Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Settling for Less
James Shearer Spare Change News A couple of days ago I participated in a forum, The MetroWest Homelessness Forum in Wellesley (Yes there is homelessness in Wellesley.) It was inspiring. I felt a ray of hope, which is pretty unusual these days. Most of the time when I go to an event like this with…
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How The Troll Met Ar Lain Ta (Part One)
Marc D. Goldfinger Spare Change News There’s dope houses and then there’s dope houses. Any junkie knows what I mean when I say that. The dope house of the Troll is like the last house on the block, you know, for the junkie who has tried everything to stop using and nothing works. The Troll.…
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Marge Piercy Talks With SCN About Her Fiction and Poetry
Patty Wittnebert Tomsky Spare Change News Women’s History Month is upon us. March is also the month named after Mars, the God of War. One of our foremost literary goddesses of anti-war is a woman who lives in a tiny village on Cape Cod and has been writing strong, powerful works of fiction and poetry…
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A second season for bike-sharing program
Robert Sondak Spare Change News The New Balance Hubway bike-sharing system reopened for its second season Thursday March 15 with 60 percent of the 61 bike stations live and operational. The system will be fully operationally by April 1 with a total of 610 bicycles for available use. Nicole Freedman, Director of Boston Bikes, elaborated…
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A 20th Year Celebration: Accomplishments and Goals for the Street Newspaper of Greater Boston
Michael Ahern Save the date – Spare Change News is holding a celebratory event at 7 p.m. on June 21 at The Inn at Harvard (1201 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge) to mark its 20th year as Boston and Cambridge’s street newspaper. Since its formation, the newspaper has become a community for a piece of Boston and…
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Northeastern Students Promote Literacy in Family Shelter
Noelle Swan Spare Change News Nine college girls, one professor, one photographer, and a Spare Change reporter spill out of a tiny elevator and into the lobby of Families in Transition, a temporary shelter for families awaiting housing at the Huntington Avenue YMCA in Boston. “Why don’t you go get Sebastian?” Professor Therese O’Neil-Pirozzi asks…
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Another battle expected on funding for homeless programs
Tom Benner Spare Change News WELLESLEY — The Patrick administration is trying for a second year in a row to move money currently used to put up the homeless in shelters and motels into permanent housing solutions. But another battle is expected at the State House as advocates differ over the most controversial aspect of…
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Guest Editorial: On Immigration, Politicians Provide Empty Rhetoric Aplenty
Ali Noorani Lo and behold, the political glitterati have realized that new Americans actually vote. And that there are a whole lot of them. To which Latinos, Asians and other new Americans respond, “Duh.” But, this being an election year, let the pandering begin. Republicans talk about their love of “legal immigration,” decry federal opposition to…
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Rick Santorum’s Anti-American Beliefs
Aaron James Spare Change News John F. Kennedy, September, 1960: “I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute, where no Catholic prelate would tell the president (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote; where no church or…
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Editorial: Homeless Hotspots and Sandwich Boards
Since the time of Charles Dickens in the 1800s, the poor and downtrodden have been used in various ways in society, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse. The premises and outcomes of this kind of hiring of the disadvantaged are up for review and one ought to understand their clear implications about how a…
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