Category: Opinion
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Poetry At Occupy Boston
Following this short piece is a poem I read at Occupy Boston Poetry. As I walked into the camping area I was impressed at the organization of the occupation. The people had a logistics tent, a media tent and a staging area where they would hold meetings and entertainment. It was truly an honor to…
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Fight Addiction Your Own Way
Aaron James Spare Change News Fourteen months since a lick of alcohol has touched my lips! There have been many close calls. I have actually opened a can, only to end up flushing it down a thirsty toilet. I have had many nights of hell, bringing myself to the breaking point, nights where I truly…
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Editorial: Marjorie Decker, A Record of Helping Others
Editorial: Marjorie Decker Last spring, the Homeless Empowerment Project held a silent auction to raise money for Spare Change News. We had invited Cambridge City Councilor Marjorie Decker as our speaker for the evening, but we were still looking for someone to auction off a few valuable lots. Marjorie came through for us, as a…
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Editorial: Senators, You’re No Ted Kennedy
When Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid appointed John Kerry to the so-called “super committee” charged with cutting more than $1 trillion from the federal deficit over 10 years, we couldn’t help but wonder if the Bay State’s senior senator is in for more swift-boating. Kerry and the two other Democratic senators appointed to the committee…
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Editorial: The Feel-good Sales Tax Holiday
“We do it, frankly, not because it’s particularly fiscally prudent, but because it’s popular.” That’s Gov. Deval Patrick explaining what has become the annual sales tax holiday, this year’s scheduled for the weekend of Aug. 13-14. In other words: it makes no real sense, but a lot of people are fooled into thinking it’s a…
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Editorial: Behind Closed Doors at the State House
The debate over a proposed shift in homeless policy was debated and settled behind closed doors at the State House, among a select few powerful dealmakers. So was a debate over collective bargaining for municipal employees. And proposed immigration crackdown measures. And so was just about everything else in the new $30.6 billion state budget,…
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The Aliens: Watching Black Poison Spread
We had to move our space ship to another part of what you call the Gulf of Mexico. It’s hard for us to believe that, for all the technology you have, you humans haven’t stopped the gusher of Black Death. Upon monitoring your television channels, we see very little about the major catastrophe that is…
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Homelessness…Mindfulness and Meditations
[img_assist|nid=274|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=397] Seventeenth century English poet Francis Quarles is credited with having expressed the thought, “Meditation is the life of the soul; action, the soul of meditation; and honor the reward of action.” Now in the twenty-first century, the relationship between meditation and action is being reexamined in the context of homelessness. A June 6th column…
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Byrnesie’s Tips in Tough Times: Advice to help individuals and businesses succeed
Michael W. Byrnes, Jr. Not using Twitter? Here’s why you should be. Many laugh off Twitter as a waste of time, thinking it is purely for social updates amongst friends, but it is more than that and it is more than simple 140 character messages. Although that is the size the actual messages are limited…
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A Few Thoughts on the Cusp of Summer
1. The Oil Spill For weeks now we have been hearing about the oil spill in Louisiana that was caused by an explosion. The blast killed 11 people and has caused oil to spread throughout the Gulf and Gulf Coast, creating havoc for wildlife and the environment as a whole. Forgotten throughout this fiasco are the…