Category: Voices from the Streets
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A Reason to Hope
Every now and then in this seemly unending battle against homelessness, I come to a crossroads. I ask myself if I should keep fighting or if I should just fold up my tent and call it a day. I could call it a day; I have served on the board of directors of Spare Change…
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A Sheltered Life No. 13
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I Salute Them
“Nobody here is special.” That was the comment recently made by a staff member at a local women’s shelter. They made the comment in a snarky, insider tone. Apparently, the staff member was, in an indirect way, referencing a small change one of the shelter’s residents had made. The staff member was taking a pot…
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The Fairy Queen And The Troll, Part One
[Editor’s note: Read part two here.] Tam-Tam cast some diamonds on the fire and the hues of the rainbow reached its multi-colored fingers into the night sky. Waywis watched the flames. Both sisters waited for the coming of the Fairy Queen. They had been deeply immersed in their work for aeons and it was time…
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A Child Left Behind
Just a week ago, in the midst of the Department of Children & Families (DCF) controversy that began when 5 year old Jeremiah Oliver disappeared from his Fitchburg home late last year, a couple of things came to light. Over 95 children either directly or indirectly in DCF custody have died and it was found…
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Turning Up the Heat on Coal Power in Massachusetts
SOMERSET, Mass.—Henry David Thoreau, that famous son of Massachusetts, famously wrote, “If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.” Climate activists across the commonwealth have been taking those words to heart. On 7 January 2013,…
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Tales from the Curb: An American Tragedy
When I heard that George Zimmerman had been found not guilty of murdering Trayvon Martin, I just shook my head; I was disappointed, but not surprised. The prosecution dropped the ball. Most of their own witnesses blew up in their faces. It was obvious that Martin’s friend Rachel Jeantel was not properly prepared. She was…
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Where The Highways End
Way back, in the way back of the late, late 1800s, the first automobiles rolled down the dirt roads. The age of the combustion engine that took us places had been birthed. If we knew now what we didn’t know then, would we have proceeded to build the highways and byways of the rough beast?…
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A Step Backward
As the federal Defense of Marriage Act was being struck down a few weeks ago—the Supreme Court allowing same-sex couples the rights to the same federal benefits that were only available to opposite-sex couples beforehand—another right was being taken away. By a 5 to 4 vote along ideological lines, a key provision of the 1965…