Category Archives: Columns

Labor Day, Self-driving cars and John Henry

Don’t look now, but the self driving car (SDC) is apparently about to run us over. Already prototypes have put in over a million miles on public roads (so far with a human co-pilot for emergencies). Google says it plans to make SDCs available by 2020. It’s a shock reading that the SDC will have […]

September 13, 2015 – 12:31 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , | Comments (0)

The Fate of High Toss Road

For quite a few years a major re-shaping of our town has been in the works. It’s called the Herring River Restoration and, mainly by removing a dike installed at the mouth of the estuary in 1909, will restore natural tidal flow to one of the largest wetlands in New England. A large portion of […]

August 7, 2015 – 12:33 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

The brave aren’t necessarily heroes

The discussion of the meaning of the Confederate flag has called attention to the crucial distinction between bravery and heroism. Confederate soldiers were famously brave fighters; but it was bravery in the service of racism and slavery. If it was heroism, it was heroism to those who wanted to continue that racist slavery- based way […]

July 23, 2015 – 8:55 am | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , | Comments (1)

Reconstructing Ocean View Drive

Earlier this year I wrote a column on the mysterious origins of Ocean View Drive in Wellfleet, the road paralleling the ocean and connecting four town beaches, from LeCount’s Hollow (aka Maquire’s Landing) at the southern end to Newcomb Hollow at the northern end. The real mystery, for me, was why the date and circumstances […]

July 13, 2015 – 10:03 am | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Assisted suicide: a creative response to the ending of life

The Death With Dignity ballot measure narrowly defeated statewide in 2012 actually passed on Cape Cod, with our aging population, suggesting that if the question were left up to those to whom it seems most relevant, the aging themselves, it would pass easily. The debate seems to come down to the interests of the living […]

June 24, 2015 – 6:35 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , | Comments (0)

The other side of graduation hoopla

We are once again in the late spring graduation season featuring much upbeat newspaper coverage of inspirational speechifying and partying. But this self-congratulatory mood flies in the face of certain realities about the role of education in our society. Of the truths we hold self-evident, that formal education, the more the merrier, is one of […]

June 15, 2015 – 1:52 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Wellfleet and the idea of safety

At Wellfleet’s recent town meeting we voted to hire another police officer. The logic of that seemed pretty obvious: another officer would make us safer. But that town meeting vote failed to get the required override ratification a few days later. Apparently, a lot of us are not worried about our safety. It does raise […]

May 29, 2015 – 12:23 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged | Comments (0)

Electronic voting in Eastham means a very big change

In its recent town meeting, Eastham replaced traditional voting by voice or raised hands with electronic voting. It seems a small thing, this change, a matter mostly of efficiency and accuracy. But it has more profound implications than you would think from the debate leading to it, which seemed to focus mostly on the expense […]

May 23, 2015 – 2:24 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Contradictions of “tourist destination”

I recently found out something about this small Mexican city, where we’ve spent a chunk of winter the past five years, that changed my whole way of looking at the place. San Miguel de Allende is famous for the colors of its buildings—a rich palette of blood red, oranges, earthy ochres. The way the town […]

May 8, 2015 – 10:46 am | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , | Comments (0)

The emotional style of the Unconcerned

The letters and other opinion pieces in these pages taking the not-to-worry line on Pilgrim are framed as science-oriented, fact-based , cooler heads vs. a scared, irrational mob of kneejerk naysayers. But it’s not really about the facts. Rather, call it a difference in emotional style: the unruffled, imperturbable unconcerned vs. the concerned, who allow […]

May 1, 2015 – 11:19 am | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged | Comments (0)