Letter: Vote Markey for Senate

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To the Editor:

Recently, we learned that frequent Berkshire visitor, U.S. Senator Ed Markey, has another Democratic challenger. Last time it was Rep. Joe Kennedy. This time it's Rep. Seth Moulton. [Alex Rikleen of Acton, a former teacher, is also running.]

I'm not against primaries, but as WBUR in Boston said: "Moulton is running on age, but what else?" Joe Kennedy had the same platform — and Massachusetts voters rejected him.

It seems to me a candidate's age is irrelevant if he's doing the job, and Ed Markey is doing his job. Very well, in fact. As I said, he's no stranger to the Berkshires, and he's fighting Trump's fascist policies in Washington every single day.


He is also the Senate author of the Green New Deal, and his progressive policies have led to widespread support among young voters. The online publication The Hill has called him "an icon to Gen Z activists."

But there's another reason I oppose internecine Democratic warfare this year. The Trump administration is posing the biggest threat to our democracy and our freedoms since the Civil War, and we should be devoting our precious time, energy, and money to that fight, not expending it on primary elections where a candidate's age is the only issue.

This is a nation on the brink. We have serious problems, and we need serious people to deal with them. Senator Ed Markey is serious. That's why he has my vote.

Lee Harrison
Williamstown, Mass.

 

 


Tags: election 2025,   municipal election,   


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Williams Grads Told: Be Kind to 'What Is Strange Within You'

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — After describing herself as neither a speech writer nor a public speaker, Williams College Commencement speaker Cécile McLorin Salvant said that she watched "millions" of similar addresses when figuring out what she would say to the school's Class of 2026.
 
"I watched Valerie Jarrett's commencement speech from last year here at Williams, and it was so incredibly inspiring," Salvant said. "It was great, but, after watching, I felt like I had even less I wanted to say.
 
"And then I thought: What if I just showed up here as myself? I have spent so much of my life looking at what other people are doing and trying to fit myself into that, but I don't really fit. And I know you don't really fit, and, actually, I've been most rewarded when I remembered that and when I've honored that."
 
Salvant said that graduation day is a good time for the graduates to think about what drives them and trust themselves to find a path.
 
"We're so often looking at what everyone else is doing, distracting ourselves from our own desires and our own idiosyncrasies, and the result is that we get a little more mean, a little less understanding of others, a little more stingy, a little less kind," Salvant said. "So what I'm advocating for, ultimately, is a kindness that goes both ways. That kindness toward yourself, toward what is strange within you, is that same kindness with which you can meet the people in the world around you, and you can keep giving that kindness both ways, even when you think you have none left to give."
 
And, with that, the three-time Grammy winner and MacArthur fellow told the crowd that she was going to be true to her self, launching into a stirring a cappella rendition of West Side Story's "Somewhere," composed by longtime Tanglewood fixture Leonard Bernstein with lyrics by Williams alum Stephen Sondheim.
 
Salvant was one of a handful speakers who took a turn at the podium at the school's 237th Commencement Exercises.
 
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