Op-Eds
ORGANIZING CHAOS
A Perilous Time for Public Libraries
Local community needs should not fall victim to politics
Libraries organize chaos. So wrote Nancy Kalikow Maxwell in her book, Sacred Stacks: The Higher Purpose of Libraries. And lately, or maybe always, there is plenty of chaos to organize. […]
OPTING IN
A Game-Changer for the Housing Crisis
Towns should adopt the ‘seasonal communities’ designation now
Twenty-five years ago, families who made $60,000 a year could afford to buy a house here. Today, households making less than $300,000 a year struggle to find housing on the […]
OP-ART
Social Insecurity
MAURICE’S MASTER PLAN
Keeping Wellfleet Wellfleet
‘This place is precious,’ the town’s planning consultants were told
Last summer, I facilitated three focus groups about the future of Maurice’s Campground in Wellfleet. Our consultants organized them to allow the Maurice’s Campground Planning Committee to hear directly from […]
CAMPGROUND ARGUMENTS
The Opponents of Maurice’s Are Ill-Informed
New housing will help mitigate destructive market forces
Most of the arguments for delaying, reducing, or halting the affordable housing project at Maurice’s Campground in Wellfleet are ill-informed or based on false information. First, it’s argued that the […]
KEEPING WATCH
We Are at War With Autocracy
The ‘Hands Off!’ movement is the beginning of resistance
A story that has long haunted me is called to mind by recent events. In 1614, Thomas Hunt, an English explorer and trader, was ordered by his captain, John Smith […]
MAKING SENSE OF MAGA
The Real American Story
The Democrats lost in 2024 because they are on the wrong side of the narrative
A lie could travel from Maine to Georgia whilst truth was drawing on her boots. —attributed to John Randolph, 1844 A friend returned from a motorcycle trip last fall and […]
OP-ART
Lady Liberty Wants to Go Home
TOUGH GUYS
On Power and Stupidity
We kids were not dumb, but we let ourselves be led
I remember hanging out on the corner with the tough guys, waving at passing cars, preening for girls, bumming Winstons, planning turf fights. Stupid stuff. I once was arrested for […]
TREES THAT FEED US
Why the Woods Must Be Burned
The National Seashore needs a fire management officer and crew
Last month, at Fort Hill in Eastham, a fire crew carried out the first prescribed burn in the Cape Cod National Seashore since 2021. It’s a moment I’ve been watching […]
INCANTATION
The Poem as the ‘Enemy of Despair’
Czeslaw Milosz knew that poets make dictators nervous
The history of the poem as an art form is very long, reaching back to at least 4000 BCE. It’s not surprising that the means by which the poem expresses […]
OP-ART
When the Sky Is Falling
BEEN THERE, DOGE THAT
Efficiency Without Effectiveness Is a Nightmare
We should be inspiring, not firing, federal workers
I will now sheepishly admit that when it was first announced, I was jealous of the DOGE — President Trump’s so-called Dept. of Government Efficiency. When I worked for the […]
