Credit goes to the Williamstown Select Board for its decision to approve the placement of Hometown Heroes banners along the Mohawk Trail, from the North Adams line to Cole Avenue. Long overdue is the opportunity for families to pay a company exorbitant amounts of money to commemorate their lost loved ones, or, possibly, their loved…
It’s 1:00 a.m., and I can’t sleep.
My chest is hitching now and again. There’s a knot in my throat.
Sorrow, then rage. Then fear. Then rage again. And more sorrow.
To many of you, this will all sound like a paranoid fever dream. I get it. You grew up on the same “School House Rock” version of America that I did. Your history classes painted this Land of the Free in the best possible light, excusing centuries of atrocities with an optimistic, “Well, we wouldn’t do Manifest Destiny the same way today!”
Are you against masked thugs disappearing people who might be undocumented immigrants (with more and more U.S. citizens being swept up in ICE terror campaigns), traumatizing children, and pepper-spraying members of Congress who merely ask a question? Whoops! You’re an entity that goes on the list.
This essay asks: What does Independence Day mean to minimum wage workers? While America celebrates freedom, millions remain trapped in poverty wages, unable to taste the liberty this holiday claims to honor.
