The approval on Monday by both houses of the Massachusetts legislature of a bill that requires the state to reduce its carbon emissions by at least 85% below 1990 levels by 2050 represents a huge step toward the goal of…
Category: Editorials
Guest Op-Ed: ‘It Was an Honor’ to Serve With Speaker Bob DeLeo
By Joseph Boncore I am so incredibly honored to have spent these past few years serving alongside House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo in the General Court. For over 40 years, starting as a town meeting member and ending with his…
Guest Op-Ed: First Responders Need Vaccines Now
By Senator Sal DiDomenico One of the greatest bright spots of 2020 and now leading into this New Year has been the speedy development and subsequent rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine. For the first time in many months, we are…
Have a Happy — and Safe — New Year
The arrival of a new year marks a time for reflection, as to both the year that has passed and the year that lies ahead. In the words of the poet Alfred Lord Tennyson: Ring out the old, ring in…
K.C. Jones Always Was First-Class
For those of us who are old enough to remember the great Boston Celtics teams of the 1960s, the passing this week of K.C. Jones, an integral member of that championship dynasty, is bittersweet. K.C. Jones led an incredible life,…
The True Spirit of Christmas
The Christmas season usually is the most wonderful time of the year. But Christmas, 2020, is anything but wonderful. We are undergoing a degree of hardship unlike any that we have experienced in our lifetime. More Americans are dying each…
The Virus Is in Our Homes
We now are fully amidst the holiday season. Hanukkah is here and the Christmas and New Year’s holiday week is fast-approaching. Public health officials at all levels of government have been warning us for months that we must change our…
Thank You, Gov. Baker
We’d like to take a moment to express our appreciation to Gov. Charlie Baker, who has demonstrated incredible leadership during the past nine months of a crisis that is unprecedented in our state’s history. Day-after-day, Gov. Baker has confronted a…
Remember the Needy
We saw a statistic the other day that was absolutely mind-numbing: 18% of all Americans, and 24% of American children, do not have enough to eat on a daily basis. We mention this because during this Christmas season, when many…
Letters to the Editor
On 10 Pearl Ave. Dear Editor: Your issue of December 9 tells the sad story for me, of the demolition of the house at 10 Pearl Avenue in Beachmont. My father, John Vanderpot, bought that house and the house next…
Guest Op-Ed: Catholic Bishops of Massachusetts Express Disappointment in Expanded Abortion
By the Catholic Bishops of Massachusetts The consistent teaching of the Catholic Church is that life begins at conception and ends with natural death. As the Roman Catholic Bishops of Massachusetts, we at all times hold firm to that teaching…
Happy Hanukkah
The eight-day observance of Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights, gets underway this Thursday, December 10, and will culminate next Friday, December 18. In summary, Hanukkah commemorates the victory of the Maccabees — a group of fierce warriors who used…
The Virus Is a Hunter — and We Are Its Prey
It now has been nine months since lockdowns went into effect in many states, including here in Massachusetts on March 16. However, despite all of our previous efforts, the COVID-19 pandemic is surging across the entire United States. The pleas of public health…
Pearl Harbor Was 79 Years Ago
 It was 79 years ago this week — December 7 — that the nation of Japan launched its attack on Pearl Harbor. The very next day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt convened a joint session of Congress in which he famously…
Letter to the Editor
Finalize, Pass and Enact a COVID Relief Package Dear Editor: With Election Day well behind us and most races settled, we renew our urgent request for action to help stave off further job loss on Main Street, especially as spiking…
Guest Op-Ed: When Does Christmas Begin?
By Dr. Glenn Mollette Christmas has different beginning times for most everyone. For some it’s when you put up the Christmas tree and decorations. For others it’s when you wrap some presents and put them under the tree. While for…
‘Tis the Season for Giving — and Never has the Need been More Urgent
“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.†— Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities. With Christmas fast approaching, most of us will be rushing about — either to the stores and malls or on-line…
Judge Ferrino
The passing last week of Judge Joseph V. Ferrino marks the end of an era in the East Boston, Revere and Winthrop area. It is fair to say that there is no person who has been more impactful and was…
Guest Op-Ed: Together, we must stop the MBTA service cuts
By Senator Sal DiDomenico The MBTA Fiscal Management and Control Board recently released their “Forging Ahead Initiative,†a series of ill-conceived cuts to MBTA services that will have devastating (and likely long-lasting) impacts on those who rely on public transit to get to and…
Happy Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is a uniquely American holiday, tracing its roots back almost 400 years to the Pilgrims, long before there was even a thought of a United States of America. Thanksgiving is the ultimate family-centered holiday. It has no religious meaning,…
