Category: Great Barrington MA

Public Education

By Mickey Friedman December 13, 2014 My friend Matthew, a recent graduate of Monument Mountain, reminded me of Give-to-Give, a program that enabled students here to help students in impoverished Haiti. So when he felt a slight chill at school,…

A Singular Ray of Light

December 3, 2014 By Mickey Friedman I drove with Jurek Zamoyski and Mel Greenberg to pick up and deliver food for Great Barrington’s four food pantries. There’s a pantry at the Calvary Christian Chapel on Route 41, one at the…

Selfish, Greedy People

By Mickey Friedman November 9, 2014 The debate about the Monument Mountain HS renovation has sent me back in time. Dreaming my five block walk from Webb Avenue to P.S. 86. A small army of kids streaming from our apartment…

School Facts Not Fiction

By Mickey Friedman October 27, 2014 Michael Wise of the Great Barrington Finance Committee says I’m “unhelpful.” Alan Chartock calls the 955 of his fellow town citizens who voted NO last November “selfish” and “un-American.” They say the issue is…

Love and Lies

By Mickey Friedman October 20, 2014 I woke to learn from The Eagle that I’ve been instilling “anger and fear in the most financially vulnerable citizens of our community.” From the Berkshire Edge, I’m “short-sighted and selfish.” And “deceiving you.”…

NO, then YES

By Mickey Friedman September 30, 2014 I left the most recent meetings about the Monument Mountain High School renovation with heightened respect for Principal Marianne Young and Superintendent Peter Dillon, yet feeling sad that the School Committee had asked these…

Our New Fire-To-Farm-To-Table House

By Mickey Friedman September 18, 2014 Remember being told the old firehouse was a serious hazard to the town employees who worked there and the citizens who came to consult them? So why are our town employees are still working…

One Man’s Significant

By Mickey Friedman June 11, 2014 Significant. There are several definitions including “large enough to be noticed” and “very important.” So for one man, what’s significant is noticeable. For another, it’s an important change. The Berkshire Eagle reported that at…

The Bear on The Hill

By Mickey Friedman May 13, 2014 I’ve got mice. A friend’s got rats. Congressman Bill Shein just lost a duck to a fox. Mice, rats, tigers, lions, and bears. Everywhere it’s war. Congressman Bill, the most nonviolent of men, had…

Thanksgiving Thursday

By Mickey Friedman May 7, 2014 We of The Best Small Town in America are more than lucky. Because, for us, Thanksgiving comes not just once each year but once a week. That is, if you make your way to…

Me and My Yo-Yo Ma

By Mickey Friedman April 8, 2014 I have a thing for purple. And pigtails. Hers were reddish-blonde. It was like I was in a movie. With a halo of light about her. And even though I was making my way…