Category: Opinion
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Interdependence & The Elections
The Conventions are over. Whew. But how striking is it that in this, the world’s most powerful nation, two months away from a critical presidential election whose results will profoundly impact over 7 billion people world-wide, issues of foreign policy and globalization have been nearly invisible. In an unprecedented age of cosmopolitanism and interdependence, our…
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Experts Say Global Conditions, Uncertainty Slowing Economic Growth
By Michael Norton STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, SEPT. 27, 2012–The Massachusetts economy has downshifted to a “lower gear,” held back by deteriorating global conditions, with slower growth expected to continue in the coming months, according to the latest from Massachusetts economic analysts. According to a summary released Thursday morning of a MassBenchmarks…
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Strike Up the Chorus
“Who wants to read a poem?” Saul Williams asked the audience. The crowd gathered at the Brighton Music Hall in Allston, Mass., was small, just a couple hundred people, but it appeared to be made up of devout fans. Many people clutched dog-eared copies of Williams’ books of poetry to their chests. The audience froze…
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People Power
First-time congressional candidate Able Collins (I) hopes to put people back in politics. At a political rally in Rhode Island last month, he told the crowd that if elected to the United States House of Representatives he would help steer the nation back to towards democratic ideals of political participation. First, as a newcomer to…
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Hip Hop Activism
There is a fire burning in Roxbury, just up Washington Street from Dudley Square. At 2181, just after you see the Payless, you can find Project HIP HOP. Project HIP HOP, the acronym means ‘Highways Into the Past – History, Organizing, and Power’, is a youth-led, peer-to-peer organization that utilizes the Hip Hop aesthetic to…
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"F" Poverty
The Rich and the Rest of Us, by Tavis Smiley and Cornel West (Smiley Books). These two bright minds, with articulate diction of intellect and the loud volume of intense passion, place the political “F-word” at the center of the socio-political discourse – and that disconcerting word is poverty. For many, it remains an icky…
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Cornel West: A Voice in the Wilderness
“I come to you tonight with a heavy heart,” Cornel West began. “I just buried my grandmother,” he continued at the crowd gathered at West Park Presbyterian Church in the New York, which caused a collective “ahhh.” Dr. West cancelled a number of speaking engagements in early March, pausing his whirlwind schedule to deliver the…
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Roxbury's Prophet: Rap Phenom, Moufy Rhymes with Gitty Eloquence and Tender Rage
To cite the Urban Dictionary again, the first definition for Boston is, “A city that really feels like a town full of business people during the day and college kids at night.” Not to sound like a snob, but this is my impression exactly, although I only moved here recently. Having lived for many years…