Guest columnist George Fleischner: Community a civil right worth protecting

Witnesses to a nation: Hatfield museum marking graves of 217 people tied to Revolutionary era

HATFIELD — Living until 1847, when she turned 86, Experience Phelps Dickinson’s simple stone at the Hill Burying Ground indicates she was a teenager when the Declaration of Independence was signed. Nearby, the more elaborate gravestones for Obadiah Dickinson, a deacon in town who was 72 in 1776, and for his second wife, Martha Waite […]

A nation at 250: WMass residents reflect on patriotism, division and hope

If America is a melting pot, few couples embody that ideal better than Andres Moya and Ruth Zuraw, who were picking up baby formula at Walmart in Hadley earlier this week. Moya, a nurse, immigrated from Ecuador at age 17 nearly two decades ago. Zuraw, a researcher, is of Polish and Cuban heritage. They met […]

Supporting survivors beyond the legal system

Editor’s note: This piece discusses child abuse and trauma. For free, confidential support and resources 24/7, call the National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-422-4453 or the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. When I was navigating the aftermath of my own abuse, the hardest part wasn’t just dealing with what had happened to me. It […]

Around and About with Richard McCarthy: A chilling prediction of monstrous changes

I was at a flea market not too far back and I saw a vendor selling old magazines. I like to look through magazines from another time, so I bought a Time magazine dated March 29, 1948. On page 83, I came across an article titled “How to Outlive The Human Race,” without a byline. […]

A dramatic homecoming: Mount Holyoke College's summer theater program returns after 25-year hiatus

On the surface, a recent rehearsal for “Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express” at Mount Holyoke College’s Kendall Sports & Dance Center in the Studio Theatre seemed standard. Actors in jeans and tennis shoes ran through the show’s first act, in which detective Hercule Poirot, played by Sam Samuels, has to solve a murder […]