Author: James Shearer
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Melting Pot
As I stood listening to Elizabeth Warren alongside thousands of others at the Families Belong Together rally at Boston City Hall, I started thinking, “How in the hell did we get here?” A question that sadly I ask myself a lot these days. I’ve never really understood the whole hatred against immigrants thing, since the…
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Stand Together
I said I wouldn’t criticize Mayor Marty Walsh and the City of Boston about the Point-in-Time Count (homeless census). I lied. I mean I really wasn’t going to say much of anything more than what I said in my last column, then I read that the mayor was looking to get a raise; not only…
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Stand Together
I said I wouldn’t criticize Mayor Marty Walsh and the City of Boston about the Point-in-Time Count (homeless census). I lied. I mean I really wasn’t going to say much of anything more than what I said in my last column, then I read that the mayor was looking to get a raise; not only…
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What Comes After Trump? Lots of work.
I was scanning through news stories the other day when I came across a really sad and horrible story. In Florida, a black family was awarded a measly four dollars in damages in a wrongful death suit after a deputy shot the father through a garage door—his own garage door, by the way—because of a…
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Looking in the Mirror: Part Two
A few years ago a woman I was dating asked me this question: “Why are there hardly any women selling Spare Change?” It was a question I had heard before and for the life of me I couldn’t answer it. I remember mumbling something about I didn’t know if the board of directors or anyone…
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Looking in the Mirror: Part One
The other day I was thinking of one of our former editors, the first black editor Spare Change had in over 20 years, when he came aboard he began to take the paper in a new direction. Let’s just say there was a lot more color than the paper was used to, and there was…
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The Poor People’s Campaign: Putting Humanity Before Politics
Before Martin Luther King’s tragic death 50 years ago this month, he had begun organizing what he would call the Poor People’s Campaign. The focus was to bring economic justice to all poor people regardless of their race. Though the campaign continued after King’s death, it never had the success he envisioned. Now 50 years…
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Feeling Hopeful: Reflections of the Inspiring March for Our Lives Event
I arrived late to the March For Our Lives event last Saturday. Traffic and errands kept me from being on time, and I couldn’t even find the person I was supposed to meet there. Still, it was inspiring. Let me back it up here for a second. If you haven’t been paying attention, the March…
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Treat Homelessness Like the Health Issue It Is
Last spring a group of students, led by their Professor Dr. Debra Harkins, came up with Bill H.3933, which is based on an idea out of Hawaii that says homelessness should be treated as a medical condition; this could allow doctors to write prescriptions for housing. I know, it sounds far fetched, but when you…
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Black or White, They’re All Just Kids
A couple of weeks ago, not long after the school shooting in Florida, NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesh made this statement while speaking at the CPAC meeting: “Now I’m going to say something that some people will say is controversial. So I’ll say it slowly so all the people in the back can hear me loud…