Category: Your View

The recent article “Prisoners are spending thousands of hours a month talking on the phone – for free” from the Plymouth Independent demonstrates a troubling bias in its coverage, favoring the perspectives of carceral officials while downplaying the broader benefits of the new legislation. Such framings only serve to uphold punitive structures rather than promote […]

Like others in Plymouth, I have always been intrigued by the prospect that a mini-convention center could attract additional visitors/attendees to Plymouth, especially during the “shoulder” seasons, and bring welcomed new business to the local economy.  However, after reviewing the Convention Center Market Analysis and Feasibility Study prepared for Plymouth by the CSL-led team of […]

The Massachusetts Senate passed a plastic bag ban last week. While I can agree that the ban on disposable plastic shopping bags will be a boon to the environment, I object to the sidebars that accompany that Senate bill.  Specifically, I find the imposition of a 10-cent paper bag tax objectionable. The Commonwealth would render […]

On Sunday, June 9, an adult Canada goose was found sitting quietly in the flower bed near the front door. We live about a quarter mile from a deep pond through woods. The goose was weak and having diarrhea. My best guess is that he failed during flight and landed in our yard. I left […]

The Open Meeting Law provides in part that “after notifying the chair…, any person may make a video or audio recording of an open meeting…after notifying the chair of the public body” and “the chair shall inform the attendees of any recordings.” At the June 11, 2024, meeting of the Select Board, Fred Thys, a […]

This is absolutely absurd on the part of the Select Board. (“Canty says reporter could face years in prison for failing to announce he was recording a public meeting,” June 19).  So much so that I cannot even read the entire article. I was born and raised in Plymouth. My family has paid taxes for […]

During the (June 20) Plymouth Master Plan kickoff meeting, the turnout of Plymouth residents was significant. A majority of the goals voiced by attendees focused on safeguarding our drinking water and preventing reckless development. Currently, Plymouth’s water quality has greatly deteriorated, as verified by the EWG Tap Water Database. The quality of our drinking water […]

Three years ago on a February morning, mid-Covid outbreak, my mother and I picked up my dad at the curb of [a Massachusetts] hospital. He had suffered a significant traumatic brain injury a few days earlier and this was the first time we had seen him since he left by ambulance a few days prior. […]

I’m disappointed in the Plymouth Independent. I was looking forward to the return of professional local journalism to Plymouth before the Plymouth Independent started publishing in November 2023. I have a great deal of respect for journalists, having studied journalism at Northeastern University for my undergraduate degree. However, the PI’s recent inability to admit when […]

I was distressed to read that Plymouth Select Board member Kevin Canty recently threatened a Plymouth Independent reporter, suggesting he was committing a felony by recording the board’s public meeting without providing advance notice. In my 40 years as a journalist for the Associated Press and local newspapers on both coasts, I have recorded and […]