Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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‘The homeless need a place to go’
JEREMY “JAY JAY” PARKS Spare Change News I was homeless for nine years in Florida. My story begins on a cold night when my mom decided that I could not live with her any more, so she packed my stuff and put it outside the door. I went to my friend’s house, because I was…
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Food Stamps for Fast Food in Rhode Island
Robert Sondak Spare Change News Some 30,000 low-income households on food stamps in Rhode Island may now buy prepared restaurant meals at Subway fast food restaurants. The Rhode Island Food Access Project will provide healthy food options for the homeless, disabled and elderly who cannot cook for themselves or store food where they live. Rhode…
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Phillips Brooks House Volunteers Work for Intangible Rewards
Julie Monrad Spare Change News When students enter college they often have the mindset that life is full of possibilities, especially in reference to saving the great big world. They have a fresh start and a future ahead of them, as well as four years to grow into who they wish to be for the…
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Editorial: Marjorie Decker, A Record of Helping Others
Editorial: Marjorie Decker Last spring, the Homeless Empowerment Project held a silent auction to raise money for Spare Change News. We had invited Cambridge City Councilor Marjorie Decker as our speaker for the evening, but we were still looking for someone to auction off a few valuable lots. Marjorie came through for us, as a…
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Editorial: Occupy The Next Step
A hand-made sign at the Occupy Boston encampment in Dewey Square asks: “Cardinal O’Malley, Where Are You?” The same might be asked of our leaders on Beacon Hill and Capitol Hill, whose timidity has so far led them to keep a safe distance between their carefully manicured political images and the grungy, Woodstock-era look of…
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A Cup of Tea For Occupy
Joel Foster On the first night of Occupy Boston, when protesters flooded Dewey Square and set up a makeshift tent village, I overheard a conversation. It was spoken between a young kid watching the action unfold and an older guy, who identified himself as a former Democratic activist. The gist of the conversation was that…
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A Cup of Tea For Occupy
Joel Foster On the first night of Occupy Boston, when protesters flooded Dewey Square and set up a makeshift tent village, I overheard a conversation. It was spoken between a young kid watching the action unfold and an older guy, who identified himself as a former Democratic activist. The gist of the conversation was that…
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The Damage Done
By Marc D. Goldfinger “Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”—–‘William Shakespeare, The Tempest, act I, scene 2’ Sascha watched the sky as it began to darken. The powdery snow drifted in the wind. She pressed her hand against the window and scraped the ice on the glass with her fingernail. Sascha knew…
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The Joy That Killed
Fiction by Jacques Fleury Mrs. Hannah Havnoklu, having had a night of nervous sleep, slowly sat up in bed and looked back at her husband, Hans. She smiled at him and got up to go to the bathroom. Today was going to be one of the most joyous days of their life together. They’d been…
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The Faces of Occupy Boston
Nakia Hill Spare Change News Dorothy Allen is an environmental engineer who stands on the corner of Dewey Square holding up a sign that reads Investment Banks Reinvents Socialism. A nun pulls up in her car and gives Allen the thumbs up and says, “God bless you!” It has been almost a week since Allen…
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