As I write this, it is hot, damned hot, insufferably hot. I can take a bit of heat in the daytime, but at night it is just too much. What […]
Opinion
From ed to op-ed and beyond.
Browse all Opinion stories below or dive into a topic:
OP-ED
There’s No Good Reason to Dredge Nauset Estuary
The goals of the project can be achieved more cheaply and easily
Climate change has intensified storms over the past decade, shifting coastal dynamics and accelerating erosion of the Outer Beach. This has driven more sediment into the Nauset Estuary, affecting access […]
Consensual Errors of Judgment A pictorial and diagnostic, chapter 2
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Letters, July 15, 2021
From Dana Franchitto, Chris Hottle, and Len Bowen
America Is Not a Brand To the editor: As one who has never embraced what I call “flag idolatry,” I was taken aback by Edward Boches’s piece on the significance of […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Hope Over Experience
Not long ago, a disgruntled reader of the Independent complained that I was “a typical washashore.” There’s some truth in that. I don’t have a long family history here. I […]
VIGNETTE
Surfers X-ing
INDEPENDENCE
What We See in the Flag
Is America’s brand tarnished?
I remember a time before the Vietnam War when the American flag evoked only positive feelings in me. When JFK was president, when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, I […]
COUNTY LINE
We’ve Learned to Collaborate. Let’s Keep Going.
What if the pandemic response were to be expanded and broadened?
The more stories I hear from friends and colleagues, the more I am convinced that the numerous changes in our lives resulting from the pandemic response have not been all […]
STEAMERS
Name That Thing
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Letters, July 8, 2021
From Robert S. Gebelein, Nicky Moore, and Robert S Johnson
A Unique Kind of Boat To the editor: Your reporter did a nice job on the obituary for my sister, June Finch [July 1, page A21], but I want to […]
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
What Makes Us Weep?
I feel sorry for the editors of big-city newspapers, and not just because so many of them now work for corporations that are constantly looking for ways to eliminate their […]
VIGNETTE
Summer Luncheon
HISTORY OF SCIENCE
How Critical Race Theory Explains a Harvard Professor’s Error
Reflections of a retired English teacher
In June 1935, Wellfleet summer resident Carleton Coons, a Harvard University professor and archeologist, helped supervise the excavation of Native American remains, stone weapons, and shell fragments in the Hemenway’s […]
TEACAKE’S TAKE
Conservation
LETTER FROM THE ARTS EDITOR
Self-Editing
I was always taught that a good writer takes a complex topic and reduces it to its most essential elements. Working at the Independent, I’ve learned that a good editor […]
