SalemNews.com, Salem, MA Opinion

Our View: Big test for upstart Senate candidate

2012-05-30T05:00:00-04:00

Supporters of Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren are under no obligation to help Marisa DeFranco obtain the minimum 15 percent delegate vote she requires to win a place on the primary ballot in September.

Our View: Time to get rid of Salem council's silly gag rule

2012-05-30T05:00:00-04:00

The writer T.S. Eliot once observed that "half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important."
The rule that allows a single member of the Salem City Council to prevent anyone, even the mayor, from addressing that body makes that councilor feel important. It serves no other purpose.

Reg Henry: Dear Friends: Facebook is, like, so lame

2012-05-30T04:45:00-04:00

There comes a time in every life when a person must take the plunge, break from the old routine, embrace the future. So it was with me and Facebook.
I saw many of my friends and relatives sign up for Facebook in recent years. But being somewhat of an anti-social person working not in new media but grumpy old media, I resisted doing so myself as an individual act of defiance.

What Others Say: Nanny state alive and well in the Merrimack Valley

2012-05-30T04:45:00-04:00

Let's stipulate that smoking is very, very bad for you.
If you don't quit, it will probably kill you, one way or another. It will impoverish you little by little as you plop down $7 or $8 for a pack of cigarettes.

Letter: Great day for Farms community

2012-05-30T04:30:00-04:00

To the editor:
"Magnificent" and "moving" are the two words best suited to describe the day and the spirit coursing through the community during this past Sunday's Memorial Day parade in Beverly Farms.

Letter: Proposed development threatens another Beverly neighborhood

2012-05-30T04:30:00-04:00

To the editor:
I read with dismay and disbelief the information recently made public in your newspaper regarding the proposed development of the land near Kelleher's Pond and the Montserrat train station in Beverly. There are so many things wrong about these proposals I can't even begin to list them. But I will try.

Letter: Excessive parking rules threaten Salem's small businesses

2012-05-30T04:30:00-04:00

To the editor:
As a native of Salem, member of the Salem High School Class of 1965, dedicated reader of The Salem News and frequenter of Salem businesses, I write to you to express my concerns regarding the recent plans to place parking meters on Margin and Gedney Streets.

Letter: Goal should be reasonable ambulance rates for all

2012-05-30T04:30:00-04:00

To the editor:
A recent letter to the editor defending the high fees charged by some for-profit ambulance companies ("Change needed in EMS reimbursement practices," Tuesday, May 22), suggests that health plans like Blue Cross are seeking to shift the cost of ambulance services to cities and towns.

Our View: Sports stardom no guarantee of future success

2012-05-29T05:05:00-04:00

How far the hero of the 2004 Red Sox season has fallen.
Curt Schilling's bloody sock would became symbolic of the Sox's historic comeback win over the Yankees and subsequent victory over the St. Louis Cardinals that brought Boston its first baseball world championship since 1918. Eight years later, the former all-star pitcher is being reviled for pulling a fast one on Rhode Island economic development officials and leaving more than 400 employees of his video games company in the lurch.

Our View: For better or worse, this trio helped define our culture

2012-05-29T05:00:00-04:00

The world mourned the loss of three icons of popular culture this month.
Two of them — singers Donna Summer and Robin Gibb — were celebrities whose voices and looks were emblematic of the much-maligned "Disco Era" that followed the Vietnam War and Watergate scandal. The other, engineer Eugene Polley, was not so well-known, but the device he perfected in the 1950s is now considered indispensable to couch potatoes everywhere.