Tucker's Valley

 View up the street from my backyard after the snowstorm last week.

Snow ducks.

Canadian geese returning north stop to rest on the ice of the UMass campus pond. 

Meanwhile, Smith College can't stay out of the news, in a bad way, ever since an investigation into an alleged racist incident at the college showed the charges to have been bogus. Jumping into the fray is Tucker Carlson, arguably the most influential right of center commentator in America now that the legendary Rush Limbaugh has died.

 

Carlson approached the issue from a class perspective, comparing the upscale Northampton with its decidedly more working class neighbor Springfield. Tucker's tale of two cities portrayal of Springfield is not a flattering one:

"Springfield, Massachusetts is one of the toughest cities in the United States, but it was not always that way. Basketball was invented in a gym in Springfield in 1891. The first gasoline-powered engine was built there, as were Indian Motorcycles.

As manufacturing died, so did Springfield, which devolved into a sadly familiar kind of American landscape -- drugs, violence, waves of impoverished immigrants. On Wednesday, a man was shot to death on Main Street.

Springfield is a tragic place, but it's also a living metaphor. Fewer than 20 miles away is another metaphor, the town of Northampton. Northampton is as well-kept as Springfield is fraying. Northampton doesn't have manufacturing, it has something better: Smith College, an all-female liberal arts school that used to be impressive years ago. Whatever its academic merits, Smith is rich. That's why Northampton is pretty and Springfield is not. Smith has an endowment of almost $2 billion. A year's tuition there costs more than $75,000.

Who do you suppose has more privilege? The people of Springfield or the women of Smith College? One place is famous for burned-out buildings and murders. The other has wrought-iron gates and a nationally known art museum on campus. So Smith has more privilege, correct? No, not correct. The ladies of Smith are oppressed. They are victims. You know who's oppressing them? The kind of people who live in Springfield."

Of course, Springfield isn't the only Valley city to get a bad media rap, like this videographer who describes Holyoke as "The Most Dangerous City in Massachusetts." Really? The city with the ugliest public housing architecture maybe, but not the most dangerous.

Me reflected in the pedal people orb.