What Is A 'Protected Class?' Editor: I have a question that I feel the need to ask your readers for them to ponder over, and hopefully come to their own respective conclusions about.  Relative to anti-discrimination statutes, since a “protected class” is a group of people qualified for special protection by law, do you believe persons with such a “protected status” in essence are unfairly given more righ...

Every day I post a photo or video from here to social media. Practically every day. It’s often a doughnut from Chatham Bakery or a slice of pie or muffin from Chatham Village Market, set against the landscape of Lighthouse Beach or the Oyster Pond or the lifeguard stand at the end of Bank Street. Growing up here, you get used to having friends from away whom you might see only in the summer. Maybe just for ...

Chatham Needs The Monomoy Theatre Editor: We were all waiting to see who the buyer of the Monomoy Theatre was. Now we know! I hope you will do some investigative reporting on Alexandra Properties. When I Googled them, this is what I got: alexandraconstruction.com.  Not exactly Chatham!  Where are the historic projects Gregory Clark referred to at the selectmen's meeting?  He mentioned allowing the ...

I was getting ready for bed when I reached up and realized I was one earring short of the two I had suspended on my ears 12 hours before. It was a sparkly snowflake, its disappearance indicating it was as fleeting as the ice crystals descending from the winter sky just outside my window. Was it hiding in the kitchen, having leaped off my lobe while I was making tacos for dinner? Had it escaped into the audio boo...

Seals, Not Dogs, Are The Problem   Editor: While I found the author’s point well presented and the issue of dog waste on the beaches is one worthy of conversation, I think that Chatham has a much larger problem on its hands. The letter cites that "one gram of dog waste can contain 23 million coliform bacteria,” which can cause adverse side effects in humans. Most of the unwanted results of the pres...

On this year's Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend, some friends of my younger son came from Assonet to Cape Cod. In the course of our conversation, we naturally ended up discussing politics, riveting on the present incumbent in the White House. “Do you know anyone who voted for him?” I inquired. “Actually I do,” responded the male member of the duo. “I recently met an old acquaintance who had voted for him, bu...

A preliminary study of Chatham's east-facing waterways, from Pleasant Bay to Nantucket Sound, together with anecdotal evidence from commercial fishermen, makes it abundantly clear that dredging near the North Cut will be necessary to facilitate navigation in the months ahead. The problem is that the town's effort to secure a permit to dredge the area is tied up in a lawsuit and state department of environmenta...

“What the world needs now is love, sweet love It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of What the world needs now is love, sweet love No not just for some but for everyone”   Way back in 1965, Jackie DeShannon had her biggest hit with this Burt Bacharach-Hal David song. It reached number seven on the pop charts, further enhancing the Bacharach/David duo as popular songwriting greats. While...

Limit Dogs On Beaches Editor: I'm in favor of  changing the current Harwich dog on beach regulation from Friday before Memorial Day to May 1 to Oct. 14. I feel that allowing dogs on the beach for 265 days then abruptly opening the next day to beachgoers is much too soon considering residue that can be left behind by dogs. I find this analogous to one removing all of the solids from a litter box then lying i...

Quick, where’s “Children’s Beach?” If you’re a local from Chatham and you had trouble answering that question, you’re not alone. Having covered the town for nearly 60 combined years, our Chatham reporters didn’t know. A couple of lifelong residents we spoke with were stumped. The parks and recreation department doesn’t use the name, nor does the chamber of commerce. Aside from a few sparse references in our ar...

The future. That's why Monomoy Regional School District officials say they are leaning toward reducing or eliminating Spanish language instruction from Chatham and Harwich Elementary Schools in favor of more science/STEM. Given the changes in technology over the past two decades, students graduating 10 years from now will need even more grounding in science and STEM subjects to compete. That emerged from a rec...