Opinion - The Boston Globe

GOP leaders can’t finesse the party’s Trump problem

To scheme or redeem, that is the question.

The Boston Police Department’s moral rot

From crimes to cover-ups, the nation’s oldest police force is being driven and defined by its toxic culture.

Police Vehicles with Flashing Lights.

White and the Blue Wall of Silence must both go

Shibley Telhami
Biden’s bungled response on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
If an American president cannot leverage the US’s extraordinary political clout to advance core American values, what hope is there for succeeding anywhere else?

Suzin Bartley, Joan Lovely, and Maria Mossaides
Child sexual abuse is preventable
For too long, we have approached the issue of child abuse by focusing on what to do after abuse has already occurred.

MARCELA GARCÍA
The police scanner, at your fingertips
The nearly 19,000 people who follow @Stacos get a constant feed of emergency incidents happening in and around Boston.

Marilyn J. Mosby and Rachael Rollins
The public safety benefits of not prosecuting low-level crimes
Both Boston and Baltimore have shown that new thinking on policing and prosecution promotes public safety and protects communities of color.

letters

Boston taking the wrong path on Copley Square

Mass. needs to make a major investment in Gateway Cities

MFA finds fertile ground for reengaging with ‘Great Spirit’ sculpture

Cannabis host communities need more than just foggiest notion for fees they demand

Structural racism infects how we pay for health care

A collaboration between BU's Center for Antiracist Research and The Boston Globe's Opinion team.

Conversations with the experts writing thought-provoking Globe Opinion op-eds and Ideas features.

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.

Postcards from the pandemic

Invited to take a walk, in fact, lots of walks; dining room table repurposed — an update on how readers are coping

Meet The Editorial BoardSubmit a letter to the EditorSubmit an Op-Ed

Follow Globe Opinion

Editor's picks

Shan Soe-Lin and Robert Hecht
Up your mask game
Not all masks are equal — the best ones offer effective filtration, breathability, and snug fit to reduce exposure to unfiltered air. Recent studies have found that the best masks have three layers.

IDEAS | NOAH Y. KIM
Housing will test white support for Black lives
White people are rallying against racism, but will they finally make it much easier for minorities to move into their neighborhoods?

IDEAS | TIYA MILES
What should we do with plantations?
The lavish estates where Black people were enslaved usually whitewash their history. Here's how these places might begin to redeem themselves.

IDEAS | ANNIE MURPHY PAUL
A smarter way of thinking about intelligence
Why is one particular intellectual capacity valued over so many other worthy qualities, like compassion, honesty, courage, and common sense?

Cartoons

Melissa and Joe Foley, the parents of Parker Foley. The Foleys recently filed a lawsuit against John Blake, the Duxbury men's hockey coach and middle school phys ed teacher, alleging that he repeatedly raped their son in the mid-2000s. Parker died of a drug overdose last October.

Suzin Bartley, Joan Lovely, and Maria Mossaides

Child sexual abuse is preventable

Rochelle Walensky has a credibility problem

A solution for hunger takes shape in Chelsea and Cambridge

In this May 19, 2020, file photo, Aaron Stubbs and his two children watch the sunset at Joshua Tree National Park in California. The Biden administration is outlining a plan to sharply increase conservation of public lands and waters over the next decade.

In rescue of one baby bird there is a conservation lesson for us all

The MBTA’s shift to zero emissions for its bus lines is happening

Biden off to a bold start on climate

An empty classroom at Boston International High School in February.

The Boston Public Schools are getting a giant stimulus check. Time to think big.

The tenure question

Results are in on dropping entrance test, but exam school picture is incomplete

securing democracy

Supporters of then-President Donald Trump storm the Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. House Democrats plan to vote on a bill to create an independent commission to investigate the Capitol riot. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy opposes the formation of the commission.

GOP leaders can’t finesse the party’s Trump problem

Corporate donors, the lifeblood of the GOP, need to stand up for democracy

Does Liz Cheney really care about democracy?

Os Keyes, a researcher and writer at the University of Washington, speaks at a conference in 2019.

IDEAS | EVAN SELINGER

Q&A: What’s the point of automated gender recognition software?

IDEAS | EVAN SELINGER

Q&A: The battle over face surveillance is about to heat up

Damon Krukowski and Joyce Linehan

Spotify and the recording artist

In February, Dennis White was sworn in by then-Mayor Marty Walsh as the 43rd Commissioner of the Boston Police Department. Two days into his tenure, White was placed on leave by Walsh for past allegations of domestic violence, which BPD officials knew about for years.

The Boston Police Department’s moral rot

Kimberly Atkins

In bid to end COVID-19 unemployment boost, GOP misses the she-cession

Jyoti Jasrasaria

Voter suppression happens in Massachusetts, too

Community Voices

The Museum of Fine Arts is doing a major new installation around the controversial "Appeal to the Great Spirit" sculpture by Cyrus Dallin to address what many see as a painful stereotype. With shovels and small machines, workers at the MFA’s Huntington Avenue entrance prepared the ground around the statue, which has remained there since 1912.

MFA finds fertile ground for reengaging with ‘Great Spirit’ sculpture

IDEAS | Peter Youngbaer

Notes from underground

Can you believe it? Religion’s been taking a hit

Globe Opinion Columnists & Contributors

Newlsetters

Editorials

White and the Blue Wall of Silence must both go
A culture change for Boston police must be high on the next mayor's agenda.

A solution for hunger takes shape in Chelsea and Cambridge

Food insecurity in Massachusetts increased 55 percent during the pandemic, requiring policy makers to look for new ways to get food to the hungry.

As airlines begin their descent back to normalcy, the upright position would be to return our money

Customers are angry about their inability to get their money back for travel plans they cancelled because of the pandemic. And who can blame them?

The Boston Public Schools are getting a giant stimulus check. Time to think big.

The district will have to think creatively, take some chances, and find a way to sustain any successful new programs in the long term.

Corporate donors, the lifeblood of the GOP, need to stand up for democracy

Until Donald Trump’s acolytes in Congress stop their assault on American democracy, corporate America should cut off donations.

Letters

Boston taking the wrong path on Copley Square
The argument to justify the redesign seems to have devolved into a message of: We need to accommodate a few major events a year.

Mass. needs to make a major investment in Gateway Cities

The Commonwealth should work to strengthen our small cities, home to many of our state’s essential workers and anchor institutions.

MFA finds fertile ground for reengaging with ‘Great Spirit’ sculpture

The MFA is not only responding to the public outcry; even better, it is also showing the purpose and the reach of art itself.

Cannabis host communities need more than just foggiest notion for fees they demand

It could be that cannabis dispensaries do genuinely burden municipalities more than other retailers, such as liquor stores, but that should not be the starting presumption.

Structural racism infects how we pay for health care

Medicaid pays about two-thirds of what Medicare pays for the same services.

Brave New Planet is a podcast the 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.

Watching the 2020 DNC felt like watching an infomercial for a product that was not made for me, but that I’m being told to buy anyway.

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.

Voters observed social distancing guidelines as they waited in line to cast ballots in the Wisconsin presidential primary election, in Milwaukee in April.

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.

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.

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