Opinion
From ed to op-ed and beyond.
Browse all Opinion stories below or dive into a topic:
WATERCOLOR
MLK Day 2024
POLITICAL MEMO
Dysfunctional Democracy
What happens when not enough people pay attention and get involved
Early in the new year, President Biden gave a powerful speech near Valley Forge warning of all the ways that democracy could be destroyed if Donald Trump returns to the […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Listening to Vorse
This is the third winter that the Independent has hosted young journalists in a fellowship named for Mary Heaton Vorse, who lived from 1907 until her death in 1966 in […]
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Letters, January 18, 2024
From Mark Brennan, David Ricketts, and Barbara Leedom
Denotation vs. Connotation To the editor: As we celebrated Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday this week, I was reminded that we are approaching Black History Month. I imagine that the […]
VIGNETTE
Nudists
STEAMERS
… Slip Sliding Away
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
Paul Tasha: An Appreciation
A Provincetown original who knew exactly who he was
Decades ago, local visionary Jay Critchley created “P-Town, Inc. — Formerly Provincetown,” a satirical project in which he imagined the inevitable gentrification of the town and its transformation from a […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Doing the Research
The British scientific journal Nature published a remarkable study last month that goes a long way toward explaining why so many people believe things that aren’t true. The implications are […]
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Letters, January 11, 2024
From Kathleen E. Bacon, Edward S. Ebert, Rachel White, Paul Greenspan, and Lyle Timpson
Wellfleet’s Turmoil To the editor: I read last week’s front-page article about Richard Waldo’s resignation as Wellfleet town administrator with sadness. Once again, the town’s municipal affairs are in turmoil. What do we […]
VIGNETTE
Unresolved
STEAMERS
Old Reliable
THE YEAR-ROUNDER
Resolved: A Better Version of the Self
‘How to live this life of ours well and naturally’
The establishment of the first of January as the beginning of the “new year” is entirely artificial. A better date for a celebration would be the spring equinox — or […]
KEEPING WATCH
Bearing Witness to Exploitation
Reflections of a retired English teacher
We live in a brutish world. The front page of the daily paper illustrates this truth every morning. We are confronted with the latest details about the suffering and death […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Our Version of Trumpism
The final days of 2023 produced a blizzard of fundraising letters and emails. Quite a few of them came from news organizations making the case that journalism is essential to […]
