Category Archives: Columns

Native Americans and the meaning of “we”

This is something that never occurred to me before spending time in Mexico (where we go for a few weeks to reduce the length of winter). A very big difference between north and south of the border is in the content of “we.” Mexico is a much more racially homogenized society than ours. It’s one […]

March 7, 2015 – 6:35 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

The limits to “ protected speech”

In the wake of Charlie Hebdo we are hearing a lot about “protected speech,” the sort we congratulate ourselves on having in this and other “free, democratic” countries. (And deplore the lack of in, say, Castro’s Cuba.) The term is commonly held to apply to a wide variety of speech but to exclude the sort […]

February 9, 2015 – 11:21 am | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged | Comments (0)

Hebdo:Free speech is not a damsel in distress

About the Charlie Hebdo massacre, what is to be said beyond the widespread righteous indignation over what seems to most in the West a shockingly—and tragically– out-of-proportion reaction to mere cartoons? One thing seems clear, Charlie Hebdo exposes the limits and naivete of the old saying: “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words […]

January 23, 2015 – 1:29 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Sharing the world with temptation

Among everybody’s New Year’s resolutions is surely turning over a new leaf on the opiate epidemic. 40 years into the War on Drugs the drugs are still winning. According to recent alarming coverage in this paper, they are on the offensive here on Cape Cod. In fact the campaign we’ve been waging on this major […]

January 8, 2015 – 8:02 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , | Comments (0)

The Christmas revolution

It’s the best of times, it’s the worst of times. That paraphrase from that other Dickens novel pretty much sums up Christmastime. Christmas is full of contradictions, contrasts, conflict: some of the most dismal weather of the year vs. the demand to be jolly. The darkest month, the holiday lights. Death of the year but […]

December 24, 2014 – 2:48 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , | Comments (0)

The politics of an apolitical movie

If you’ve been wandering around in a post-election funk, shaking your head, beseeching the heavens (Why? Why?), I’ve stumbled upon a small source of comfort. If you are seeking a clue to what seems like the maddeningly illogical Republican victory, I recommend “St. Vincent,” the feel-good Bill Murray movie appearing in local theaters. “St. Vincent” […]

December 4, 2014 – 9:30 am | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Truro vs. a wealthy citizen

Truro’s protracted battle with the Klines continues. The issue in recent months is the $178,000 it had cost the town by July to attempt to enforce the law—that is, tear down this house declared illegal by the courts—and whether the town can afford to go on enforcing its own zoning. A former selectman (who happens […]

October 8, 2014 – 12:58 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Our curious lack of curiosity about NStar spraying

NStar, persevering in its bad neighbor policy, in late August publicized a list of the next victims of its herbicide spraying of plants in its power lines right-of-way. All Cape towns have officially objected to this practice, along with all our legislators, but the virtually universal condemnation falls on deaf ears. NStar and the relevant […]

September 19, 2014 – 3:07 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged | Comments (0)

Creativity and the bearing of fardels

The meaning of Labor Day, insofar as it means anything these days, is about kicking back, eating hotdogs, drinking beer, in general giving ourselves a “well- earned rest” from our labors. Something like that. Labor is the hard stuff and pleasure is its reward. But there is a school of thought that argues that that’s […]

September 4, 2014 – 2:20 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Useless nature. And its uses.

Taking a roundabout walk to the beach through the National Seashore, I start noticing all the trees out here by themselves in the middle of nowhere. The Seashore has its celebrated features, the ocean beaches, the bay, the kettle ponds. But then there’s the rest of it, all this stuff in between. There’s no entertainment […]

August 27, 2014 – 10:16 am | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , | Comments (0)