I’m writing this on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a national holiday since 1986, and thinking about what all the people born since then might know about the man. Elders […]
Editorials
REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK
On Writing Obituaries
I started writing obituaries for the Independent last May, and in the months since I have written roughly 50. While I can’t say that the work gives me pleasure, I […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
A Vigil for Democracy
If you are driving by the Orleans rotary on Thursday, Jan. 6 between 1 and 2:30 p.m. you will see the local edition of a nationwide “day of remembrance and […]
LETTER FROM THE ARTS EDITOR
Looking Through Opera Glasses
For this year’s Divine Comedy-themed art and photography extra, most of the contributors chose Inferno. It’s not surprising, considering the hellish couple of years we’ve had. Not represented in this […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Sustaining the News
Many readers sent us a link last week to a fine piece by Boston Globe columnist Renée Loth, titled “Saving Democracy’s Front Lines — Local Newspapers.” “Local newspapers hold a […]
REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK
At the Scene
It’s 9:40 a.m. Tuesday (deadline day) when an email comes from my editor. “This just came in. Can you get the story?” he asks. Attached is an email from a […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
A Dastardly Deed
In our issue dated Aug. 19 of this year, Stephen Kinzer wrote a stirring essay about President Theodore Roosevelt’s visit to Provincetown in the summer of 1907 to lay the […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Schoolyard Fantasy
The Wellfleet Elementary School has not had a playground since March 2020, as staff reporter Jasmine Lu wrote in the Oct. 7 issue of the Independent. First, it was off-limits […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
A Local Newspaper With Benefits
Seven weeks ago, as we passed the two-year mark and began Volume 3 of the Independent, I wrote about our finances and where we stood in relation to our projections. […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Paradise Dangled
As a boy growing up in the 1950s, paradise was a pine-paneled cottage in the Surfside Colony at Lecount Hollow Beach. A few of you cringed as you read that […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
A Humpty Dumpty Policy
Five weeks ago, we published a story with the headline “Truro and Wellfleet Will Fail to Meet Their Housing Goals.” It summarized the four Outer Cape towns’ affordable housing production […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Content Creation
I’m glad E.B. White is dead. The New Yorker staff writer and author of Charlotte’s Web famously wrote an impassioned warning against sponsored content in 1976. I wouldn’t want him […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
A Silver Lining
Just when I find myself in an especially bad mood — because I forgot to renew the car registration and ended up with the car towed, or my computer somehow […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Holding On to Town Centers
“Route 6 is horrible,” says Art Autorino, chair of the Eastham Select Board, in a report in this issue by Cam Blair. We’ve probably all had that same thought, while […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Silence for the Trees
One of the strange things about being an editor in a small community is that, as the years go by, the news seems to repeat itself. Back in 2016, Russell […]
