Your opinions are an important part of the Plymouth Independent. We welcome your letters and commentaries. All we ask is that you follow some commonsense guidelines.
For starters, we need to know who you are. Any submission must include the author’s full name, an email address, and a phone number (for verification purposes only). If you’re writing as a representative of a group or organization, please state that. Standing behind your opinion gives it heft and credibility. You can even share links to pertinent sources if it helps make a point or bolster your position.
But while we encourage a robust exchange of ideas, we don’t have the resources to fact-check letters and essays filled with speculative statements and assertions that venture beyond the realm of opinion. We also won’t accept political endorsements, local or otherwise. Anything that even hints of discrimination or hate will be rejected outright. Good taste is a good thing. Brevity is an asset – getting right to the point saves us from cutting your copy, and helps to ensure that people will read what you have to say.
Put simply, we’ll show as much latitude as possible, but we reserve the right to not publish any submission that doesn’t meet those modest standards.
Now, with that out of the way, let’s hear from you. Send your letters or commentaries to: letters@plymouthindependent.org. We’re looking forward to it.
John Singleton Copley’s portrait of Plymouth’s Mercy Otis Warren, from about 1763.
Mercy Otis Warren, the Revolutionary War-era pamphleteer and activist, holds court in the American wing of the Museum of Fine Arts resplendent in a royal blue and lacy frock; Her aristocratic bearing disguising the passions that led her to inspire widespread colonial rebellion against British rule. In due course, Warren’s writings not only advocated for the founding of a new country but, crucially, one that guaranteed individual rights. At a time when a majority of Americans agree fundamental freedoms are…
Let’s be honest: Islamophobia has long been normalized in American society – quietly tolerated, rarely challenged, and too often dismissed as someone else’s problem. But in today’s toxic political climate, it’s getting worse. Here in Plymouth, that normalization has erupted…
The Select Board needs to educate themselves on e-bikes, before considering any legislation. The vast majority of e-bikes are Class 1 e-bikes, designed to work only to assist in pedaling and do not engage when not pedaling. Most are owned…
I feel compelled to comment after reading Andrea Estes’ piece on the e-bike discussion at the Select Board meeting. I often walk the rail trail in North Plymouth with my husband. Both of us are healthy and have no difficulty…
With all due respect, being of an age to get a job, take the MCAS, [or] earn a spot in a high school tech program do not put the public at risk – riding an e-bike in public could and…
As a social worker I believe that the town of Plymouth, and other Massachusetts towns should prohibit ICE raids in immigrant-based family communities. I find it so upsetting that there are ICE raids being performed in areas of North Plymouth…
As a teacher with nearly 30 years of experience, I am compelled to respond to several comments made during the public comment portion of the December 1 School Committee meeting. Each time I watch local government at work – whether…
The previous letter from Ms. Lohmeyer misses the central concern that many parents have about the sexual-health curriculum. While she is absolutely correct to highlight the dangers of pornography and the serious harm it inflicts on children, that point actually…
Thanksgiving brings to mind many images — the Mayflower, Plymouth Rock, the Puritans, William Bradford and Miles Standish, and the first Thanksgiving feast attended by Pilgrims and native Americans. Many stories have embellished this most American of holidays. Some are…
I am a retired (42 years) health educator. Most of my years were in New Jersey – where they have a comprehensive K-12 health education mandate with an opt out option – although I began my career in Plymouth. My…
This Thanksgiving in Plymouth, the second floor of the Plymouth County Correctional Facility will house hundreds of incarcerated immigrants. recently snatched from their homes and workplaces in Maine and across New England by masked secret police. All of them, like…