The development of offshore wind farms as a solution to our desperate need for renewable energy has become a hot topic, and endangered whales have gotten caught up in it. […]
Op-Eds
KEEPING WATCH
Either Way: Taking a Broader View of Human Variation
Reflections of a retired English teacher
In 1969, when I was 19 and rode a motorcycle, there was a highway sign on Route 6 in North Truro alerting drivers that they could get to Provincetown by […]
OP-ED
Giving Before We Take
A prescription: notice what the trees and terns seem to know
I found myself skipping out to the mailbox on a recent bright day. Skipping is not as easy as it used to be, but the drive is long, and I […]
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
Away With Me
A meditation on ‘advance planning’
I knew there were not enough dead people in Provincetown to make their disposal profitable. I discovered recently that the same is true for Wellfleet. (Forget Truro — it’s a […]
WINTER DREAMS
Marching On
Waking up is an experience to be treasured
I had a performer’s dream the other night. I was in a play, nodding off in my dressing room during a long offstage hiatus. I heard lines on the performance […]
RESTORATION QUESTIONS
Herring River Project Involves Losses and Risks
Questions remain about liability and unintended consequences
The Herring River Restoration Project, which has been in the planning stage for decades, has finally begun. The clearing of dead vegetation in the Duck Harbor basin is underway as […]
MISMANAGEMENT
What Wellfleet Deserved
How the select board should have reacted to the town’s accounting crisis
A while ago I swore that I would put Wellfleet’s financial troubles out of my mind and not write another letter to the Independent about this mess like the one […]
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S WEEK
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
TEACHABLE MOMENTS
What’s Wrong With Saying ‘All Lives Matter’
It’s a truth more often observed in the breach
One of the greatest joys for a teacher is when students encounter the magic of the tangent: the moment when an event, a question, or an opinion takes a carefully […]
AUTHORITY
Our National Intimidation Problem
A bromide is brandished to divert us from the real issue
Anne Needel’s great piece on this page last week [“The Kids Are Watching Us”] was a sight for sore eyes. Yes, adults need to model moral courage, for children and […]
ANTI-RACISM
The Kids Are Watching Us
Teaching our students how to stand up to bigotry
Last week’s Independent reported the story of a student who withdrew from Nauset Regional High School because of anti-Semitic harassment. An unnamed girl who participated in that harassment was said […]
OP-ED
Mercy: A Canine Tutorial
Finn attends to a fallen fellow animal
From the time that Liz and I rescued him from the streets of Puerto Rico, Finn has been preternaturally attuned to the needs of others. He is a creature of […]
THE NATIONAL DEBT
Anatomy of a Looming Crisis
What a U.S. default would mean to you and me
The U.S. debt ceiling may seem an arcane, boring subject, but what will happen to all of us if Congress fails to raise it and the country defaults could not […]
LETTER FROM ACROSS THE POND
The Midwinter Promise of Imbolc
Trusting the yet to be seen
New Year in Scotland, known as Hogmanay, arguably from Old French, Norse, and/or Goidelic, is a very big deal. Several nights of partying, fireworks, the singing of “Auld Lang Syne,” […]
PREVENTING VIOLENCE
The Unfulfilled Promise of Community Mental Health Care
An argument for taking action to treat those who refuse help
This year has brought a reckoning with the ways our health and legal systems fail those with mental illnesses and their families. The tragic deaths of Truro’s Susan Howe and […]
