Opinion Columns

columns

At the Massachusetts State House on Oct. 16, Governor Maura Healey provided an update on the state’s emergency family shelter system.

What do you mean by ‘right to shelter,’ Governor Healey?

It would be better and more honest if Healey just said she wanted to change the law and forced state lawmakers to consider that.

KIMBERLY ATKINS STOHR

Will Supreme Court put limits on the use of social media?

Social media platforms have become central to the way public officials communicate. But the justices still seem unsure of the constitutional rules of the road.

Why most Americans are tuning out the news

It is wearying and depressing to follow current affairs, especially if you don’t trust the media.

‘His Majesty’s government view with favor. . .’

As Israel battles Hamas in what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called a “second war of independence,” Jewish sovereignty is deeply polarizing.

op-eds

Four-year-olds at Mattahunt Elementary School in Mattapan learn in both English and Haitian Creole on Nov. 18, 2022.

Miren Uriarte and Rosann Tung

Why we resigned from the Boston School Committee’s English Learners Task Force

We leave pained but unable to endorse the compromised direction that Boston Public Schools has chosen. The current plan is incomprehensible in its ignorance of what constitutes optimal educational practice.

Andrew Bacevich

Is the US an ‘indispensable nation’ or reckless and misguided?

President Biden is now doubling down on the self-congratulatory rhetoric of the 1990s, embracing the very logic that delivered the excesses and mistakes that he ironically urges others not to repeat.

Scapegoating mental illness is ineffective in preventing mass shootings

Research and data show that behavioral risk factors are far better at predicting violence than mental health diagnosis alone.

Former peace negotiator on Israel’s war with Hamas: ‘Replace the leadership of Gaza’

Yossi Beilin was a negotiator on the Oslo Accords, the last major effort at a Middle East peace settlement. In a Q&A, he talks about anticipated civilian casualties, Benjamin Netanyahu’s political future, and the future of Gaza.

More columns, op-eds, and newsletter excerpts

Andrew Bacevich

President Biden spoke at the Rose Garden of the White House on Oct. 25.

Is the US an ‘indispensable nation’ or reckless and misguided?

President Biden is now doubling down on the self-congratulatory rhetoric of the 1990s, embracing the very logic that delivered the excesses and mistakes that he ironically urges others not to repeat.

JOAN VENNOCHI

Senator Susan Collins, a Republican of Maine, left, listened as Representative Jared Golden, a Democrat of Maine, spoke during a press conference in the aftermath of a mass shootings in Lewiston, Maine, Oct. 26. Golden reversed his long-held stance on assault weapons after 18 people were killed in Lewiston.

Representative Jared Golden’s reversal on assault weapons took courage

It takes courage to speak out against the misguided belief that Americans have the right to own weapons of war. That kind of courage can get you voted out of office.

Kris Brown

A sign told Lewiston residents to shelter in place after a gunman opened fire in two businesses, killing 18 people, the night before, in Lewiston, Maine on Thursday, Oct. 26.

Scapegoating mental illness is ineffective in preventing mass shootings

Research and data show that behavioral risk factors are far better at predicting violence than mental health diagnosis alone.

Lenore Skenazy

Despite the fact that kids have gone to school without phones since the dawn of the desk, somehow that notion has recently become untenable.

Phones in schools are making children less safe

Let’s keep them safe from the biggest, most common threat to their well-being: The crippling belief that they always must be reachable and are always in some kind of danger.

Heather Hopp-Bruce

Students' mobile devices are placed inside their personal Yondr pouch and locked by a school administrator before the start of each school day.

Put an end to school shootings and then students can put away their phones

Time and again, cellphones have been the lifeline of students and their families in school shooting situations.

JEFF JACOBY

Fliers showing the faces of people kidnapped by Hamas in Israel were affixed to a wall in a subway station in New York on Oct. 14.

Why they rip down the ‘Kidnapped from Israel’ fliers

The purpose of the papers is to emphasize the humanity of the hostages seized by Hamas. Some find that intolerable.

RENÉE GRAHAM

Family, friends, and members of the community gathered at the funeral of Samantha Woll, the president of the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue, at Hebrew Memorial Chapel in Oak Park, Mich., on Oct. 22.

Not a hate crime, but still an act of hate

The killing of a beloved community leader in Detroit is a stark reminder that no woman can ever feel truly safe

NEWSLETTERS

Trabaja de noche y es candidato al Concejo Municipal de Boston de día

La campaña política del afrolatino Henry Santana refleja algunas de las barreras que enfrentan los candidatos de color.