U.S. History Good But Imperfect Story Editor: The original protests over George Floyd’s death have been appropriated and co-opted by various political groups. The tie that binds is a commitment to mob chaos and violence as either a paid or recreational enterprise. Their common goal seems to be to tear down every symbol of our American history, including statues, public buildings, and businesses, on the prem...

In an unprecedented event that almost did not happen, and despite COVID-19 restrictions, an estimated 1,000 people gathered in Harwich Center’s Brooks Park on a June Saturday afternoon to demonstrate. Initially proposed as a march from Route 28 and Bank Street to the Harwich Community Center by Susannah Brown and Hope Jorgensen, two Monomoy Regional High School eighth grade students, their plans evoked negative s...

I have a daughter who is 37, which is a remarkable fact in itself, since I seem to harbor a misty belief, floating crazily in the back of my mind, that I am only 39 years old. I have another daughter who is 33 years old, which of course makes her younger than me. It’s funny how your kids grow up and we always see them as kids. And we can’t have aged that much, or do we? A mere three months ago, which now seems...

Milkweed Seeds Still Available Editor: I am still distributing milkweed seeds, free of charge, to help the monarch butterfly, whose caterpillar can only eat milkweed. Send your address via email to suzannaaan@yahoo.com, or pick some up at the display case at 606 Main St. Chatham, at the corner of Seaview Street, in a jar. Suzanna Nickerson Chatham

It's summer, according to both the calendar and the traffic. While there may not be quite as many visitors here as in past years, there are certainly more people out and about — on foot and on bicycles — than usual, a holdover from the long shutdown during which taking a walk or a bike ride were among the few escapes from quarantine. Lately we've noticed drivers, walkers, runners and bikers not being as carefu...

In the next few years, the Monomoy Regional School Committee will face some significant decisions about the future of its two elementary schools. As we report this week, Chatham's declining enrollment means that Harwich is subsidizing more and more of the cost of running Chatham Elementary School. If the trend continues — and there's every indication that it will — in just a few years there may be only enough stu...

Love For The Love Caravan Editor: The Terraces Orleans wants to sincerely thank Rev. Wesley Williams and friends for organizing the “Love Caravan” that circled by our long term care facility on May 27. The whoop-whoop of the sirens, the honking horns, the line of decorated cars that looked as if it would never end was a sight to behold! Just awesome. We are so grateful to the Orleans and Brewster Police and...

The wind was coming from the direction of the ball field, or at least where you could normally make out the lights a mile and a half away at night. Up on this roof that I have been climbing up on since I was six, the treetops of the zelkova and the mountain ashes and the Bartlett pear trees I had planted as mere twigs swayed and swooshed their new green leaves in the breeze. Sunset over the Oyster Pond was com...

Just as the Constitution protects our right to publish and prevents the government from censoring speech, it also ensures that citizens can peaceably assemble without fear of interference by either the government or other citizens. Whether that was the intention of people who posted messages last week on social media that seemed to be veiled warnings about the planned protest in Harwich, we can't say for sure. Th...

Support Climate Change Initiative Editor: Those of us living on the bend of Cape Cod’s peninsula have already experienced enhanced erosion of our beaches, rising ocean temperatures wreaking havoc on our native species and an increased intensity of storms that announce that we are on the front lines of a climate emergency. Many voices have recently articulated the insight that our concurrent coronavirus cris...

At a time that requires so much of our leaders and ourselves, it seems wasteful to say to one of the three committed citizens running for selectman, “Thanks, but no thanks.” Yet, that’s the arithmetic. Incumbents Dave Currier and Meff Runyon want to stay, and Andrea Shaw Reed wants to join. When the music stops June 23, there will be only two seats available. Each hopeful has a good case to make. Currier, w...

On Cape Cod, where so many of us are focused now on economic survival in the midst of a pandemic, Minneapolis and other cities where protests have raged seems a world away. But as we’re fighting to salvage the summer of 2020, and our livelihoods, others are fighting for justice. We share the world’s outrage at the death of George Floyd last week. There is no excuse for a police officer to pin a man to the grou...