Spare Change News

Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

  • Unexpected Blessings And Gifts

    Marc D. Goldfinger Spare Change News This is a time when families come together to celebrate in different ways. It is true that some families have been fragmented by sickness, addiction, mis-understanding and mis-communication. The same can be said for the entire world we live in. I was born well over 60 years ago on…

  • Algia Benjamin, Spare Change News Vendor

    Larissa Butrimowicz Spare Change News Algia Benjamin is one of our Spare Change News vendors who has been with the paper since 1992, three months after the paper was created. He was born in Alabama, but when his parents separated, his mother moved to Boston with him when he was seven. He recalls having a…

  • MAN ON THE BEAT: Cambridge police department's homeless outreach officer

    Tom Benner Spare Change News For three years, Officer Eric Helberg has served as the city’s first homeless outreach officer, walking the city and getting to know its street dwellers, helping them however he can — from giving them a blanket to telling them where to get medical care or a free meal, offering a…

  • Thoughts On Occupy Wall Street

    AARON JAMES Spare Change News I am obviously included in the 99 percent. I am not rich, so I guess that means I should be marching with Occupy. A movement I tipped my cap to at the beginning, but now… I am living day-to-day like the 17.2 percent of Americans who are either underemployed or…

  • Standing Up for Respect in Porter Square

    Anthony Thames Spare Change News Sunday, November 26, was a beautiful day in Porter Square, Cambridge and I was soon to find that it was a memorable and inspiring one. The sun shone brightly and temperatures were in the 60’s (a pleasant surprise for the month of November). Smiles and pleasantries were present in abundance.…

  • Loaves and Fishes Serving Food and Music in Cambridge

    Robert Sondak Spare Change News Every Saturday at 5:30 p.m., Loaves and Fishes Meals Program open its Magazine Street doors serving the homeless. Retirees and members of the community receive a hot restaurant-style buffet prepared by an experienced chef. According to Fred Reece, one of the program’s founding members, the First Korean Church has been…

  • Editorial: The Need For Public Records Reform

    While Massachusetts lawmakers continue to dawdle instead of passing the first substantial update to the state’s public records laws since 1973, news stories continue to expose state and local officeholders thwarting the public’s right to know how government works. One example is the recent disclosure that in the final weeks of Mitt Romney’s term as…

  • More ex-soldiers At Risk of Homelessness

    Sarah Edmonds Street News service Tens of thousands of Western troops will leave Iraq and Afghanistan and make the journey home over the next couple of years. Those who then leave the military will face an even more perilous journey – the road back into civilian society, where weak economic growth has made it increasingly…

  • The Arts Maven: A selective guide to free events in Greater Boston

    By David Fillingham New England Conservatory: Free Concerts Date: December 1, 2011- 6:30 PM Price: Free Location: Williams Hall Here’s more than a bunch of symphonies and songs. Even those are not what you think. And although the music stopped with his death in 1911—100 years later, his time is now. During four months of…

  • Expert: ‘Even if shelters were better, they’re still not solving the problem'

    Kevin Roberts Street News Service Dennis Culhane, Ph.D., hangs up on the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to welcome One Step Away into his office at the University of Pennsylvania. A housing program in Massachusetts had run into trouble with funding and overcrowding, and, of course, it reached out to Culhane, arguably the nation’s leading expert and…

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