Category: Columns
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Boston Pride talks public accommodations law and legal protections for trans people
Members of the LBGTQ community, in particular transgender people, and allies are working to protect the public accommodations law adopted by the Massachusetts legislature in 2016. The law specifically protects a person based on their gender identity, but could be repealed if voters choose ‘no’ on the ballot question in November. Freedom for All Massachusetts…
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What Comes After Trump? Lots of work.
I was scanning through news stories the other day when I came across a really sad and horrible story. In Florida, a black family was awarded a measly four dollars in damages in a wrongful death suit after a deputy shot the father through a garage door—his own garage door, by the way—because of a…
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Puerto Rico: Forgotten by the United States
Since its annexation, the U.S. government has not given Puerto Rico enough support. The United States have looked the other way when Puerto Rico was governed by corrupt leaders with the support- or should I say non-support- of our country. As Stephen Kinzer noted in a recent Boston Globe piece, the history of Puerto Rico…
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A Lesson In Impermanence
My wife worked hard almost all of her life, except for a ten year period where she was very sick, and she decided, about 9 months ago to treat herself to her final car. She’s never had a really nice car before and she sprung for a 2017 Toyota Camry. It was beautiful and I…
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Looking in the Mirror: Part Two
A few years ago a woman I was dating asked me this question: “Why are there hardly any women selling Spare Change?” It was a question I had heard before and for the life of me I couldn’t answer it. I remember mumbling something about I didn’t know if the board of directors or anyone…
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Looking in the Mirror: Part One
The other day I was thinking of one of our former editors, the first black editor Spare Change had in over 20 years, when he came aboard he began to take the paper in a new direction. Let’s just say there was a lot more color than the paper was used to, and there was…
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In The World Of The Addict
Upon my return from a wonderful weekend praying and meditating at a retreat center in Vermont I check my phone messages. One of the messages is from a friend in Gloucester, which is where I currently live, telling me that another friend of ours who was in recovery has relapsed and died of an overdose.…
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The Beginning of the End of Free Internet
Do you use Yahoo as your Internet provider? Well, if you do, here’s a heads up for you. Yahoo has been taken over by Verizon and joined with AOL. Verizon acquired Yahoo, joining them with AOL, to form an organization that is ominously named Oath. These companies will have strong access to all of your…
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The Poor People’s Campaign: Putting Humanity Before Politics
Before Martin Luther King’s tragic death 50 years ago this month, he had begun organizing what he would call the Poor People’s Campaign. The focus was to bring economic justice to all poor people regardless of their race. Though the campaign continued after King’s death, it never had the success he envisioned. Now 50 years…