Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Today: Rally for rent control outside of State House hearing
The Massachusetts legislature will hold a hearing today, Tuesday, Jan. 14, on a bill aimed at restoring the ability of cities and towns in Massachusetts to implement rent control in their respective municipalities. At 1p.m. a number of activist organizations will rally outside of the State House in support of the bill. The bill is…
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Refugees sleeping rough on outskirts of EU
Usually, seeing homeless people is no reason for joy. But in Budapest it is – last year, head of state Viktor Orbán and his right-wing national government passed a law criminalising homeless people for sleeping rough. They are given three warnings and then imprisoned. Thankfully, the law is not enforced everywhere. The criminalisation of homeless…
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Believe it when you see it: City promises money it doesn’t have
I will probably be in the minority on this but I’m not at all impressed with the Mayor of Boston’s State of the City speech Tuesday night. Especially the new rental subsidy program. First of all, this is clearly politically motivated, and if you don’t think so, well – to each their own. But look,…
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Boston pledges $500 million over five years for housing
Mayor Marty Walsh’s administration has announced a five year $500 million investment in affordable housing, but a vital revenue stream needed to fund the investment isn’t a sure thing. The administration has proposed a transfer tax of up to two percent, which according to Chief Financial Officer Emme Handy would generate “something like in excess…
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Art Helps Returning Citizens ‘Cross the Threshold’
A decade ago, Alex Anderson “crossed the threshold” from one life to another. In his first life, he had been incarcerated in New York, left prison, and got involved with a number of programs but struggled with the shame of his incarceration. In the other, he stopped judging himself and found new self-acceptance and self-worth.…
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The Weak Link or Why Greta Thunberg is Right
It was just a little over one hundred years ago when the automobile was invented. One only need to look at today’s traffic reports to see what has happened. We have built a civilization where the automobile holds us captive. Most of us need the car to get to work, or we think we do.…
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Just in Time For the Holidays
Back in 1989 a man named Albert Turner aka “the Root Doctor” who was a major part of Martin Luther King’s Civil Rights movement spoke of a government that had no need for poor people. Those words probably never rang any truer than they do now. The Trump Administration recently hired Robert Marbut as the…
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Celebrate the release of SCN writer’s book at the Lizard Lounge
Come out to the Lizard Lounge and celebrate the release of “Heroin’s Harbour,” the forthcoming book by Spare Change News Columnist, Vendor, and Poetry Editor Marc Goldfinger on Sunday, Dec. 8. The night will kick off with a poetry slam at 8p.m., and Marc will take the stage to do a reading at about 9:30p.m.…
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From the Street to the Finish Line
Photo by Margarita Dreyer. When a woman walked into homeless shelters in Philadelphia in 2007 and asked residents if they wanted to go for a run, she didn’t know that by 2019 her individual gesture would be a movement. Back on my Feet has grown from one woman to an organization with 13 chapters nationwide.…
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A voice for the children of Gaza
Yousef Aljamal. According to UNICEF, Israel is the first and only country in the world to establish a juvenile military court. Each year approximately 500-700 Palestinian children, some as young as 12, are tried and imprisoned by the court. Human rights organizations report that these children are beaten, tortured and placed in solitary confinement in…
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