IMMIGRATION IS A PROBLEM for states on the border, like Texas and California, which is to say, that other border that connects us with Mexico and, in effect, Central America, too. Our border is the one a few hours north of here. Why would Canadians want to leave their country for ours?

So you can understand why the news that migrants, most likely from the southern border, were going to be housed and cared for in the Town of Canaan drew a crowd of local residents to Town Hall last week. People wanted to hear what’s going on.

They learned that the federal Department of Health and Human Services is working with the Berkshire Farm Center and Services for Youth, which straddles Route 22 at the intersection with Queechy Lake Drive. The center will temporarily house migrants labeled by the federal government as “Unaccompanied Alien Children.” Read more…

BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS (after Iran appeared to be “standing down”) the latest conflict in the Middle East might look like it’s cooling down. Don’t count on it.

Global media tell us what did or didn’t happen in Iraq, Iran and a wider geography of mayhem. As readers, viewers and listeners we rely on them to piece together some sort of narrative about how this latest confrontation is unfolding. For more than that, a little history might help.

History tells us that the assassination of a high-ranking official in a remote and unstable part of the world can trigger wars of previously unimaginable scale and ferocity. Think of World War I. Other conflicts involving this nation are different. For example, the U.S. government had scant evidence to hold Spain responsible for sinking one of our battleships, but that pretext ushered in our empire in the Caribbean and the Philippines. Read more…

FIFTY YEARS AGO this week I was racing around a makeshift TV studio on the fifth floor of a loft in lower Manhattan. A small group of us had caught the attention of a CBS TV executive. He thought there might be an TV audience for the music and politics of baby boomers. We thought we’d break the mold of timid TV.

It didn’t work out that way. Three network big shots showed up to observe our pre-pilot show—live musicians, brief documentaries and no host. They sat by themselves in an adjacent loft, watching it like it was a traditional TV show. It wasn’t. It was a messy, confusing, mostly joyful glimpse of The Sixties.

What kind of advertiser would be crazy enough to buy ads on a program like this? It didn’t matter. CBS and our group were done with each other. Read more…