I write in response to Lundy Bancroft’s March 14 letter “Negotiate, don’t escalate,” which uncritically echoes the counterfactual talking points of the Russo-Ukrainian War’s unconditional aggressor: Russia under the authoritarian regime of Vladimir Putin.

Guest columnist Barbara A. Rouillard: Freedom — A lesson learned

By BARBARA A. ROUILLARD

David Ball: Russia is responsible for the war, not Ukraine

I don’t know where the “peace activist” who urged negotiations with Vladimir Putin in the March 14 Gazette got her facts about the Minsk accords [“Negotiate, don’t escalate,” letter]. She claims Ukraine broke the agreement, so the war is Ukraine’s fault.

Karin Lee: In support of DEI

‘Arlington Cemetery scrubs links deemed diversity” is the headline of a Washington Post article reprinted on Page A6 of the March 15 Gazette. The article explains how the Department of Defense has deleted internal links directing users to graves of notable Black, Hispanic and female veterans, as well as eliminating content on the Civil War. No longer can we easily find content that highlights leaders of color or women.

Angela Parker: A favor to ask — remember those fighting long Covid

I was ordered into medical quarantine on Friday the 13th of March 2020. Nothing could have prepared me for the next several days, weeks, and months ahead … let alone years. I watched the sun go down from my bed as I binge-watched stupid pet videos for serotonin and escapism while fighting off death for eight nights.

Mike and Miriam Kurland: Congress must stop Trump’s destruction of Dept. of Education

Congress must reject President Donald Trump’s and Elon Musk’s plans to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education and undermine the foundation of public education in this country.

Letter: Fighting antisemitism must not be a pretext to rollback fundamental rights

The government’s detention and threatened deportation of Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil is a five-alarm fire for freedom of speech in the U.S. Instead of claiming that Mr. Khalil engaged in criminality, the government says it wants to deport him because it doesn’t like what he said.

David Arbeitman: It’s time to imagine the unimaginable

Most Americans, including many Republicans, do not support the onslaught of executive orders that President Donald Trump has enacted since returning to the Oval Office. Many are appalled by the indiscriminate, chaotic, and precipitous firing of tens of thousands of federal workers, many of them veterans.

Jennifer Bryan: Who are the real antisemites?

When antisemites like the Trump administration conduct a witch hunt for “antisemites,” lines blur and confusion rises, as the term antisemite becomes a tool of suppression. Read Timothy Snyder’s article [”‘Antisemitism’ and Antisemitism”] on the misuse and abuse of the word “antisemitism” for clarity as he reveals that “The American government’s war on higher education and freedom of expression is proceeding according to the same antisemitic rules of engagement as Russia’s war against Ukraine.” (The Russian foreign minister claims Hitler was Jewish.)

Patricia Crosby: The bad boss

We are now all working under the bad boss. You know him. He’s the one who comes in thinking he knows everything, and instead of taking the time to watch, listen, and ask questions, just smashes everything up. It takes years for people to clean up after him.