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 […]
Op-Eds
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 […]
ENCOUNTERS
Making Space at the Table
A Thanksgiving with Afghan refugees embodied the spirit of the holiday
Last year I celebrated Thanksgiving in the Hyannis home of my friends David and Paloma McLardy, immigrants from Scotland and Spain, respectively. They put a few tables together in their […]
WINGS OF CHANGE
Why I Ran the New York City Marathon
At mile 20, a small act of kindness changed everything
People say that when you decide to run your first marathon you better do it for the right reason. My first marathon was 11 days ago in New York City. […]
COUNTY LINE
Provincetown’s Sewer Epiphany
Voters accept the dual reality of climate change and the need for more housing
A remarkable consensus developed last week at Provincetown’s special town meeting. A packed town hall auditorium agreed, nearly unanimously, to commit $75 million to an ambitious effort to make this […]
POETRY
Provincetown Pantoum
Inspired by Maria Nazos
This poem was inspired by Elizabeth Bradfield’s article on Maria Nazos’s “Cape Cod Pantoum” [“Afloat at Land’s End,” Oct. 6, page C8]. There is so much right about using this […]
