Letter: Response 10/23 Letter: Vote Rikleen for Senate

To the Editor:

The recent letter supporting Senator Markey in the 2026 Senate primary focuses on only one of his opponents (Congressman Moulton), quickly dismissing my candidacy with a passing parenthetical.

The writer criticizes Moulton for running only on age, and that's a fair critique. So far, it's the only clear thing he's running on.

My campaign is completely different. I'm not running on age at all — you won't find a single mention of it on my website or in my stump speech. I'm running because our democracy is in crisis, and too many of our Democratic leaders are failing to meet the moment. I include Senator Markey and Representative Moulton in that critique.

The letter says Senator Markey is "fighting Trump's fascist policies every single day." I wish that were true. He talks a good game, but he's done less to resist this administration than he did during Trump's first term. Individual senators have many procedural tools to slow or block Trump's agenda — and Markey has used none of them, despite that he occasionally used some during Trump's first term.

Alex Rikleen
Acton, Mass.

Rikleen is running in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate.

North Adams Becomes a Purple Heart Community

By Jack GuerinoiBerkshires Staff
05:16AM / Tuesday, August 11, 2026

Veterans Service Officer Kurtis Durocher, a Purple Heart recipient, tells his own story of how he was wounded in Iraq.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — City leaders last week held a ceremony marking the city as a Purple Heart Community to honor local military service members wounded or killed in combat.

 

"This designation is much more than a sign that will stand at the entrances to our city," said Kurtis Durocher, Northern Berkshire veterans service officer at City Hall on Friday. "It is a lasting commitment and a promise to this community. We'll never forget the sacrifices made by those who are wounded or killed while serving our nation. It is a public declaration of the courage and sacrifices of combat wounded. Veterans will always have a place of honor here in North Adams."

 

As a Purple Heart Community, North Adams will place signs throughout the city acknowledging the designation. The city will also hold a ceremony every Aug. 7 on National Purple Heart Day.

 

During the inaugural ceremony, Durocher said he was asked by the Military Order of the Purple Heart to find a keynote speaker for the event, preferably a Purple Heart recipient. But he was unable to find someone willing to speak. With the date approaching, he decided to tell his own story.

 

"I don't like standing up and telling my own personal story ... But I realized, in my position as a VSO, I get so many ... children of veterans who will say, 'I didn't know anything about my father until after he passed because he just didn't talk about it,'" Durocher said. "... I have been that way until I've gotten into this position, and so, now, I try to tell my story as much as I can when it is brought to me."

 

Durocher served in the Army for 20 years and retired as a master sergeant. On Friday, he recalled a time early in his career while serving in the 82nd Airborne Division deploying to Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. On Sept. 12, 2003, his squad was conducting a patrol on Route Irish in Baghdad. He was serving as a gunner on an LMTV when it was struck by a 155-millimeter artillery shell. He said the explosive had been hidden behind a guardrail and detonated using nothing more than a washing machine timer.

 

"In an instant, everything changed. The blast knocked me unconscious. When I regained consciousness, I instinctively was removing my helmet," he said. "Almost immediately my training took over. We had been taught repeatedly that attacks like this were often followed by a secondary attack or an ambush. I quickly put my helmet back on and began searching for my machine gun."