Author: Mickey Friedman

Before Yoga

By Mickey Friedman February 12, 2015 You know you’re headed for your last rodeo when you can remember a time before yoga. I see the barber shops on Railroad Street, two saloons and the car parts store. The donut shop…

My Selma

By Mickey Friedman January 26, 2015 It’s sad but not unexpected that controversy roils about “Selma.” It is especially sad that the Motion Picture Academy has chosen not to honor the extraordinary work of David Oyelowo, its star, and Ava…

Perseverance Furthers

By Mickey Friedman January 17, 2015 I usually begin Christmas at Fuel Great Barrington. Ever since I lost my office, I write each day at Fuel. But this year Fuel was closed. Blessedly I found Christmas morning sanctuary with Craig…

Mars for the Martians

By Mickey Friedman December 23, 2014 Some of us have decided to get the heck out of Dodge. And, as usual, the desire to flee is being sold as noble. So there’s talk of Mars. Elon Musk, who I’ve never…

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…

Walk a Black Mile

By Mickey Friedman September 2, 2014 Kevin Durant, young, gifted, and black is the second-best basketball player in the world. Michael Brown, eighteen, quite possibly gifted in other ways, was black, now dead. While Kajieme Powell, twenty-three, black, quite possibly…