When I heard that Provincetown was hosting an “active shooter attack prevention and preparedness” training session, my initial reaction was skepticism. The town’s press release said, “This crucial training event […]
Editorials
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
A Litany of Errors
I taught writing to college freshmen back in the 1980s, when the internet was young. As a tool for doing research, the new technology seemed almost magically powerful and seductive. […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Small Towns, Big Ideas
There is so much to fear. Hard-won progress in civil rights, reproductive rights, and gender equality has rapidly eroded; we are beyond the overture of a climate catastrophe; war and […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Ghost Newsroom Busters
We started this newspaper in 2019 because we saw journalism dying here. The Provincetown Banner and the Cape Codder, once robust, were struggling. Word was readers and advertisers didn’t care […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Fifty-Five Horses
Jack Styler is a young writer who will be joining our newsroom as a staff reporter next month. He’s a Midwesterner; he graduated from the University of Wisconsin two years […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Scare Tactics
In a front-page story in last week’s Independent, Paul Benson took a look at some of the supposed facts that have surfaced in talk about affordable housing on the Outer […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Liking Sentences
Is writing a dying art? Sometimes I wonder. Years ago, I taught expository writing to freshmen at a college where many of the students were intensely ambitious. The ones who […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Short-Term Sins
Last week the Boston Globe reported “a rare bit of good news on the housing front — at least for vacationers” on Cape Cod: “renting at a reasonable rate might […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Tickled by the Fake
Two weeks ago, page 3 of the Independent was our annual April Fool’s fake front page. We’ve done this for five years, and you might think that readers would have […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Shrinking the Kids
What is it like to live on Outer Cape Cod and have a new baby? The feeling of isolation can be overwhelming, Becky Fischer told Independent reporter Olivia Oldham in […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Not Mincing Words
When I heard last Friday that Buddy Perkel had died, my heart sank. I thought about the day we first met, nearly 30 years ago. Teresa and I had just […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Northeast Kingdom News
I received a fine letter this week from Jeff Havlick, a subscriber in Eastham. He enclosed a clipping from the Caledonian Record, the local newspaper in St. Johnsbury, Vt., in […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
How Old Is Too Old?
At the start of the recent Wellfleet Community Forum, Sheila Lyons informed the large crowd that had come to talk about the precarious state of town government that Irene Daitch […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
White-Collar Criminals
Before we started the Independent, I worked at the Provincetown Banner, where a weekly feature was the “police blotter.” That’s what we called it, at least, but it wasn’t full […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Forsaking Science
A significant number of Americans are skeptical of climate science. According to the Pew Research Center, about 3 in 10 say that taking action on climate change is not important, […]