Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Editorial: Doubled demand for housing over shelters, hotels
“This is not a math problem. It’s a problem with an economy where people are having their lives turned upside down, and we’re going to have to deal with that, and we’re trying to deal with that.” That’s Gov. Deval Patrick, as quoted by State House News Service, explaining the need for $18.2 million in…
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Putting a Face on Homelessness
Alexander R. Moore Spare Change News A joint collaboration between the Horizons for Homeless Children (HHC) organization and the National Center on Family Homelessness (NCFH) to commemorate Homeless Awareness Month resulted in a display of riveting photographs of homeless children and families. The exhibit, Looking Into Light, contains vivid images of children undergoing the difficulties…
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A Holocaust of Toads
By Doug Holder As boys- we dropped rocks a flurry of bomblets on a passing phalanx of toads. Commanders for once free from the clamp of parental constraint punch drunk with the notion of our control of fate life death. And like mini Dr. Mengeles, we experimented stuffing firecrackers down their twitching throats and watched…
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With Winter On The Way, Where Do Homeless Families Go?
Hannah Morgan Street News Service With cold weather quickly approaching, the District of Columbia has yet to identify enough overnight shelters to house the number of homeless families who are expected to need beds. Each year the city’s Interagency Council on Homelessness prepares an official Winter Plan which lays out how local human services agencies…
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Detox Made Difficult
James Shearer Spare Change News A couple of weeks ago I spent the better part of two days trying to get a friend into a detox program. For those of you who have no idea what that is, it’s a place where people who are looking to get off of drugs and/or alcohol go first,…
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The Straight Story
Marc D. Goldfinger Spare Change News There are so many things going wrong right now in our country that I find it hard to begin because I am overwhelmed. Some of these flaws are worldwide and our country isn’t doing anything about it. Where do I start? Okay, for one, our species worldwide pushed 564…
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Learning from the Sixties: A Talk with John Maher
A new book, Learning From The Sixties: Memoir Of An Organizer, is intended to pass on the lessons learned along the way by anti-Vietnam War activist and political organizer John Maher, a longtime Cambridge resident, to a new generation. In the book, Maher describes his journey from student activist, a leader of the New Left,…
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Occupy Boston: Homeless Occupiers Speak Out
Nakia Hill Spare Change News Occupy Boston has become home to homeless people in the city who have been waiting for a public sphere to voice their opinions about the economic disparities in the country. The movement acts as a safer haven than underneath bridges, the gritty streets they sleep on and the crowded shelters.…
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Local Supermarkets Help Fight Hunger
Robert Sondak Spare Change News The September 2011 U. S. Department of Agriculture Household Food Security Report showed that 1 in 10 Massachusetts households lacked the food resources necessary to provide adequate nutrition for all people at some point in the past year. The U.S. Census 2010 Report showed that 245,000 households (or 600,000 people)…
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