With all the talk of red states and blue states and regional politics, we live in a time where we often view anything not connected to us as “other.” But, oddly, at least in the Eastern United States, we have been connected across the 40th parallel by a single mountain range—the Appalachians—that has served for eons as a path not just for the hikers we see along Route 7 in the Berkshires, but by the flora and fauna that have travelled this same pathway.
"It’s a really interesting time—and I think it’s a real perfect time—for strategic planning. That’s the fun of it. What are we going to do this year—and in two years, three years, four years—to continue to grow and make this a fun, vibrant place that brings the community together?" --Berkshire Food Co-op general manager Troy Bond
She was employed in jewelry sales, appraising and grading diamonds and colored gemstones in Seattle, Washington; Billings, Montana; and Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
In the push for medical cannabis approval in 2012 in Massachusetts, and then to the passage of recreational in 2016, the ACLU, Drug Policy Alliance and others stressed the racial and class disparities of the war on drugs. It is a fair guess that many of the more than 60 percent of Berkshire County voters who checked “yes” on the 2016 ballot question did so at least in part to help right these wrongs.
Recently, our attention has been split by the plight of the Thai boys trapped in the cave, and the bizarre behavior of President Trump in Brussels, the United Kingdom and Helsinki. And yet there are thousands of parents and children trapped in a kind of hell, waiting to find each other.
“So much of Thanksgiving dinners is well cooked and sometimes too rich. I like having raw things on the plate, particularly when they provide good color.”
-- Julie Scott
