Category: Voices from the Streets

  • Aftermath

    On election-day morning, I was sitting with some of the right wing blowhards in the Men’s Fitness room of the YMCA. As you may have guessed most of them are old, fat white guys who sit around and talk smack about everything and everybody. They complain about what’s wrong with the country and degrade women…

  • Mitt Romney Is Irrelevant

    In the second Presidential debate Mitt Romney answered a question about how he would make sure in his administration that women would receive equal pay. He touched upon the memory of the beginning of his term as governor of Massachusetts, where he found that all of the folks looking to be in his cabinet were…

  • When Homelessness Became a Crime

    Many cities have targeted homeless people by creating ordinances that prohibit activities of daily living for the homeless. One set of restrictions focuses on service providers’ feeding programs. Historically, cities have attempted to restrict feedings on public property through zoning laws. In Orlando, Florida, members of Food Not Bombs have been arrested repeatedly for feeding…

  • Corporations Are Not People

    Election Day is right around the corner, but many voters in Massachusetts are unaware that their ballot will include a question about amending the U.S. Constitution to overturn the Supreme Court’s discredited decision in Citizens United v. F.E.C. The question asks voters whether they support a constitutional amendment that would affirm that 1) corporations do…

  • Upward Spiral

    My mother had always shown me what the streets looked like from a distance. Taking me to Pine Street Inn, and having me help out was her scared straight program for me. We would hang out in Harvard square to watch the performers, but the other colorful characters were much more intriguing to me. The…

  • The Real 47%

    As I watched the Presidential debate, the one thing that struck me was not how bad the president looked, but how neither one of the candidates talked about the subject that neither of them seems to want to address. The only exception was of Mitt Romney’s inane remarks at a private fundraiser a few weeks…

  • Earth First!

    In the turbulent late 60’s, radical environmentalists gathered to defend Mother Earth by any means necessary. Resist much. Obey little.”—-Walt Whitman—taken from The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey, one of the Spiritual inspirations for Earth First! Earth First! or the Earth Liberation Front was first formed in 1979. It is an environmental activist group…

  • The Real 47%

    James Shearer Spare Change News As I watched the Presidential debate, the one thing that struck me was not how bad the president looked, but how neither one of the candidates talked about the subject that neither of them seems to want to address. The only exception was of Mitt Romney’s inane remarks at a…

  • Gordon Gekko for President

    At one time Mitt Romney was my neighbor. Well, I use the term ‘neighbor’ loosely but he did live in Belmont, just not in my section of town. Where I live there are predominantly two or three family houses and, from what I understand, former Governor Romney lived in a mansion. I remember when Romney…

  • Lost Scriptures of Hip Hop

    Old and white, and I still get it. Saul Williams creates a miracle book pretending to be something else. He re-writes history exclusive to change, except the way you see it when you read it. Beginning with “The Confession”, Saul Williams takes you deep into the catacombs of the New York City Subways’ abandoned tunnels.…