Category: Columns
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The Continuing Impacts of Slavery on African Descendants in America
Chattel slavery in America came to an end in 1865, but the horrific, barbaric, cruel, criminal acts still affect African descendants today. Yes, I’m a black man writing this article, but a white person could have written this article too. It’s not about black history. It’s about an honest and true history of the human…
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Mary McHale, Loving God by Serving Others
Mary McHale retired in 2009 after nearly forty years of volunteering at the Sancta Maria House, an all-women’s homeless shelter founded in the South End in 1972. She is still remembered fondly by many of the women whom she helped over the years. In McHale’s words, “I have friends from my old days that are…
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Remembering when
There are times when I find myself drifting back into the past. Some memories are good. Others not so much. But when an old friend passes, I drift back to a time that makes me laugh and makes my heart ache at the same time. There was a time in the early ‘80s when I…
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Just a Kid
On a rainy Sunday afternoon a few weeks ago, I was making my way to Shaw’s supermarket to pick up a couple of items in time for a sporting event I planned on watching that evening. On the way out, I noticed a kid who couldn’t have been more than 14, maybe 15. He was…
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Vendor Voices: My Walk for Hunger
On Sunday May 1, I finally got up the courage to go out and participate in the Walk for Hunger. Granted, this year they’d shortened the walk to ten miles because of all the construction that was going on. But that didn’t matter: the point was that I was really doing it. I’d waited for…
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The New Prohibition
I’ve been reading articles in the Boston Globe about the massive increase in overdoses almost every day. Then I found myself reading an article about the giant influx of fentanyl, with machines to convert it into pills identical to pharmaceuticals from China. Everybody used to blame Mexico; everybody blames prescription pills that are diverted; everyone blames…
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CCSC Students lead “Empathy Project”
Photo: Cynthia Abatt For the past four months, I’ve had the privilege of supervising two senior interns from the Community Charter School of Cambridge. Yusef Ferhani and Christy Felix have joined me each Wednesday to figure out practical ways to involve millennials in becoming part of the solution for America’s homelessness problem. Athletic, bright, attractive…
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Opinion: Homelessness service providers need more state funding
Homelessness knows no season. Many people feel compassion for men and women experiencing homelessness during a Massachusetts winter – when mountains of snow and bitterly cold temperatures can threaten the lives of people trying to get by and living on the street. Now that spring is finally setting in, it’s easier to forget that the…
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“Rachel Rising”: A Book Review
“Rachel Rising” by Terry Moore. Published by Abstract Studio. Imagine, if you can, digging yourself out of a grave in the ground and not having any memory of how you wound up there or who you really are. “Rachel Rising” is an amazing tale, but I really did not realize it at first. Let me…
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Another Year
This month, Spare Change News turns 24 years old. It’s hard to believe. I’m not going to get into how we got started. That’s a story for another day. But I will say that I’m surprised we’re still here, and even more surprised at where I am now compared to where I was then. Before…