2022, in Globe readers’ own words

JANUARY: Mass. and Cass; COVID-weary schools

Mayor Michelle Wu, just weeks into her mayoralty, has cleaned up Mass. and Cass. In so doing, she has exceeded the expectations of longtime observers of city government and belied the notion that many human services issues, such as substance use disorder and homelessness, are intractable. (John J. Corrigan Jr.)

To us adults, the past two years have seemed like an eternity, but this has been only a blip. To students, this has been the bulk of their high school years. As a high school teacher, this reminds me that I don’t always know my students’ whole story. Our day is full of questions: Which of my students are sick? That girl with the cough — does she have COVID? Why won’t that kid keep his mask over his nose? If I teach new material today, will I have to review it again next week when the missing students return? Will my students be ready for MCAS and Advanced Placement exams? Are we ever going to get back to normal, or is normal forever changed? (Lori Reubenstein)

FEBRUARY: Brady retires; Supreme Court pick; Russia invades Ukraine

With his retirement from the NFL after 22 seasons, Tom Brady has thrown his last pass, won his last game, and is moving on. Legacy doesn’t begin to tell the story of his impact on the National Football League specifically and, really, American sports in totality. His work ethic, will to win, and resolve in the face of defeat are the stuff of legend. Let all of us look to what Brady has accomplished as inspiration as we aspire to be better than we might be. (Loring Olk)

The president is not “playing politics” by promising to nominate a Black woman to the court. If he’s playing anything, it’s catch-up. There have been only two Black justices on the Supreme Court in all of our history, neither of them women. There have been only five women, none Black. The last president promised that justices he appointed would overturn settled law — that’s playing politics. President Biden, instead, promised expanded representation of a segment of the American population never appointed in the entire history of the United States. (Polyxane Cobb)

I am not any sort of expert on Vladimir Putin’s recent fairy tales about “Ukrainian history”; I don’t need to be. In the mid-1960s, I served in the US Army in military intelligence and was well aware of the Soviets’ so-called justifications for invading and subjugating most of Eastern Europe under their deadly stranglehold. Putin’s current idea of warfare is clever, because it so mirrors a term sportswriters often use: death by a thousand paper cuts. Every little enclave in Ukraine that harbors any Russian speakers will cry out for Russian aid against a concocted “genocide,” and Putin’s military will roll in. Depend on it. (Harvey Schmidt)

MARCH: UN climate report; Brady changes his mind; an Oscar hit

The new UN climate report is no surprise to anyone who pays attention. All of the squawking from moderate-left politicians about how something must be done is ignoring the fact that even low-hanging, common-sense solutions, such as promoting local food and expanding public transportation, are being ignored because they are hard to accomplish. Government officials, this is your moment to embrace reality. So far, we as a nation have responded to climate change by putting up a couple of solar panels here and gently upping fuel standards there. We’re like a patient bound for a heart attack who cuts out one soda a week but continues to subsist on a diet of pizza and television. (Anna Gooding-Call)

The last known football to be thrown for a touchdown by Tom Brady in an NFL game sold last weekend at auction for $518,628, but that’s only half of the story. Only hours later, the future Hall of Famer announced he was returning to play another season, thus all but certainly devaluing the buyer’s prized collectible. Ironically, that’s not the first time Brady was ever accused of deflating a football. (Bob Ory)

There was no excuse or justification for Will Smith’s disgraceful assault of presenter Chris Rock at the 94th Academy Awards. It was toxic masculinity at its worst. I wonder if every comedian now has to worry what might happen if they offend someone. I would bet that if Smith had been able to control his emotions, then there would have been some serious condemnation of the joke Rock told at the expense of Smith’s wife, actress Jada Pinkett Smith, which was indeed tasteless, and there would been expressions of support for the actor and his wife. Instead, there has been far more attention on the assault. (Cathy Putnam)

I went to a prizefight and an awards show broke out. (Eric Sosman)

APRIL: hot housing market; judge strikes down mask mandates

Dear seller: My wife and I want to thank you for allowing us to bid 20 percent over your asking price for a house that we believe is overvalued by at least 30 percent. The moment we walked into your home, we looked at each other with tepid faces and said, “Yeah, this will have to do.” After six losing bids on previous homes, and going to dozens of showings, we can no longer muster the endurance and tenacity to find the “perfect” house, so here we are. (Andrew Ginsburg)

I am dismayed by our continually calling ourselves “the American people” when what we mean is “I me mine.” While the issue at hand is about taking the caring (and not difficult) step of covering our mouths and noses on mass transit to protect others, we see this same selfishness again and again in other health, climate, economic, and social policies. Progress toward caring for or uplifting more of our citizens is repeatedly shouted down by those who cynically cry about the violation of their personal freedoms. What, then, does it mean to be an American? More and more, it appears to mean having the freedom to be selfish, even cruel. (Betsy Ragan)

MAY: leaked draft signals Roe’s end; another school shooting

In the 1960s, I was an intern in a city hospital serving those unable to afford care. During a month on gynecology, I provided care for close to 40 women with life-threatening complications related to so-called street abortions. Two of my patients died: a 14-year-old girl and a 39-year-old mother of 12. These women, after deciding to terminate their pregnancy, had no choice other than the street. They deserved skilled care and compassion but were inequitably exposed to great danger; concurrently, women with sufficient finances, connections, and support obtained safe abortions elsewhere. (Dr. Ronald J. Anderson)

The nation is racked with sorrow after the grotesque murder of children in their school in Texas. The saddest part of it all is that no one is surprised. Many people without children in their lives will not think about this again after it has faded from the news. There is one group of people who will not forget and already had this kind of scenario on their minds: students and school employees. Each year, along with fire drills, teachers facilitate practice sessions in how not to be killed at school. Adults in school buildings learn to assess the threat level of their space and give real thought to whether they are ready to die for their students and leave their own children motherless or fatherless at home. (Rebecca Figueroa Winter)

JUNE: Jan. 6 committee hearings begin

In November 2020, just days after the election, you published a set of letters about Donald Trump’s claim that it was stolen, including a letter of mine under the headline “These are warning signs of a coup.” I hate to say I told you so. But I did tell you so. (Eli Bortman)

JULY: resolve over abortion rights

A letter to my grandchildren and great-grandchildren: As a survivor of an illegal abortion, I will never forget the fear, as I sought help, that I would die and leave my three children motherless. My own mom, at the age of 2, suffered from the loss of her mother to a back-room abortion. My very old age will not silence me nor stop my efforts to fight the overturning of Roe v. Wade — a reversal that was easily foreseen, and that resulted from years of planning and from maneuvers that allowed a badly skewed conservative Supreme Court. Don’t count us out. In the halls of continuing care facilities all over the United States are women who have lived through the terror of unwanted pregnancies. (Enid W. Rothenberg)

AUGUST: remembering Bill Russell; FBI knocks at Mar-a-Lago; phone-free classrooms; Orange Line shutdown

Bill Russell was one of the greatest citizens of Boston in the last 100 years. He was also a good basketball player. But his greatness on the court must not be allowed to obscure his extraordinary example as a man. No one overcame so much, with such grace, to inspire and lift up so many. (Seth Rafal)

The FBI showed up at the home of former president Donald Trump on Aug. 8 in search of improperly stored US government classified documentation. It is not clear which classified documents the FBI discovered at Mar-a-Lago; however, the search did give Americans a window into the US government’s incredibly incompetent process of controlling sensitive, classified information. (Milt Dentch)

Props to educators in Springfield and Chicopee for taking the brave and necessary step of barring the use of smartphones in school so that students can learn and be healthy. Major challenges such as post-pandemic phone addiction call for bold solutions. Boston Public Schools should implement the same policy. (Jen Rose-Wood)

While I am encouraged that MBTA officials said that work on the Orange Line is 37 percent complete, I recall the old adage: When you are 90 percent complete, you are halfway there. (Richard Kiley)

SEPTEMBER: Vineyard receives planeload of migrants

Sending defenseless migrants to Martha’s Vineyard and other places may play well with the most extreme elements of the far right, but that still doesn’t make it right. These migrants, many of them women and children, are often fleeing horrific conditions in their home countries. Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida and Governor Greg Abbott of Texas have proved how easy it is to take advantage of people with no political power and few resources. These elected officials’ ill-advised actions also prove them unfit to lead on a national level. (Rich Thompson-Tucker)

OCTOBER: justices take a measure of a sow’s life

When I read that the Supreme Court was concerned that the new California pork law might impose Californian morals on people outside that state, I laughed out loud. This from the group that just imposed the conservative majority’s beliefs on the entire nation by overturning Roe v. Wade? I didn’t even realize that the law in question requires farmers to provide 24 square feet to pregnant sows in order for them to turn around. I’d like to see any pregnant human live under those conditions. (Tasha Collins)

NOVEMBER: affirmative action reconsidered; the midterms

As a Black American born to sharecropper parents in the rural South and who, through hard work, the kind assistance of others, and heavenly blessings, earned a degree from an Ivy League university, I assure you, even as a successful upper-middle-class citizen, that socioeconomic class and race are similar but certainly not equal. To suggest, as some do, that the election of Barack Obama as president of the United States and Kamala Harris as vice president indicates that special attention to race is no longer necessary is like saying that the National Basketball Association should no longer consider height in employing players because Tyrone Curtis “Muggsy” Bogues, at 5 feet 3 inches, once played in the NBA. (David L. Evans)

I don’t understand the shock and surprise some have expressed at Donald Trump’s failure to deliver a “red wave.” Republican leaders were well aware of the former president’s modus operandi going in to the midterm elections — his abrasiveness, lack of accountability, inability to tell a truth. This was akin to asking that weird uncle to deliver a toast at a wedding, then watching in horror as it unfolds. (Brian Pomodoro)

DECEMBER: staring down a rail strike

When I wake up during the night, I hear the train’s whistle passing in a neighboring town. This lonely sound is iconic. Railways are romantic to us Americans, they are a part of who we are. Romance aside, let’s be clear: without the railway workers there would be no railroads. When you hear that a strike would “cripple” our economy, think about this: The rail workers are risking everything to help us and our economy, not hurt it. A strike is needed to force the owners to think of rail workers first for once. When the workers unite, the corporations have to listen. Ask Congress to stand on the side of the workers by not voting to block the strike. (Christine Craig)