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By JOHN BOS

‘We are all ‘mad as hell’ about some political or social issue” Allen Woods wrote in his excellent column last week [”The politics of anger,” Recorder, Sept. 28]. I agree, but my own sense is that the poisonous political poltergeist that has wrapped...

By JOHN BOS

In my life there are four dates that remain unforgettable. And connected for personal and global reasons.Feb. 12: I was born in Dr. Jenny’s home hospital in an old Victorian house in Tonawanda, New York on this day in 1936. Our father was there for...

By JOHN BOS

Some Republicans appear to have decided that Kamala Harris is only 3/5ths of a person and therefore cannot run for president.They made “big news” last week, though, when they charged that Kamala Harris is not a “natural born citizen” and therefore not...

By JOHN BOS

Two weekends ago, I was one of 11 men in a weekend Quaker retreat at Temenos, a rustic compound of several cabins and a lodge sans electricity on Mineral Mountain on the other side of Shutesbury. We have been meeting there twice each summer until...

By JOHN BOS

All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players;They have their exits and their entrances,And one man in his time plays many parts …– William ShakespeareJoe Biden and Donald Trump have both played many parts.Biden was an adjunct...

By JOHN BOS

Joe Biden is living in the wrong culture. Maybe we who are his supporters are also. Western cultures, especially America, are fevered youth and death-denying cultures with little or no respect for the wisdom that many elders gain over time. Unlike...

By JOHN BOS

They are so loud! With my sliding door to the patio open on warm nights, the collective cacophony of what? crickets? fills my living room, my ears and my awareness of sound not generated by neighbors or by nearby Silver Street traffic. I am in another...

By JOHN BOS

The enormity of the global climate crisis is contrasted with the actions of individuals trying to make a difference, echoing a David vs. Goliath narrative.We are living in screwed up, scary and overwhelming times. As Rebecca Solnit wrote in the...

By JOHN BOS

Recent columns in this newspaper about the Quabbin Reservoir got me to reading Marjorie Kelly’s book “Wealth Supremacy.” Kelly is a distinguished senior fellow at the Democracy Collaborative, a national research and development lab for a democratic...

By JOHN BOS

“Sometimes it is almost impossible not to feel hopeless and broken,” says climate scientist Ruth Cerezo-Mota. “After all the flooding, fires, and droughts of the last three years worldwide, all related to climate change, and after the fury of...

By JOHN BOS

On April 25, the Biden administration finalized a highly anticipated suite of rules to cut hazardous, planet-warming pollution generated by power plants in one of its most significant environmental actions to date. The EPA estimates the power plant...

By JOHN BOS

I find myself acutely aware of living in three worlds right now. The biggest one is the Universe that is large beyond my comprehension. My awareness was sharpened by watching the eclipse with my sister from two camp chairs in my driveway. Watching the...

By JOHN BOS

To begin with, I cannot find the words to adequately express my deeply heartfelt gratitude for the many responses to my last column “With trust gone, cult seems bad choice” about my current cancer journey. I will never be able to erase the simple...

By JOHN BOS

My regular column was missing last Saturday because the metastatic cancer that has taken up residence in my lower back got in the way of my writing. Now, on a new regimen of infusion of radioactive isotopes designed to target my unwelcome cancer...

By JOHN BOS

What is a responsible conservative? Depending upon your interpretation of “responsible,” might that include maintaining a democratic form of government? I certainly hope so.Because the MAGA crowds are supporting the elimination of democracy, whether...

By JOHN BOS

Having now lived 31 years longer than my father, I celebrated much of my 88th birthday in silent contemplation. And in reflections of my eight-decade journey on this planet. My awareness of dying has become ever more present since surviving a melanoma...

By JOHN BOS

I have this long-term relationship with Abraham Lincoln. The reason is that he and I share the same birthday: Feb. 12. My father told me that Lincoln was one of the greatest presidents America has ever had. Still true to this day. So, the saga of...

By JOHN BOS

There’s a quote on my crowded bulletin board full of prompts and reminders about life questions. One of the quotes is by Richard Bach, born the same year I was, in 1936. “Here,” he wrote over many years ago, “is the test to find whether your mission...

By JOHN BOS

This Christmas past I found myself searching for light at the end of the climate crisis tunnel. It was during the week of the shortest day and longest night of the year, a time when ancient holy people lit “yule logs” to push back the darkness and...

By JOHN BOS

For the past 10 years I have “reinterpreted” the classic “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (aka T’was the Night Before Christmas”), a poem that first appeared in the Troy (NY) Sentinel on Dec. 23, 1823 exactly 200 years ago to the day. There was no author’s...

By JOHN BOS

The ongoing denial campaign to undermine public trust in climate science has been described as a denial machine organized by industrial, political and ideological interests. This machine is supported by conservative and skeptical media to manufacture...