In the nine and a half years since Donald Trump descended his golden escalator, he has come to define American politics for the worse. After announcing he candidacy for President he immediately characterized people coming from Mexico as rapists bringing drugs and crime. Though he did qualify that “some…are good people.” Once elected, his inaugural address painted a bleak picture of “American carnage” that seemed lifted from a dystopian novel. He framed his tough guy persona as the solution, famously stating: “I alone can fix it.”
One can only ratchet up the temperature so far before “very fine people” begin to march on Charlottesville, spewing antisemitism and carrying torches. Before encouraging anti-vax mobs to “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” leads to a foiled plot to kidnap and execute the governor. Before urging the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” and inviting your followers to a “Big protest in D.C. on Jan. 6. Be there, will be wild!” results in a seditious conspiracy to overturn the results of an election. Of course, Trump’s actions preceding the violent mob’s assault on our Capitol would lead to his second impeachment, the resignation of a dozen members of his staff, and a federal criminal indictment in D.C.
And since that time his rhetoric has only grown darker. In 2022 he called for the termination of the Constitution to potentially reinstate himself as President. He joked about the assault on Nancy Pelosi’s husband. He referred to America as an “occupied country,” to Aurora Colorado as “invaded and conquered” and to the “bad genes” of migrants. He promised to seek retribution against his critics, at times suggesting the Justice Department or even the military would be used against “the enemy within,” referring to his political opponents. To Donald Trump, Jan. 6 is now “a day of love” and he speaks of those who stormed the Capitol using an inclusive “we.”
It’s really no surprise that his former Defense Secretary, Mark Esper, has called him a “threat to democracy,” or his former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Mark Milley, called him “fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person in this country.” His first Defense Secretary, James Mattis, concurred with Milley. His former Chief of Staff, John Kelly, said Trump is “a person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.” In total, half his cabinet, including Vice President Pence—the people that watched him do the job for four years— are not endorsing him.
Trump’s third campaign for President is an intensified version of his first: the world is a scary place, and we need a strongman. But this time, the Supreme Court has said he is immune from prosecution for “official acts.” The adults in the room during his first term have all been replaced with a squad of opportunists and yes men riding his coattails. His allies have published Project 2025, a playbook aimed at consolidating power and edging the United States toward autocracy. We survived the first Trump term, and it ended with a violent mob storming the Capitol. Let’s not risk it again.
This democratic backsliding can only be defeated at the ballot box. I voted early last Saturday, and I voted for Kamala Harris.

Whitman-Hanson football dropped a Patriot League battle with Hingham 27-6 on Thursday, Oct. 10. 
After Hingham drew first blood to take the lead, 7-0, in the first quarter, Johnny Walker connected with Brady Markowski for a 40 yard touchdown for the Panther’s lone touchdown in the second quarter, but the extra-point kick was no good.
Markowski had 76 receiving yards on the night. Defensively, Walker (7 tackles, 1 TFL, 1 blocked PAT) and Markowski (10 tackles, 1 TFL) also led the way. Lukas Hamilton added an interception.
Whitman-Hanson is back on the road this week as they take on Plymouth North. 
The W-H girls’ soccer team dropped their Patriot league matchup with Duxbury 3-1, on Thursday, Oct. 10.  Anna Schnabel finished a pass from Maddie Fitzgerald to send both teams tied 1-1 at the half. Despite great performances from Shelby Bell, Mya Andrews, and Keira Manchester the Panthers fell at home.
The boys’ soccer team traveled to Duxbury Oct. 10 in a league contest. Cam MacKay and Evan Gillespie were able to find the net off Joey Sousa and Finn McKenna assists, but the Dragons were able to put away 5 for a final score of 5-2. The Panthers were back in action on Tuesday, Oct. 15, hosting Marshfield in a league matchup that finished Rams 3 Panthers 1. Jayden Turocy netted his first of the season for Whitman-Hanson bringing it within one, but a third goal sealed the win for Marshfield. The Panthers are back in action at Hingham on Thursday.

Sometimes, it seems, one makes the best decisions when there’s not much time to think about it.
That was certainly true for Matt Wood, who found himself losing an automotive job about seven years ago – one that he held for 16 years.
“My wife’s like, ‘do something else,’” he recalled last week, “I said, OK, I want to open a coffee shop, so I just started that.”
It’s a people-centered business, whose founder used to love working behind the counter and hearing customers greet him by name.
That is reflected in the people he hires – happy people – because those are the people skills he feels one can’t be taught and is just as welcoming to people who like to work or hold meetings in his shops. So far, the business is making fixtures of some of his regulars.
“We have a lot of people who come in every single day,” Wood said. “We have a guy who’s writing a book who comes in every and just sits at the counter and does his research and writing. That’s what [the shop] is here for.”
It’s a can-do attitude that rhymes with how this small business chain was born and was among those few businesses that enjoyed expansion during the COVID pandemic.
“We opened two shops during the pandemic, in Whitman and Bridgewater,” he said.
Some of that was luck of location as the Better Bean in Bridgewater center had closed, during COVID and never reopened, since Wood had already rented space for his photography studio from the same landlord, on the third floor of the same building, and he called as soon as he heard the Bean was not reopening.
“I told him we need to take the space,” he said. The place needed a lot of work, but he got it done and finds the shop is something of a magnet for the Bridgewater State University community, especially.
He opened his first Restoration Coffee business as a corner counter in the Bostonian Barbershop in Whitman in 2017 and recently opened his latest shop in a new mixed-use apartments and commercial property at 999 Main St., in Hanson. He left the Bostonian during COVID when occupancy regulations would not allow the coffee counter to stay and Hanson embodies the most recent growth.
“I’ve been waiting for a while for this, but I’m glad it’s all done,” he said of the property investment. “Once we got the OK to start putting stuff in here, we were open about two weeks later.”
He had already been accumulating the equipment he needed.
“My whole basement was full of everything,” he said.
The Steve Eagan development replaced the burned-out remains of a former dress shop torched during a string of South Shore arson cases about a decade ago, an abandoned, building where a construction firm used to be and the vacant house where “The Whole Scoop” ice cream parlor had also been located at 965 Main St..
The coffee shop business is not Wood’s first career change.
He had also been a wedding photographer for six years and one point.
“I was always meeting with customers in coffee shops,” he said. “I always like that whole vibe. It’s kind of like that ‘Cheers’ thing with ‘everybody knows your name,’ and they come in every day.”
Wood still owns locations on Route 18 in East Bridgewater, the Bridgewater common area and Whitman center.
East Bridgewater was his first stand-alone location, which he had converted from a garage of a house where a beauty shop is located.
It took a little while to get the Whitman location, he said.
“The owner of that, who also owns this, would come into the East Bridgewater shop during COVID, telling me ‘I’ve got a spot for you, I’ve got a spot for you.’” Wood recalled. But at the time, he wasn’t ready for that leap and he had been trying to get a spot in Hanson in the plaza where Shaw’s is located. A non-competition clause in the plaza owner’s agreement with Shaw’s, which also sells baked goods, ended that quest.
“I called Steve and said, ‘Let’s just do it,’” he said.
It was the first location he’s moved into that didn’t require work on an older building, such as straightening walls, and the apartments on the upper floors were already rented out.
Egan is building another similar business at 965 Main St.
“I’m glad that Steve built this,” Wood said. “The place looks beautiful and he did such a good job.”
Wood said there were Hanson residents who were upset about losing the house where The Whole Scoop had been, but noted there were no takers even after Eagan offered the house free of cost to anyone who wanted to move it.
“The people that owned the house were going to do something like this,” he added. “They were going to knock it down.”
Eagan has built a similar project in Whitman center, where Supreme Pizza, Whitman Wellness Center and John Russell Studio have moved to.
When Wood started his business, it was just coffee, and finding a name was the first order of business.
“It’s wild, trying to figure out business names,” he said. “Every single name’s been taken.”
He hit on Restoration Coffee because it’s a beverage that restores you.
“Coffee brings you back to life, but also both the Whitman and Bridgewater shops both needed full rehabs before you could do anything – like a full restoration.”
When they added a menu, they started out easy with toasts and simple fare, and chicken salad sandwiches adding what they’ve wanted to the menu as they go along.
Much of that took place during the pandemic when business was slow.
“We were all very tight and [at times] were just hanging around for hours, waiting for people to come in,” Wood said. “It was so slow, so that was when we ended up kind of experimenting with things, going with cravings and stuff like that.”
One of those sandwiches, the Marley, leads some customers to wonder if there’s “something different” in it, he said with a laugh.
“It’s got [tomato] jam,” he said. “We have a food team now, that makes all the sauces, the tomato jam and things like that.” Most of that, as well as the bean roasting is done out of the Whitman shop at the corner of Washington and Temple streets and distributed to the other locations. The muffins are baked on-premises in each shop.
They buy green coffee beans from Colombia, Ethiopia and Guatemala through a supplier in Rhode Island who, in turn, deals directly with the farmers. Then Restoration roasts their own beans.
At the very beginning we used another roasting company, but before long Wood started roasting his own coffee.
“I watched every YouTube video [on coffee roasting] I could possibly find and read every book I could on roasting,” he said.
The décor is practically identical in each shop, bowing only to differences in the lay of the floor plan. The tables and chairs are something of a logo and he builds all the main counter tops and even paints the sign affixed to the front counter in each shop.
“I’d like to have 10, but that makes it that much more of a headache,” he said of his ultimate goal for the business, he said, adding it is “just a number at this point.
Stay tuned.

WHITMAN – It was the nearly of the end of the summer skate camp at Carousel Family Fun Center on Thursday, Aug. 22, as parents escorted their children to check-in for their name tags, made sure they had everything they needed for the day and made arrangements to pick them up later.
One mom approached Carousel owner Charlene Conway about her son’s being still a bit tentative on skates. A few suggestions for the mother, a check-in with the check-in table to see how things are going and then some things to drop off at the snack bar, still lay between Conway and her morning interview with this writer to outline the next program on her rink’s calendar: a Learn to Skate camp on Saturdays beginning Sept. 7. At only $10 per child per week, the program fee includes skates and is open to all ages at the rink, 1055 Auburn St., Whitman.
But first, there was a lot to say about the successful summer [see column, page 6 ] – and that included herding the young participants together for a photo.
“They’ve come a long way, from crawling on the floor,” Conway said, gesturing as the class sat doing warmup stretches before their lesson. The one-week camp ran from Aug. 19 to 23. “Tomorrow they’ll get certificates. It’s a very active place – the skating club, classes and programs.”
She said there’s been a resurgence of participation at the rink since COVID when everyone had to skate outside.
“That was good for us after being closed for two years,” she said. “And of course, Usher from the Super bowl – that was huge.”
Carousel is also having success with skaters they’ve brought up through the ranks making themselves known on the competition circuit.
Mary Osborne, who’s been skating at Carousel since she first learned to skate, was one of the 19 medalists (nine gold, nine silver and four bronze) from Carousel’s All Stars Skating Club, who competed in the USA Roller Sports National Championships in Lincoln, Neb., in July. Another All Star skater who got her start at Carousel was Laura Miller, of Brockton, who’s been skating for about eight years.
“She’s been placing at Nationals that whole entire time,” Conway said with pride.
The All Star skaters competed in a number of artistic skating disciplines: dance, figures and creative skating. Each discipline includes levels for skill (intermediate and advanced) and age range. To compete in the National Championship, skaters must first qualify at their local and regional meets.
Carousel hosted the Northeast Regional Championship meet in June – including skaters from Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont. All those who quakify, earn the chance fo compete at the National Championships. There were 15 All Star Club members who qualified at the Regionals and earned 21 medals in figures (17 gold, two silver and two bronze); 11 medals in dance (eight gold and three silver) and took home four medals in creative (one gold, two silver and one bronze).
The qualifying skaters ranged in age from 14 to 80.
“Skaters have to qualify to make the club,” Conway said. “We have a junior level and a senior level.”
There’s a program of lessons they must complete to get to the junior club, which meets for practices on Wednesday nights and the senior club practices on Sundays. Conway said there are currently about 20 members and there are close to 40 members with a nine-person teaching and coaching staff.
After a successful National Championships, skaters from the All Star Skating Club returned to Whitman with an impressive total of 19 medals (nine gold, nine silver and four bronze).
Conway said the rink’s busy times of the year coincide with the school year.
“For our competitors, that’s their season for competition,” she said. “The club meets 12 months out of the year and they still come and train when we’re not rented.”