Author: James Shearer
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Enough Already
As I sat here writing this column on a cold, snowy Sunday morning, I was channel surfing. I landed on one of the Sunday morning shows. Usually, I hardly ever watch these shows; I don’t have much time for them. This morning, I watched, and ten minutes into it I remembered why I usually don’t—the…
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One Cold Day In Paradise
On my way to talk to a group of students about homelessness, the wind chill on this day made what was already a bone chilling 5 degrees. Even though I was dressed for the occasion, I still couldn’t feel my face. As I walked through the Commons I saw something shocking. There is a homeless…
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Guns, Guns, Guns
As promised, the President presented his proposals for gun control, through the panel led by the Vice-President, a month after the shootings at the Sandy Hook school in Newtown, Connecticut. Most of the new proposals are really nothing new: tougher background checks, assault weapons ban, and limiting magazine rounds. Requiring background checks for all gun…
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Honoring Dr. King
As we get closer to Martin Luther King Day, I believe he would be proud of the strides we have made in the 45 years after his death. Minorities have accomplished much. Today we have a voice — a voice that, judging by the last election, is determined to be heard no matter how others…
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A Happy New Year?
This is supposed to be a year in review issue, but for me it’s all about the future and what it holds for and for all of us. I really don’t know what it holds. When I think about recent events, I’m almost afraid– the shooting in Newtown. How can anyone possibly think about a…
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Affordable Housing for the Rich?
As Christmas approaches, it seems that Santa has left something under the tree for the top 2 percent in Boston. I ran across a story last week that was about micro-apartments. For those of you who are uninformed, micro-apartments are small units that are around 300 to 400 square feet. That’s enough room for a…
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Another Stupid Idea
Well, winter is here again. With it comes the annual homeless census, where people go around at night and look for people on the street and in shelters, add it all up, and tell us how many homeless people are in Massachusetts. I’ve always been skeptical of it, because the count is organized by advocates,…
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Aftermath
On election-day morning, I was sitting with some of the right wing blowhards in the Men’s Fitness room of the YMCA. As you may have guessed most of them are old, fat white guys who sit around and talk smack about everything and everybody. They complain about what’s wrong with the country and degrade women…
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Mitt Romney Is Irrelevant
In the second Presidential debate Mitt Romney answered a question about how he would make sure in his administration that women would receive equal pay. He touched upon the memory of the beginning of his term as governor of Massachusetts, where he found that all of the folks looking to be in his cabinet were…
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The Real 47%
As I watched the Presidential debate, the one thing that struck me was not how bad the president looked, but how neither one of the candidates talked about the subject that neither of them seems to want to address. The only exception was of Mitt Romney’s inane remarks at a private fundraiser a few weeks…