Opinon: Here’s My Opinion

I’ve been writing opinion pieces for the local press since 1986. My first bailiwick was education, because that was my work. When I retired in 1991, I added local government to my remit because I had come to value the New England tradition of Town Meeting, especially Representative Town Meeting, as foundational to democracy. With the dissolution of Town Meeting in 2018, my voice more and more struck a note of dissent – about the new Home Rule Charter, the new big institutional library, and the absence of separation of powers in our local government. Occasionally, I get comments; sometimes agreement, for which I am grateful, sometimes disagreement, for which I am even more grateful.  I try to respond to these comments, but I am not always successful.

Sometimes I am astonished to discover that my opinion piece has been one of the most-read (or at least clicked on) in that week’s edition of The Indy, and that is tremendously encouraging.  Quite frankly, I frequently get tired of the sound of my voice and suspect that others may as well. That people still bother to click on my pieces suggests that there is still support for informed dissent in Amherst.

But there are different levels of informed dissent in The Indy, and while I will not name names here, regular readers will have no trouble identifying them. I am impressed and grateful for the careful study and analysis of budgets and contracts that some opinion writers engage in. I read their pieces with care, and as far as I can tell their detailed observations have never been challenged by those engaged in budgets and contracts.

Other writers are committed advocates for progressive causes, most of which I strongly support. I am inspired by their eloquence and courage and convinced of their importance and centrality in these days of ICE, when local police departments claim that their position is “untenable.”  It is up to readers to respond – and hopefully add their voices in Comment so that these advocates and the town government to which local departments are responsible know that the town’s position on federal overreach is not only tenable, it is legal, it is historically American, and it is right.

My own opinion pieces tend to fall in between these two poles – more theoretical than the fact-finding writers, and less passionate than the advocates. I am suspicious of “facts’ and I am too committed to the paradoxical notion that the opposite of a good idea is often another good idea. I can understand why that may not be appealing to many readers.

The Indy makes room for us all and for the extraordinary feature writers who introduce us to our history and our natural and man-made environments. It reminds me weekly of why I have cherished Amherst for fifty-six years and what makes it worth working to improve it. And why it is important from time to time to thank and appreciate the writers who do this work.

Michael Greenebaum was Principal of Mark’s Meadow School from 1970 to 1991, and from 1974 taught Organization Studies in the Higher Education Center at the UMass School of Education.  He served in Town Meeting from 1992, was on the first Charter Commission in 1993, and served on several town committees including the Town Commercial Relations Committee and the Long Range Planning Committee.