Category: Columns
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It’s the System, Stupid!
In 1967 Dr Martin Luther King asked a question: “Why are there 40 million poor people in America?” That question crosses my mind and the minds of every activist I have ever met, but that question stood out as I was making my way home as Boston prepared for it’s first snowstorm. I sadly watched…
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Did ‘Old School Justice’ Catch Up to Whitey Bulger?
When I heard the news about James “Whitey” Bulger being savagely killed in his new prison in West Virginia, it came as no surprise. For years he ratted on the New England Mafia to increase his own crime organization’s control of the Boston area. I grew up in New Jersey and started using cough syrup…
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How I Learned To Be A Racist
I grew up in a white factory town until I was 10-years-old. My father had a small grocery store in Newark, New Jersey and his customers were all black people. My parents had a term that they referred to Black people while they were in the house: Schvartzes, pronounced Schvat-Suh. They claimed not to be…
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Dispatch From a Clinician
“I just need to talk to somebody,” he said, slumping into the seat across from me. He was tall and thin and wore a tattered winter jacket though it was unseasonably warm and humid outside. His long hair was pulled back in a ponytail and his eyes were wide and tired. He looked down at…
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Parting Ways at the Crossroads
There has been a sadness around me lately. As many of you know, we lost a family member, our long time vendor Fred Boykin. And as I sit here writing this column I’m thinking of his positive spirit despite all the obstacles in his way. I wish I could be more like he was, now…
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Clean and Sober: Recovery After Suboxone
The opioid trail is a long difficult road. I appreciated Felice Freyer’s article in the Aug. 19 edition of the Boston Globe, which was about getting help for opioid addiction in Massachusetts. I am a person with a Substance Use Disorder in “remission.” It took me a long time to get where I am. I’m 72…
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Letter From Utuado, Puerto Rico
You once said “My reward for this life will be a thousand pounds of dirt shoveled in my face.” You were wrong. You are seven pounds of ashes in a box; a Puerto Rican flag wrapped around you next to a red brick from the house in Utuado where you were born, all crammed…
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Brett Kavanaugh and Why Consequences Matter
The idea that we are held accountable for our actions is not a new concept. It’s been grafted into children and teenagers by their parents, teachers, mentors and leaders. While it is not a new or radical idea, it certainly does not stop young people, or even older people for that matter, from making mistakes.…
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With Kavanaugh confirmation, the Senate fails women again
I’ve gone through a lot of emotions while coming to grips with what went down in Washington last week, with the Supreme Court confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh. First, I know what it feels like to have something brought up from the past when you were a stupid kid. It happens to me everytime I go…