Spare Change News

Category: Opinion

  • Power and Privilege in the Anthony Weiner Sex Scandal

    From looking at mainstream coverage of Anthony Weiner’s ongoing scandals, it would seem there are only two possible positions to take on the embattled politician. On one side are those who denounce Weiner’s sexting and lies as disqualifying him from office. On the other are those, mostly liberals and progressives, who argue that Weiner’s behavior…

  • Politics as Unusual: Mayoral Candidate Dan Conley’s Troubling Record of Clearing Cops Who Kill Minorities

    Word on the street is that the acquittal of George Zimmerman might catalyze a meaningful dialogue about race and power. In cities coast to coast, a conversation has already manifested, with the biggest protest crowds since Occupy uniting to express outrage and to honor the memory of Trayvon Martin. Around the Hub, it’s anybody’s guess…

  • The Double Tragedy of the Trayvon Martin Case

    The “not guilty” verdict made the Trayvon Martin case a double tragedy. Beyond the courtroom theatrics and the legalistic maneuvers within the past couple of weeks, the fact remains that an unarmed black teenager was proactively pursued and murdered and no one will be held accountable for this tragedy. Of course this case was about…

  • Protest Against Government Surveillance Comes to Boston

    BOSTON, Mass.—“Hey hey, ho ho, surveillance state has got to go” rang through streets from Dewey Square to Faneuil Hall as 200 Boston-area residents held a Restore the Fourth march and rally—part of a nationwide protest against government surveillance. Clandestine National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance programs revealed to the world by Edward Snowden, a former…

  • 4H First Aid

    Heartbroke, homeless, heatwaved and how? Here is a handy recipe: In a Fourth of July morning bowl, mix the following fresh ingredients: Sous-chef’ing green-and-red bell peppers, kabobs and corn A spin around the linoleum with one loca señora to Spanish melodies while a lurking polyglot frau tries to debate the radio off Practicing foreign-language phrases…

  • Finding a Place for LGBTQ Homeless Youth

    It was a bright summer day in Cambridge when I first walked into the shelter run by Youth on Fire (YOF) near Harvard Square. A program of the AIDS Committee of Massachusetts, YOF provides necessary services to homeless youth ages 14 to 24. As my eyes adjusted to the dimmed light, I was greeted with…

  • The Science in Property

    Being homeless is many things . . . invisibility, hyper organic networking, a byzantine paper procedural, sensory overload, protracted process for simple tasks, truncated opportunity, frustration, default wrongness, loss, social justice 101 streaming live, instant family, and a variable-but strangely-rather equal measure of humility and bravado. It is fluidity and forgetfulness. It is the new…

  • Homesickness and the Endless War on Terror

    Every spring, the mist over the shallow lakes across Kansas settles quietly in the early morning hours. During the long winter months in Massachusetts, the ponds and bogs encased by bent willows are sprinkled with slipping ducks on slick ice patches. On the mountaintops in California, in early fall, snow kisses their rocky tips, while…

  • All Right

    There is mourning in America, all right. Curses and slurs and the speech of red-faced hate dominate the broadcasts that appear on our television screens, large and immense black rectangles hung on small walls, the beer cans and whiskey bottles piled high beside the old couches covered with blankets and white sheets. The images, sharp…

  • Hiding Homelessness

    A few weeks ago, I found myself reading another article about how the city of Boston is once again addressing the so-called problem of aggressive panhandling. The new ordinance that has been in effect since March prohibits all solicitation at bus stops or bus shelters, parking garages, parking lots, sidewalk cafés and crosswalks. It also…