Spare Change News

Tag: Issue 11-19-2012

  • Flight: A Movie Review

    Even if you rarely go to a theatre to see a movie, you will want to see “Flight” starring Denzel Washington who won an Academy Award for his performance in the movie “Training Day.” In “Flight”, Denzel Washington plays a totally different character. He is an accomplished pilot, previously a stunt pilot who, at one…

  • F the #'s: Writer J. Marechal Argues that Poverty Is More than Statistics

    F the #’s. I’m not giving you any. One doesn’t have to look far to see poverty wide. It’s not about numbers. It is about having to give in to tears when officers are summoned to oust a homeless mother and her three year old from a shelter. It is two, three people sharing a…

  • Bohemian Beats: SCN Chops It Up with Boston’s Avant-Garde Hip Hop Artist, Catch Wreck

    Q. Where in Boston are you currently residing? A. Roxbury, MA Q. How would you compare Boston to other cities you’ve been in or know about? A. Boston has a very unique mind state I would say. The people are disconnected, their living in their own zone. The people don’t really travel outside of their…

  • Sister Senator: Massachusetts Elects Its First Female Senator

    Tuesday, November 6th, Elizabeth Warren defeats the republican incumbent Scott Brown by a narrow margin and is the first woman to claims Kennedy’s old Senate seat. Warren, a true representative of the middle class, is now the success story heard around the nation. Warren was born Elizabeth Herring to a middle class family in Oklahoma…

  • Gimme Shelter: Government Policies Fail Homeless Mothers and Kids.

    Three years ago Daphna Browne [a pseudonym] was living in the Bronx with her then-10-year-old daughter. Life was difficult. Browne was on Social Security Disability because of severe depression and an anxiety disorder; still, if she was thrifty, she could pay her $650 monthly rent and support herself and her child. Her life began to…

  • Temple of Robbers and Thieves: Massachusetts Episcopals Call on Bank of America to Repent

    Under a gray churning sky, as those with roofs over their heads in Boston threw together preparations for Sandy’s landfall, a group of Episcopalians made their stand against Bank of America. Two tempests were fuming a short time ago: one has subsided, leaving a trail of destruction here and to the south. But the other,…

  • Are Female Veterans Being Left Out In The Cold?

    After leaving the U.S. Air Force, Staff Sergeant Barbara Barnes spent years living in fear of stray shadows and sudden noises that could trigger flashbacks to trauma from her days of military service. Barnes never served abroad or saw combat. She served as an administrative officer from 1984 to 1990, processing legal documents on military…

  • Feed the Hungry: MIT Students Provide Meals for the Needy

    Wednesday Oct. 24 marked the one-year anniversary of Feed the Hungry, the MIT student-run Wednesday night community meals program located at St. Bartholomew’s Church in Central Square, Cambridge. At 5:30 p.m. the Central Square Church doors opened up allowing people to sit down in the chapel room just before the final food preparation takes place.…

  • Down and Out in Boston: Massachusetts Women Encounter Great Economic Hardship

    Although Cambridge and its sisters Boston and Quincy remain economically prosperous and have a combined population of 830,000 people and 430,000 women, women still have a higher poverty rate than men. Cambridge, the home of Spare Change News, has a population of 105,000 people. The Cambridge household income has almost doubled from $55,000 to $95,000…

  • Are There Viable Possibilities Now for Student Loan Reform?

    It’s hard to avoid the clichéd statement—and every pundit has been saying it over and over again—this was truly an historic election. Not only was President Barack Obama re-elected, but a number of very progressive candidates, such as Elizabeth Warren, seized seats in Congress as well. It seems clear: the values of the American public…