Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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4H First Aid
Heartbroke, homeless, heatwaved and how? Here is a handy recipe: In a Fourth of July morning bowl, mix the following fresh ingredients: Sous-chef’ing green-and-red bell peppers, kabobs and corn A spin around the linoleum with one loca señora to Spanish melodies while a lurking polyglot frau tries to debate the radio off Practicing foreign-language phrases…
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Chronic National Shortage of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists Takes Heaviest Toll on Low Income Families
“I don’t know exactly what happened to drive that young man in Aurora to shoot those people, but I do know that many people like him suffer while undiagnosed and untreated,” said Jess Shatkin, an associate professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at New York University. July 20 marks one year since James Eagan Holmes…
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Foreclosure King or Homeless Advocate?
Bank of American and the United Way Partner on Youth Homelessness Summit BOSTON, Mass.—The United Way, partnered with Bank of America, held the Boston Youth Homelessness Summit on Thursday, June 20. The audience included members from prominent organizations like Youth on Fire and Bridge Over Troubled Waters, alongside a few private companies. The summit was…
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From the Editor
George Orwell famously quipped, “Journalism is printing what somebody else does not want printed; everything else is public relations.” When most of us read that, we think of muckrakers uncovering bribes, criminality and corruption. Images of Woodward and Bernstein meeting with Deep Throat in dim alleyways spring instantly to mind. This is especially true after…
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Careful, Somebody May Hear You
The other day I was going through my regular routine, watching and reading the news, when I came across an interesting little story about Red Robin, a fast-food establishment that had recent-ly pulled an ad of theirs from television and their website almost before it had time to sink in. Their latest commercial talked about…
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LGBTQ Youth Hit Hard By Homelessness
There are an estimated 6,000 high school students in Massachusetts who are currently homeless, according to the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). Thousands more are believed to be homeless and are not counted in DESE estimates because they have dropped out of school. Of those homeless youth, a disproportionate number—upwards of 40…
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Spare Change News Vendors Share Their Stories at the Cambridge River Fest
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—The River Festival is a wonderfully diverse group of people who gather each year in Cambridgeport, which is the perfect meeting place for the crossing of cultures. Besides the long rows of tents filled with a variety of ethnic food, music, clothing, games, arts and crafts, the most important part of the River Fest…
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Just Crust Brings Worker Management to Harvard Square
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—The crowd was out the door of The Just Crust this Saturday during its grand opening. Cambridge residents and their friends gathered to try free pizza and celebrate the worker-owned restaurant replacing a branch of Upper Crust Pizza – a small chain plagued by corruption, wage theft and other labor violations. Senator Elizabeth Warren…
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New Report on Unaccompanied Homeless Youth
BOSTON, Mass.—The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Special Commission on Unaccompanied Homeless Youth released its inaugural report at the end of April. The research in the report is setup to expand within the next few years, going deeper into underlying issues of homelessness that do not typically receive government or media attention. The commission states that their…
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Getting Sober in Savin Hill
DORCHESTER, Mass.—At 26, Peter Barbuto found himself in a Cape Cod rehab facility bat-tling an addiction to opiates. He was despondent until the day he met Dan Ryan. “He was affirming, very much so,” Barbuto said of Ryan. “Which was great because when you’re down in the dumps and a guy like that comes around;…
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