Category: Columns
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Faith Without Works is Dead
I held back the tears because I knew that if I cried, it meant that I didn’t have faith and that things were actually over. I was disgusted. I heard loud chanting and cheering through my dorm walls and it was then that I realized that I was not safe. I knew that going to…
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WE’RE GONNA BE ALL RIGHT
This morning we all woke up to what seemed like a nightmare. Donald Trump, the little bully (and by “bully” I’m being nice) who actually got elected despite his racist ramblings, his belittlement of women, etc., has, against all odds, become President of the United States. Sometimes the bully wins, and when it happens we…
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Living With Scars
Sometimes I look at the life I have today and say, wow, I’m truly blessed to have it all: family, friends, etc. You couldn’t ask for much more. I’d sometimes even get to the point where I would romanticize my whole life, especially my past. But there’s nothing romantic or funny about parts of my…
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The Most Frightening Election of My Life
When George W. Bush was running for president, it was scary. I couldn’t think of a worse outcome than having George W. become president. Yet, I find it even harder to believe that a man as unstable, dishonest and dangerous as Donald Trump is actually being considered to lead our nation at this crucial time.…
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Bob Dylan Spoke for Me in the Refugee Camp
Photo: Xavier Badosa If you want to change the world, all you need is a guitar, some courage and a voice that could cut the still night air. Bob Dylan’s naked words in songs like “Masters of War” were close to that reality. As they left his lips in 1963 and drifted in the wind pushed by…
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Lost Causes
This election season has brought a degree of polarization that surpasses any previous election I can recall. Beyond politics, there seems to be an increased tendency to judge one another as being worthy or unworthy. The two leading candidates have paid lip service to visions for an America that serves all citizens, but that idealistic…
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Don’t Feed the Homeless, It Only Encourages Them
Keith McHenry, co-founder of Food Not Bombs, in 1988. “Street feeding programs without comprehensive services actually increase and promote homelessness”—Marbut Consulting. Over 70 cities in the United States have passed laws banning or restricting the sharing of free food with the poor outside. A new theory being used to justify limits to the sharing of meals…
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LONG LIVE FREE PRESS!
Navigating double parked delivery trucks, pedestrians walking in the street with faces glued to screens and deferring to bikers tends to make driving in Cambridge feel a bit like playing a video game. I couldn’t help but smile last week, however, when I had to stop my car in the middle of Mt Auburn street…
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Remembering Liam Cunningham
I have a confession to make. When I took over as editor of SCN in 2010, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I had just graduated from Bunker Hill Community College and I was in WAY over my head. On top of that, I was quickly told we didn’t have the…
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“Darktown” by Thomas Mullen: A Book Review
Atria Books—An Imprint of Simon and Schuster, Inc., 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020 “I must tell you, it was not easy for me to raise my right hand and say, ‘I, Willard Strickland, a Negro, do solemnly swear to perform the duties of a Negro policeman’—Officer Willard Strickland, Atlanta Police Department,…