Monthly Archives: June 2014

Nukes and tourism

Have nuclear power plants have begun to have an effect on tourism? I’m not just talking about Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, or Fukushima; I’m not aware that any of them were big tourist destinations even before their disasters. My wife and I have spent time in France for many years. I’ve always loved the French […]

124: older can be better

Congratulations to Harwich on defeating the initiative to “improve” Route 124. A predictable reaction to the decision in a letter to this paper complained that the existing road is scandalously old, dating back to the 1920s. Sometimes we carelessly use “older” as a metaphor for incompetent, as if newer always means better. But the argument […]

Iraq : once more unto the breach? (seriously?)

To intervene or not to intervene. It’s one of the great issues of our time for the few countries powerful enough to consider such a thing. But Iraq for a third time? This should be an easy decision. Iraq’s history is once again not going the way we’d like it to go (those of us […]

Risk Management

In the late 1990s a large number of Wellfleetians organized to keep cell phone towers out of our town. A big part of it was aesthetic. We didn’t want them dominating our modest skyline, competing with church steeples. We didn’t like the prospect of people polluting our pristine experiences at the pond and ocean by […]

Community Policing: problem concept?

On June 16th (7 pm, Senior Center) Wellfleet will hold a forum on “community policing.” It’s a well-intentioned effort to address current concerns about our town’s policing, “worrisome incidents” as one citizens put it. But the very concept is a problem. According to Wikipedia, “Community policing, or community-oriented policing, is a strategy of policing that […]

Cops and community: what style of policing do we want?

It’s not a rumor that there are rumors going around town that our police are getting tougher, more zealous. Overly zealous. I have no personal experience of this myself, but the rumors probably don’t come from nowhere. What is being alleged is conceivable. And if true, it raises issues that should be addressed at the […]

Cops and community: where should the buck stop?

What was the story of the arrest of two Wellfleet locals in front of the Wicked Oyster restaurant on the evening of May 3? Actually, there are currently two very different stories. The story told in the police report mentions some serious-sounding crimes such as DUI, assaulting an officer, endangerment of the two kids in […]