The Crisis
To the editor:
I appreciate Dennis Minsky’s description of his existential dilemma [“The Crisis Within,” April 3, page A3] and trust many of us share his current state. What to do, how to proceed, in what form to create resistance to the destruction of our country’s essence currently underway without succumbing to despair or hate?
I am grateful to have read his column this week after attending the Boston “Hands Off!” protest, which was simply amazing. The energy, kindness, and collaboration exhibited by the throngs of people filling the Common, walking to City Hall, cheering the speakers (whose words most of us could not actually hear), chatting with strangers on the T, and just taking it all in, were exhilarating.
Everyone wanted to be together, even as we are outraged by the heartless cruelty taking place in every realm. The challenge will be taking that positive fighting energy forward, because we have to be in it for the long haul. If we manage to retain the crux of our democracy, the rebuilding will likely take longer than many of us will be alive.
I frequently channel my father’s optimism and feel compelled to honor his sacrifice. He fought fascism as a soldier in World War II, spending the last several months of the war in POW camps, separated as a Jew. I made a simple cardboard sign for the April 5 resistance with my children, first-generation parents, immigrant grandparents, and ancestors in mind: Silence Is Not an Option.
Karen Friedman
Wellfleet
Firefighting in Provincetown
To the editor:
As the former chief for 33 years, it is very sad for me to see what has happened to the Provincetown Fire Dept.
I had a plan that would have kept the experienced call firefighters in the department. The voters supported me at town meeting last April when they defeated Town Manager Alex Morse’s effort to disband the board of fire engineers.
Instead, Morse worked against me after he lost at town meeting. He told me not to bring my deputy chief, Gerard Menangas, to a May 2, 2024 meeting in his office, and the town’s human resources manager didn’t come either. She should have been there to protect me. Instead, Morse berated me, ignoring what the voters at town meeting had said they wanted.
Morse’s plan will cost the town a lot of money for a department that won’t be able to handle a major incident like we used to do without thinking twice. The state fire marshal and the other fire chiefs were always amazed at the fire stops we made. We attacked a fire and kept it to the room or building of origin. We were known for having the experience and talent to handle any type of incident.
None of us who retired wanted to walk away. The select board did nothing to stop this from happening, and they never held Morse accountable for his actions.
Now the budget will go up to have fewer people responding. It’s a sad situation.
Mike Trovato
Provincetown
The writer was Provincetown’s fire chief from 1991 to 2024.
Thanks to Roderick
To the editor:
When Sue Roderick was first assigned to me as my primary care provider at Outer Cape Health Services over 15 years ago, I asked to be reassigned. I felt her bedside manner was lacking, or perhaps my own needs were greater than I realized. Perhaps it was a bit of both.
Over the years, Sue became a trusted confidante. She guided me through medical challenges with skill and steadiness, and when I needed help on a more emotional level, she referred me to a therapist who helped me in ways I’ll always be grateful for.
Like many of us who call Provincetown home, I’ve often reflected on the dualities of this place: its eccentric charm and quiet isolation. It truly is a land of misfit, wonderful toys. It can feel deeply lonely at times — something I once thought that I alone experienced.
There is a quiet pressure to always be grateful for this “little slice of paradise.” And while I am truly grateful, I also know that real life happens in the space between gratitude and longing. Through all of it, Sue was there: steady, kind, and present.
I’m sure I’m not the only person she greeted or sent off with her signature warmth: “Hello, my dear” or “Goodbye, my dear.” Those three simple words always made me feel less alone and more driven to follow whatever advice she had given me that day.
By sheer coincidence, I was among her final patients on her last day of work. I told her what I had just told Johnny as he checked me in: Sue is like a parent or a grandparent. You think they’ll just always be there.
Sue Roderick: I wish you a continued life of wonderful adventures. Thank you for everything.
So long, my dear.
Adrienne Troia
Provincetown
The Long Way Home
To the editor:
Re “Shopkeeper Pauline Fisher, the ‘Fearless Captain’ of MAP, Dies at 63” [April 3, page A17]:
Pauline understood, apart from all fashion concern, the roots of glamour that no aesthete, no peeler after fame, no meme could approach.
On a warm night last summer, I saw her riding ahead of me on her bicycle, going down Commercial Street dressed in black, casting gorgeous shadows after the street lamps.
I knew that on this occasion we would not meet up and exchange a few words, as we often did. I knew her ride was creating a vessel for the long way home.
I’ve left a notebook from Japan on the stoop of MAP, filled with empty pages re: the journey.
Shirley Spatz
Provincetown
Tariffs as a Cure
To the editor:
President Trump’s tariffs are a huge folly. He instituted them without the consent of Congress, claiming that our balance of payments deficit constitutes a national emergency. It does not.
The U.S. has a balance of payments deficit because we, a huge, wealthy country, buy a lot of stuff from poorer countries that can produce them much more cheaply than we can. Another factor is the low taxes that Americans — especially wealthy Americans — pay. The U.S. habitually runs large deficits, meaning that taxpayers are not asked to pay the full cost of running the government. The deficits are financed by the sale of U.S. debt to worldwide investors. Servicing that debt takes up an increasing part of the U.S. budget, currently 13 percent.
How can tariffs solve this problem? They can’t.
Tariffs are taxes on trade that are paid for by either the exporters, the importers, or the purchasers of the goods subject to the tariffs, or a combination of the three. History has shown that most of the tax is passed on to the purchasers in the form of higher prices. Unless the president has found a way to repeal the laws of economics, higher prices mean lower sales, with a large impact on the producer and consumer countries, including a likely increase in inflation.
The last time the U.S. tried to use tariffs as a cure was in 1930 with the adoption of the Smoot-Hawley tariffs, which were instituted following the market panic of 1929. The consensus among economists is that those tariffs turned what would have been a nasty recession into a decade-long depression that did not fully end until the military buildup for World War II.
Why would any government with a modicum of sense and a basic knowledge of history want to replicate 1930?
Stephen Greenberg
Wellfleet
Letters to the Editor
The Provincetown Independent welcomes letters from readers on all subjects. They must be signed with the writer’s name, home address, and telephone number (for verification). Letters will be published only if they have been sent exclusively to the Independent. They should be no more than 300 words and may be edited for clarity, accuracy, conciseness, and good taste. Longer pieces (up to 600 words) may be submitted for consideration as op-ed commentary. Send letters to [email protected] or by mail to P.O. Box 1034, Provincetown, MA 02657. The deadline for letters is Monday at noon for each week’s edition.
