Spare Change News

Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

  • Patrick Signs $32.5 Billion State Budget, Vetoes $32.1 Million in Spending

    By Michael Norton STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE JULY 8, 2012…Gov. Deval Patrick on Sunday signed a $32.5 billion state budget that raises state aid for public schools by 4.5 percent and counts on $700 million in health care cost savings to achieve balance. Patrick found only $32.1 million in objectionable spending in the budget crafted…

  • Food Stamps Focus of U.S. Deficit Debate

    Suzanne Hanney StreetWise Food stamps are at the heart of dramatically different federal budget deficit reduction proposals in the U.S. House and Senate, to the consternation of both recipients and advocates. “Once they start chipping away at the program and try to reduce SNAP [Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program] funding or restrict eligibility or reduce the…

  • No-Pet Rules Require Many to Choose Between Housing and Their Furry Friends

    Laura Kiesel Spare Change News This past March, my relationship with my partner of nearly nine years came to a somewhat abrupt end, putting the icing on the cake of a brutal year and a half. At the end of 2010, both my mother and my maternal grandmother (who raised me) died only a few…

  • Featured Poems from local Books of Hope Poets

    Poems by Ziona Lonely Once the Drugs are Gone When loving you is wrong, I don’t want to be right, so I’m still here? Pulped up with fiction of childless fears Crying you a river with childish tears But I no longer want to feel this pain! No longer want these tears dripping like rain…

  • “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”: Teaching, Learning and the Immigrant Experience Part III

    Jacques Fleury Spare Change News “Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other.” Paulo Freire In my previous articles, I explored the teaching techniques and ideologies in Paulo Freire’s book: “Pedagogy of the Oppressed,” a text…

  • Borderlands: The Breeder (Part One)

    By Marc D. Goldfinger Spare Change News Patricia turned and looked back at the pale man with hate. Her eyes trailed along the gold links of the leash that he held in his hand that connected her to him. She wanted to spit in the street but restrained herself because she knew that Joseph, the…

  • Rhode Island Homeless Bill of Rights: Is Massachusetts Next?

    ADAM SENNOTT Spare Change News Rhode Island became the first state to adopt a homeless bill of rights after Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee signed the bill into law Thursday, June 21st. The bill of rights, sponsored by Senator John J. Tassoni, Jr., establishes a right of privacy for homeless individuals and protects them from…

  • Mass. GLBT Teens Still Face Disproportionate Risks in Public Schools

    Noelle Swan Spare Change News Through tears, Roger Bourgeois described an evening when his high school-age son sat him and his wife down at the kitchen table to tell them why their life would be better if he were dead because he was broken. As they tried to assure him that things would get better…

  • Letter: An encounter with decency on the street

    I just finished reading Marc Goldfinger’s recent column on his history with Spare Change News. I’ve never read SC, actually. Not until today. I randomly bought a copy today through a random series of events. Actually I bought ten copies. Your vendor, Michael, over on Church Street, made a good sale. Half the time, I…

  • Editorial: Empty gestures on homelessness

    It’s easy to fault Rhode Island’s recently passed Homeless Bill of Rights as a gimmicky gesture. The bill, among other things, guarantees a person the right to use public sidewalks, parks and transportation as well as public buildings “without discrimination on the basis of his or her housing status.” It also guarantees a “reasonable expectation…

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