The Traprock Blog

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  • Pat Hynes: Nuclear weapons bills need action
    https://www.recorder.com/Letter-to-the-editor-54773180  Two companion nuclear weapons bills presented by Senator Jo Comerford are sitting in the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security, co-chaired by Senator Timilty and Representative Gonzalez. They are S.1488 for the creation of a Nuclear Weapons and Climate Citizens Commission, and S.1487 a resolution to move us Back from the Brink… Read more: Pat Hynes: Nuclear weapons bills need action
  • What the ghosts of Warsaw Ghetto know
    MY TURN By RICHARD S. BOGARTZ Ihad intended to continue my four-part series on President Joe Biden, but I must interrupt that project even though Part 2 is almost complete because, even though I don’t believe in ghosts, I keep encountering ghosts who insist I must address Gaza now. German occupation authorities created more than… Read more: What the ghosts of Warsaw Ghetto know
  • Why did Israel target World Central Kitchen worker convoy?
    MY TURN, Greenfield Recorder, April 11, 2024 By SHERRILL HOGEN In the war on Gaza, Israel recently targeted three cars carrying humanitarian aid workers of the World Central Kitchen (WCK), killing all seven of them. There is no excuse. This was clearly intentional. But why? WCK had a special relationship with Israel, which is how… Read more: Why did Israel target World Central Kitchen worker convoy?
  • From Global to Local: What I want my tax money spent on
    By H. PATRICIA HYNES In June 2023, Amanda Jones, an African American who had recently given birth to her second daughter Miranda, died from pregnancy-related causes. Her state, Georgia, ranks among the least safe states in the country for women to give birth; and the vast majority of women who die during and after pregnancy… Read more: From Global to Local: What I want my tax money spent on
  • There would be no war in Ukraine without the US
    By PATRICIA GREENE Nine-plus million people in Ukraine out of 43 million (so about a quarter of the population) are ethnic Russians, and many consider themselves also to be dual citizens of Russia, as well as Ukraine. Most of them speak Russian as their everyday language, and live close to the 1,000mile shared border with… Read more: There would be no war in Ukraine without the US
  • Shouldn’t take Israeli reports at face value
    READERS WRITE Greenfield Recorder, March 20, 2024 DR. E. MARTIN SCHOTZ There are so many problems with Daniel A. Brown’s My Turn, “The blood libel of Zionists, Holocaust” [Recorder, March 12] that one hardly knows where to begin. But let’s start with this paragraph: The writer laments, “I’ve written numerous My Turns about the history… Read more: Shouldn’t take Israeli reports at face value
  • From Local to Global: On women’s equality
    By H. PATRICIA HYNES Greenfield Recorder, March 8, 2024 https://www.recorder.com/Columnist-Pat-Hynes-54282743 On March 8, 1908, female garment workers marched through New York City’s Lower East Side to protest child labor and sweatshop working conditions and to demand women’s suffrage. By 1910, March 8 became observed annually as International Women’s Day and continues to be, more widely… Read more: From Local to Global: On women’s equality
  • Educating the whole child
    READERS WRITE, February 21, 2024 https://www.recorder.com/Letter-to-the-editor-54128720 A recent story about seven middle-school students rushing to the aid of an older woman in need of help exemplifies the lifelong benefits of education imbued with lessons of compassion and community. Gloria Matlock, founder/director of Twice as Smart, was driving her students to a Musica Franklin class on… Read more: Educating the whole child
  • Johanna Rosen: We must push for a cease-fire and more
    https://www.recorder.com/Letter-to-the-editor-54110245 I want to thank the Recorder for covering the effort to pass a cease-fire resolution in Greenfield and the weekly standouts on the Common [“Local activists to present Gaza cease-fire resolution to Greenfield City Council,” Feb. 15]. I think the news media generally has not given enough attention to the opposition to the United… Read more: Johanna Rosen: We must push for a cease-fire and more
  • Moral Responses to the Palestinian/ Israeli Conflict
    This piece draws from writings by a Catholic activist on behalf of freedom for Palestinians and a Buddhist monk of Jewish ethnicity speaking out on Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and describes the missions of Palestinian/Israeli groups working together for peace and justice and the US-based Jewish Voice for Peace. https://www.laprogressive.com/war-and-peace/moral-responses