Hope Avalone's November 9 letter, 'Children Die, We Foot the Bill,' mourns the death of children in Gaza, as do we all, but she then inappropriately accuses Israel of murdering them.There was a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. On October 7, Hamas shattered that ceasefire by brutally massacring 1,...

A collaboration with the Westfield High School Journalism ProgramThe Diary of a Coffee AddictI remember the first morning my mom made me coffee before school when I was about 13 years old. Before this day, I never drank anything that would give me an energy boost. She said, “Good morning, Piera. Do ...

Aneighbor and I chatted over coffee and croissants outdoors at our favorite French Café. My eye caught a man walking his dog, about to pull out a poop bag, when another Café patron approached him, saying harshly, “You’d better pick that up!” The dog owner looked startled and replied, “I always do!” ...

It was Veteran’s Day and our miniature American flag lay on the counter. My kids have driven past Westfield’s World War I memorial countless times, often questioning the meaning of the copper-toned statue atop the centerpiece of this great town. Indeed I did the same as a kid, sitting shotgun in my ...

The Friends of the Westfield Memorial Library held their 12th annual Children’s and Teens’Book Sale from October 25 through October 29. Our volunteers were local residents and people from out-of-town; we had customers from New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. All of them helped us have another suc...

Regarding the war on Israel. Hamas clearly states they love death as much as the Jews love life. The question the world needs to ask itself, do they choose death and evil, or life and goodness? Maybe not a simple question for some, but any nation or people with moral clarity who choose life, need to...

My name is Paul Morello and I have been a resident of Scotch Plains for over 45 years. I am one of the minority that voted for the improvemements at Brookside Park. I live directly in the area and I feel that Scotch Plains needs a facility like this and that it would improve property values for ever...

I’ve practiced FirstAmendment law for more than a decade–first, in D.C. and now in New York. I’ve represented newspapers from New York to Australia. I teach media law at Fordham Law School and regularly publish scholarship on the history of the FirstAmendment. I believe deeply in that Amendment and ...

How many times do we have to read a news article about a teenager who used technology in a way that caused emotional distress, ostracized, bullied, and/or defamed a peer? The other side is that this same teenager potentially just changed the course of their own childhood and adult life. As a clinica...

Exactly forty-three years ago, writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin wrote an essay on his vote for the 1980 presidential election. He began, “The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing t...