fb-pixel Skip to main content

columns

RENÉE GRAHAM

A dangerously armed nation at war with itself

There have been more mass shootings than days so far in 2023. And January isn’t even over yet.
Rachelle G. Cohen

Wu’s planning ‘redo’ puts process over results

Rearranging the boxes of city development is no substitute for mayoral leadership.
RENÉE LOTH

Is a truce possible in Boston’s shadow wars?

Imperatives such as lab space, housing, and university consolidation conflict with parks advocates who fear that part of the revered Emerald Necklace will be thrown into the dark by tall buildings.

op-eds

Svante Myrick

Tyre Nichols and the culture of toxic policing

How can municipalities restructure police departments, hold officers responsible for abuses, remove unfit officers, and recruit competent officers?
John Rosenthal

Gun violence is a uniquely American crisis. How did we get here?

It’s by design to sell more guns.
Barbra G. Rabson and Katherine Gergen Barnett

Massachusetts can finally measure the health of primary care

Few people are paying attention to how ill primary care has become and how we may be spiraling toward the grim portrayal of a health care system lacking high-quality primary care.

letters

It’s frightening that DCF can remove children without court order

In contract clashes, teachers unions are fighting for their schools

On daily run, she’s seen more paths in more places than many will ever know

Matchmaker, find me a find, fine, but I pay, and for him it’s free?

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

Editor's picks

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.
Joan Vennochi

Ana Walshe story — another missing white woman dominates the news

The “missing white woman syndrome” is very much on display in the enormous amount of local and national press attention being given to the Walshe story.
RENÉE GRAHAM

The father who murdered his ‘cherished’ children

A glowing obituary for a man who killed his family is indicative of how this nation regards domestic violence and its victims.
Carol Steinberg

A community bookstore where events are accessible to only some in the community

Are people who can’t manage stairs at Brookline Booksmith not part of the community? Shouldn’t we be part of those conversations?
IDEAS | JOHN SUMMERS

The mismeasure of Misha

My son broke free from the most common therapy for autism. Why is it used on so many kids like him?
EDITORIAL

Who is the real George Santos, and how did he get $700,000 to run for Congress?

The congressman-elect’s web of lies merits genuine concern of malfeasance, and Congress must launch an ethics inquiry.

Cartoons

SAGE STOSSEL

‘The Embrace’ and Boston’s art landscape

CHRISTOPHER WEYANT

Biden’s latest briefing on classified docs

CHRISTOPHER WEYANT

GOP lumbers toward fiscal cliff

WILL DOWD

Remembering Clementine Hunter

BETH WOLFENSBERGER SINGER

The empty shoes of 2023: A bittersweet matching game

CHRISTOPHER WEYANT

‘I’m not lying — I swear!’

More from Globe Opinion

SCOT LEHIGH

Could 2024 be the year for an independent presidential candidate?

Against the ingrained nature of the two-party system, independents are seldom serious contenders.

MARCELA GARCÍA

What you don’t know about Latinos in Massachusetts

Until now, there hasn’t been a concerted effort to better understand the perspectives of Latinos in Massachusetts. The lack of public opinion data is one reason why Latinos have flown under the radar of policy makers and elected officials.

EDITORIAL

Germany steps up for embattled Ukraine

Vladimir Putin’s brutal invasion of democratic Ukraine has shocked Berlin out of its post-World War II pacifism.

Barbra G. Rabson and Katherine Gergen Barnett

Massachusetts can finally measure the health of primary care

Few people are paying attention to how ill primary care has become and how we may be spiraling toward the grim portrayal of a health care system lacking high-quality primary care.

Joan Vennochi

Will taking kids out of buses guarantee a good school for every Boston student?

While I would never want to get into a debate with a team of MIT researchers on the merits of their findings, it’s fair to question whether they will now be used to justify the end of busing as a way to save money.

Kimberly Atkins Stohr

When it comes to Twitter, Supreme Court is tying itself into knots

The court buys time on challenges to laws in Texas and Florida seeking to impose state-level control over Twitter’s content moderation practices. But the court can’t avoid this issue forever.

Jonathan Hecht and Dan Winslow

Open the State House — and legislators’ votes and committee proceedings

An ongoing struggle is getting the Massachusetts Legislature to operate in a fully democratic fashion.

SCOT LEHIGH

Evangelicals finally grasp the obvious about Donald Trump

News flash: The former president may not be an exemplar of religious values.

Sign up for Globe Opinion newsletters →

SPECIAL PROJECTS

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.
RENÉE GRAHAM

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.
TIMELINE

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.

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.
ideas

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.
EDITORIAL

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.
EDITORIAL

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.
Letters

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.

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.
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