Opinion - The Boston Globe

columns

In January, Rasheeda Williams, known as "Koko Da Doll," attended the premiere of "Kokomo City" at the Sundance Film Festival. Three months later, she was killed.

‘The way my sibling moved in life, it was . . . take it or leave it: “This is how I am.”’

Greater visibility means increased danger for trans people caught between the pain of living a lie and the risks of dying for living their truth.

MARCELA GARCÍA

Donald Trump, the dictator

Trump has already shown us who he is — time and time again.

MARCELA GARCÍA

El dictador Donald Trump

“Cuando alguien te muestra quién es, créele la primera vez”.

op-eds

Technicians from CP Solar work on the maintenance of solar panels at a partially solar-powered factory in the industrial area of Nairobi, on Oct. 9.

The only way to prevent the worst of climate change

The fight against climate change will be won or lost in less wealthy countries that will produce the most emissions in the future.

Is CO2 the only carbon we should be focused on?

Agricultural supply could turn out to be a more significant security concern than fossil fuels ever were.

Stephen F. Lynch

Why the US must support Ukraine with aid

The Ukrainian people deserve our continued military and humanitarian support to resist an escalating war of Russian state-sponsored terrorism that has already killed nearly 10,000 and injured almost 18,000 Ukrainian civilians.

letters

In a heated time, sorry seems to be the hardest word

Debating the JetBlue-Spirit merger deal

A man analyzes abortion data. Three women have words.

Crux of freewill debate is in how we approach restorative justice

Meet Globe OpinionSubmit a letter to the EditorSubmit an Op-Ed

Follow Globe Opinion

Editor's picks

Vials of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccines.

PODCAST | SAY MORE WITH SHIRLEY LEUNG

You should still get the COVID-19 vaccine. The Nobel Prize winner who helped discover it explains why.

Dr. Drew Weissman, who grew up in Lexington, is this week’s guest on the Globe’s Say More podcast with Shirley Leung.

A child inspected the damage at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Nov. 17 amid ongoing battles between Israel and Hamas.

Start talking now about postwar Gaza

If Israel achieves its goal of removing Hamas from power in the Gaza Strip, then what?

Politicians look to God and the Bible to do their heavy lifting

Is God listening? Hard to say.

Miss Universe 2023, Sheynnis Palacio of Nicaragua.

IDEAS | STEPHEN KINZER

The beauty queen who terrifies a dictator

Nicaragua’s bizarre autocratic regime gives the impression it’s in total control. So why does Miss Universe pose such a threat?

Vice Chair Liz Cheney of Wyoming listened as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol held a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, June 23, 2022. Cheney has been among the GOP’s sharpest critics of former president Donald Trump.

Scot Lehigh tried reasoning like a Trump supporter. Here’s what he came up with.

Lehigh gets into the MAGA mindset.

From left: Claudine Gay, president of Harvard University; Liz Magill, president of the University of Pennsylvania; Pamela Nadell, professor of history and Jewish studies at American University; and Sally Kornbluth, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, testified before the House Education and Workforce Committee on Dec. 5 in Washington. The committee held a hearing to investigate antisemitism on college campuses.

College leaders leave distressing impression in Washington hearing

All seemed highly coached by lawyers on what to say and what not to say, as if their hope was that this will all blow over and they can finesse their way out of it.

Cartoons

Big fish story

A cartoonist outsources her work to AI

All Biden’s fault!

CHRISTOPHER WEYANT

Netflix and not-chill

BETH WOLFENSBERGER SINGER

Ninety-one is a lot (Boston’s version)

KIRSTEN ELIZABETH

An afternoon on Nomans Land

More from Globe Opinion

CARINE HAJJAR

This image made from bodycam video footage taken by a Hamas militant and released by Israel Defense Forces shows the militant in a residential neighborhood at an undisclosed location in Israel.

I watched the Oct. 7 video. I don’t know how anyone can say Hamas are freedom fighters.

Brutal footage of the Hamas attack was screened at Harvard, where some pro-Palestinian students have blamed Israel for the barbarous attacks.

EDITORIAL

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu held a news conference to discuss the tentative contract agreement between the city and the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association on Dec. 5. On left is Larry Calderone, president of the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association, and next to him is Michael Cox, Boston Police Commissioner.

Wu scores some important wins in new police contract

But follow-through will be critical in setting Boston policing on a new and better path.

Stephen F. Lynch

Soldiers of Ukraine's National Guard 1st brigade Bureviy (Hurricane) practiced during combat training at a military training ground in the north of Ukraine in early November.

Why the US must support Ukraine with aid

The Ukrainian people deserve our continued military and humanitarian support to resist an escalating war of Russian state-sponsored terrorism that has already killed nearly 10,000 and injured almost 18,000 Ukrainian civilians.

ELISSA ELY

The pages of life keep turning

You start as a young mother smiling at cross-legged children and then, a seeming minute later, you are an older person balancing a pile of books in a corner of a Children’s Room — where you don’t really belong — and the library is closing. Such is time passing without choice.

JEFF JACOBY

A Hanukkah menorah in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin in 2017.

What Hamas can learn from Hanukkah

However genocidal and powerful their enemies, the Jews and the Jewish faith have endured.

SCOT LEHIGH

Angus King said, “We really have worked hard to make it something that has a shot at getting passed but also will pass constitutional muster.”

Senator Angus King of Maine looks for middle ground on gun safety

Angus King leads. Will Susan Collins step up?

EDITORIAL

Attorney Eric Mack is asking the Supreme Judicial Court to remove Bristol County DA Thomas Quinn from his position, alleging that Quinn covers up police misconduct and should have fired his First Assistant DA, who authored racist e-mails while working in a neighboring county. Part of his complaint deals with the death of his brother Anthony Harden.

Police-involved shootings require more transparency, not less

Bristol district attorney’s effort to ‘outsource’ public disclosure to the POST Commission is seriously misguided.

Alex Beam

Politicians look to God and the Bible to do their heavy lifting

Is God listening? Hard to say.

Sign up for Globe Opinion newsletters →

SPECIAL PROJECTS

Not so fast, fashion

Not so fast, fashion

How to be fashionable and equitable while saving the planet from climate change.

Teens Speak

Teens Speak

We asked. They delivered. Teens from across the country offer a candid look at how they’re navigating life, school, friendships, social media, expectations, and so much more.

Blue sky Boston: Where inspiration meets aspiration for the city’s future

Sustainable living. Gondolas. A science expo. Evaluation of student humanity. Here’s what a Boston of the future could be.

ERNESTO BARBIERI WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY JESS RULIFFSON

Tenderness and brutality: True stories from an ICU nurse

An illustrated opinion piece that examines the porous border between healing and suffering in one hospital’s intensive care unit.

IDEAS | DAVID SCHARFENBERG

How Uphams Corner got wealthier without getting whiter

The scrappy Dorchester neighborhood has fulfilled the community activist’s dream: development without displacement.

Where did all the workers go?

For two years, employers have been desperate for workers — and there’s no indication the labor shortage will soon change. What are we losing — and possibly gaining — as a result?

Explore the project ➞

Sidetrack students find a piece of machinery in an abandoned building on the Boston waterfront while exploring the city.

IDEAS | PETER THOMSON

The radical, forgotten experiment in educational integration that changed my life

In 1971, kids from Roxbury and Lincoln spent half the year attending school together in the city and the other half in the suburb. Fifty years later, I tracked down my fellow students to see how it shaped them — and whether something like it could work today.

Globe Opinion’s 2022 Top 10

The readers have spoken: Take a tour through The Boston Globe opinion section’s top 10 most read columns, editorials, cartoons, letters, and Ideas stories of 2022.

Remembering trans lives taken in 2022

Even before a gunman killed five people and injured nearly 20 last month at Club Q, a popular LGBTQ nightspot in Colorado Springs, Colo., 2022 was already a deadly year for trans and gender nonconforming people. At least 35 have been killed nationwide, most of them Black trans women.

Assault on American democracy

Jan. 6, 2021, was one of the most alarming days in American history. Boston Globe Opinion columns, editorials, letters, and cartoons untangle the continuing aftermath of the attack on the US Capitol.

IDEAS | JOAN VENNOCHI

How the MBTA went off the rails

Nearly everything about Boston has changed in the past few decades, yet the T has the same big problem — a failure to prioritize the rider experience above all.

IDEAS | DAVID SCHARFENBERG

Boston was once a wildly ambitious city. It’s time to go big again.

Soaring housing costs, a broken T, and other existential problems require sweeping fixes that meet the moment.

10TeenSocialMediaProject

Young people and the power of social media

Social media holds enormous power over young people. Can they find a way to navigate safely through its ever-changing landscape?

How do we memorialize the pandemic?

As the United States neared its one millionth COVID-19 related death, artists, architects, and community leaders are calling for a permanent memorial to honor all those touched by COVID. Globe Opinion asked several artists for their vision of what a COVID memorial could look like.

Explore the rest of the project →

IDEAS | ABDALLAH FAYYAD

Editing the Constitution

The Constitution is undergoing massive changes in the Supreme Court. It’s time to put the founding document in the hands of the people.

The Future of Work

The past year has shattered expectations of what workdays look like. Parenting while Zooming. An uncrowded T. Wary interactions with customers. In this special issue of Ideas, we explore which of these changes will stick — and how they’ll affect the quality of our lives.

The Longevity Hub

The Boston Globe Opinion section and MIT's AgeLab present The Longevity Hub, an ongoing series seeking to spark Greater Boston's transformation into the Silicon Valley of aging.

Future-proofing the presidency

Donald Trump brought our democracy to the brink and exposed its weak spots. Here’s how to thwart the next American tyrant.

A battle for affordable housing in Massachusetts

The Globe editorial board's 2020 series on the need for inclusive housing reform in Newton and across the Commonwealth.

Brave New Planet

Brave New Planet is a podcast that delves deep into the most exciting and challenging scientific frontiers, helping us understand them and grapple with their implications. Dr. Eric Lander, president and founding director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, is host.

The future of food

What we eat, where it comes from, and how we get it are being reimagined like never before. In this special issue, we celebrate the role of food in our communities and explore how it can be tastier, more accessible, and healthier for us and the planet.

Postcards from the pandemic

Invited to take a walk, in fact, lots of walks; dining room table repurposed — a snapshot of how readers were coping.

An archive of conversations with the experts writing thought-provoking Globe Opinion op-eds and Ideas features.

Watching the 2020 DNC felt like watching an infomercial for a product that was not made for me, but that I’m being told to buy anyway.

The Other swing voter

Political coverage often focuses on voters who oscillate between political parties in a few key swing states. Here we feature perspectives and opinions from and about demographics of Americans — young voters and Black and brown voters —who swing between voting and not voting.

Voters observed social distancing guidelines as they waited in line to cast ballots in the Wisconsin presidential primary election, in Milwaukee in April.

From voter suppression to gerrymandering to foreign interference, the integrity of US elections is under attack. In a three-part weekly series, Globe Opinion examines how the nation arrived at this moment and what needs to be done to protect voting rights.

Thomas E. Patterson

Trapped: Why the GOP's death is imminent

The Republican Party is destroying itself. Thomas Patterson of the Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center explains the five traps the party has set for itself and warns that the party's future is in peril without reform.

Black voices now

Globe Opinion seeks to amplify the perspectives and the voices of Black community members, scholars, activists, doctors, teachers, business leaders, students, and parents as op-ed and letter writers, and as innovators and provocateurs featured in Globe Ideas. Here we feature Black voices from the community amid the historic protests following the killing of George Floyd. We aim to amplify yet more Black voices going forward.

Massachusetts Works

We turn the typical model of journalism on its head — instead of focusing on what’s broken, we’re taking a look at what Massachusetts gets right.

Legal Lens documentaries

Law and documentary film may seem far apart, but they actually share many connections. With the guidance of filmmaker and producer Joseph Tovares and support from the Hewlett Foundation, 12 Harvard Law School students from eight countries have worked since January on the Legal Lens project. You can view the films here on BostonGlobe.com.

Choosing, using, and losing your health care: A policy first-aid kit

In a four-part weekly series, Globe Opinion offers a baseline assessment of health care as well as prescriptions for fixing the industry.

Journalists are not the enemy

A central pillar of President Trump’s politics is a sustained assault on the free press. Journalists are not classified as fellow Americans, but rather “the enemy of the people.”

National Student Essay Competition winners announced