I'm not much for regurgitating newspaper articles. However, I do point to a double in this morning's Boston Globe. There's a portent of marriage-equality battles to be as well as a warning that some warriors we have wearied of are still in armor.
There's a sidebar with minor updates on MassEquality's future. Its board did as so many of us had predicted and hoped, decided to shift its efforts to helping other states with gay-rights and marriage-equality efforts. The board figures they should leverage their expertise and support. Also, ME will work with Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) on such efforts as repealing Bill Clinton's Defense of Marriage Act. Of course, the big issue there is that the IRS and the rest of the federal government use DOMA as a way of keeping legally married homosexual couples from having full tax and other rights due to other married couples.
The main article focused on GLAD's efforts with rebuttals from Mass Family Institute's Kristian M. Mineau. While it's great that ME will work for equality, it appears that MFI will keep trying to hold people down. This Eeyore of the right wing, Mineau has revivified his sleeping bugbear of same-sex marriage coming to a church near you. EVERYBODY PANIC!
As he put it, "I don't understand what their premise is, that they're not pushing in any other state." That would be terrible because, because, because...no particular reason. SSM and civil-union states were supposed to bring everything from rampant increases in AIDS to children raped by the thousands to a total breakdown in marriage to priests thrown in jail for slandering homosexuals.
Nothing like any of that has happened, but MFI can't let it go. Apparently it's just too good a fund-raising ploy.
The Globe article cites GLAD's areas of assault on DOMA — the right to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery and the right to family leave given to heterosexual married couples. A GLAD spokeswoman said these two "will resonate with the public."
Mini-Disclaimer: My father, a WWII vet with numerous battle decorations, is buried in Arlington and my family has a lifetime pass to visit. I have absolutely no issue with homosexual soldiers who have earned the right to burial there being interred with their spouses.
While I had predicted that Mineau would slither out of the Bay State after he led his team to defeat on the amendment to stop SSM here. I admit that this is unlikely in the short term because of these trends. While his group and its cohorts are rightfully reduced and clearly diminishing, their bugbear is up and scaring the old folk again.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, amendment, same sex marriage, DOMA, MFI, MassEquality
Monday, November 05, 2007
High Dudgeon Lowbrows on Connolly
Forgive my bemusement over the panting and ranting about John Connolly's campaign cards. With nine City Council bellies tries to bump into four spaces at the bar, these could be a deciding factor.
It's still funny that the basest of us here in an allegedly hardball political town would get so exercised over Connolly's post cards slamming Councilor Stephen Murphy. To the Howie Carr types, sending these without plugging himself and taking credit/blame for the cards makes Connolly a coward and falls in the dirty trick class.
You don't have to look very far or far back to see what real dirty tricks are. These cards don't begin to qualify.
Murphy's campaign begrudgingly and belatedly admitted that they sent the cards. That was probably from the same bozos who decided it would be a good idea to send them in the first place. By the bye, because the cards did not promote Connolly specifically, they might as well have inspired voters to switch a vote from Murphy to any of the other eight candidates. Even though they pointed out Murphy's huge and true shortcomings, they were not an effective vehicle.
I remember a lot of years ago, I could count on Playboy for two things (well...three). When it ran a favorable movie review, I was sure to dislike the flick. Yet, a favorable jazz record review would invariable lead me to music that I also liked.
Carr is like that on politicians. If he likes someone, I won't. Carr uses dull-witted, wrong-headed justifications for pushing reactionaries and clowns. When he endorses someone or slanders someone else, the opposite is almost always to my way of thinking. Thanks, Howie-kins; that's more confirmation that Connolly should beat Murphy.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, Boston, City Council, John Connolly, Boston Herald, Howie Carr
It's still funny that the basest of us here in an allegedly hardball political town would get so exercised over Connolly's post cards slamming Councilor Stephen Murphy. To the Howie Carr types, sending these without plugging himself and taking credit/blame for the cards makes Connolly a coward and falls in the dirty trick class.
You don't have to look very far or far back to see what real dirty tricks are. These cards don't begin to qualify.
Murphy's campaign begrudgingly and belatedly admitted that they sent the cards. That was probably from the same bozos who decided it would be a good idea to send them in the first place. By the bye, because the cards did not promote Connolly specifically, they might as well have inspired voters to switch a vote from Murphy to any of the other eight candidates. Even though they pointed out Murphy's huge and true shortcomings, they were not an effective vehicle.
I remember a lot of years ago, I could count on Playboy for two things (well...three). When it ran a favorable movie review, I was sure to dislike the flick. Yet, a favorable jazz record review would invariable lead me to music that I also liked.
Carr is like that on politicians. If he likes someone, I won't. Carr uses dull-witted, wrong-headed justifications for pushing reactionaries and clowns. When he endorses someone or slanders someone else, the opposite is almost always to my way of thinking. Thanks, Howie-kins; that's more confirmation that Connolly should beat Murphy.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, Boston, City Council, John Connolly, Boston Herald, Howie Carr
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Acting Action in Acton
Let us dispense with Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist publicity hounds. They missed good theater in the Acton-Boxborough high auditorium last night. Outside before The Laramie Project started, his soaked and emotionally stunted little band were on a grassy median at the school-bus turnaround. They were orally overpowered by counter protesters beside the school entrance singing such as This Land Is Your Land. There must have been more actors on stage than in the Westboro lump. I took a camera, but he didn't need any more attention.
On the good side though, the second of four nights of the play sold out. The hooha that the anti-gay sorts locally and from Kansas made apparently was good fund raising publicity for the high school.
For next weekend, you should be able to get seats here. They are $12, with no extra costs and you can order online for pickup.
Bud over at MassResistance Watch has been insightful and clear on how other anti-gay sorts can't really distance themselves from the Westboro Baptist Church. They have the same message, they cloak it in a tortured religiosity, and they iterate and reiterate how their particular expression is not hate. Yet, of course it is.
Amusingly, after MassResistance chief blogger Amy Contrada (an Acton resident, whose daughter is in the play) declaimed the play on her site, she told the Globe that her little group was unlike Phelps' crew. Her version of protesting was first to ask the school not to stage the play. Then she helped organize what she called a forum, bringing in anti-gay and ex-gay speakers to decry the play and homosexuality.
It's hard to tell whether she actually believes what's on her website. It has countless homosexuality slurs and scare commentary on AIDS and other STDs. For the play, as the Globe article put it:
Get the details from the Times site, but the essential info is that a playwright and good of students visited Laramie, Wyoming, after college student Matthew Shepard was beaten and left for dead, tied to a rural fence for 18 hours before someone found him. The play grew from over 200 interviews before and after Shepard died.
Comparisons with Our Town are apt and inevitable. The three-act play relies on moments, snippets of monologue or dialog in staccato presentation on a minimalist stage. A swarm of stagehands work constantly to move chairs and small wooden tables into place many dozens of times. The stage is polka dotted with white prop marks.
With the format, the actors did not have the traditional demands of serious theater or comedy. They had no physical performance or long orations. There were few personal interacti0ns and most characters had little development because of their short stage time.
At the same time, most actors played four to seven roles. They had to take off a jacket and tie, and then shift personality and sometimes voice for the next moment as someone else.
This is not the place for a formal theater review. However, I saw this as a good but not great production. The large cast varied in acting ability. Everyone was good and some shone.
The cohesion of Moisés Kaufman's play is key to this as satisfying theater. Grabbing a little over two hours of dialog that represents over a year of research and interviews is masterful. You leave with a clear sense of the actions and motivations of the dozens of sketched townspeople portrayed by the 23 actors. Shepard himself never appears, yet the anecdotes of him from those who do make him one of the most developed characters.
Oddly enough, to the purported objections of a small group of parents, neither the language nor the subject is particularly graphic or obscene, at least by any standard after the 1960s. For crying out loud in bucket! Here was a gay college student given a ride from a bar by two local men about the same age who certainly intended to rob him. One of them claimed that Shepard came onto him sexually, which flipped him enough that they savagely beat and pistol whipped him, tied him to the fence and abandoned him in no one should have found him to bleed and freeze to death. It as small town homophobia and a resulting brutal murder.
In that light, the language was tame, like prime-time network TV standards. Of course, TV also constantly deals with murders and sexuality. In those regards, the dialogs and monologues were very restrained, with little obscenity and the most graphic terms coming from one of the murderers' confession.
By the bye, from the looks of their schedule and the previous productions, it appears as though they mix it up. They put on one demanding drama a year, alternating with musicals, comedy and dinner theater. Next up is Brigadoon. Perhaps the Scottish-American anti-fantasy-land contingent will find fault with that.
It is a wealthy area. The children and parents appeared very wholesome. Quite a few of the youth wore the purple ERASE HATE t-shirts supporting the ideas in The Laramie Project. Also, they are a damned homogeneous group. Out of about 1,000 people I saw on stage, in the audience and in the many, many police present, I think I picked out one Black man, a Latino student, and a half dozen Asian-Americans...no melting pot this.
Yet, I have to say that this is another case of leaving feeling sanguine about us all, at least the future us as foreshadowed by these youth. A few parents acted out their own emotional problems with equality and gay rights, as did itinerant protesters. They had their say and the vast majority of students, facility, parents and community members disagreed and blew them off. Having the right to express your opinion does not by itself convince anyone.
We squinted through the downpour Saturday from JP to Acton. I'd say it was worth the trip.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, GBLT, Acton-Boxborough, Laramie Project
On the good side though, the second of four nights of the play sold out. The hooha that the anti-gay sorts locally and from Kansas made apparently was good fund raising publicity for the high school.
For next weekend, you should be able to get seats here. They are $12, with no extra costs and you can order online for pickup.
Bud over at MassResistance Watch has been insightful and clear on how other anti-gay sorts can't really distance themselves from the Westboro Baptist Church. They have the same message, they cloak it in a tortured religiosity, and they iterate and reiterate how their particular expression is not hate. Yet, of course it is.
Amusingly, after MassResistance chief blogger Amy Contrada (an Acton resident, whose daughter is in the play) declaimed the play on her site, she told the Globe that her little group was unlike Phelps' crew. Her version of protesting was first to ask the school not to stage the play. Then she helped organize what she called a forum, bringing in anti-gay and ex-gay speakers to decry the play and homosexuality.
It's hard to tell whether she actually believes what's on her website. It has countless homosexuality slurs and scare commentary on AIDS and other STDs. For the play, as the Globe article put it:
Contrada, who declined to discuss her daughter's involvement in the play, said one of her biggest concerns is for the safety of the students exposed to the play. She said gay activist groups have been in contact with the students and are introducing them to websites that promote dangerous lifestyles.Refreshingly, the A-B youth seem much more level-headed and open. Those in and out of the play reflect the attitude of their age group -- the play is about openness, and then, what's the big deal about homosexuals?"They are taking kids who are vulnerable and sending them to bizarre websites," Contrada said. "They are clearly directing the students toward the homosexual/transgender movement."
The Play's the Thing
More background than you want is at a New York Times archive on the murder and aftermath is here. A professional review of the play when it opened seven years ago is here.Get the details from the Times site, but the essential info is that a playwright and good of students visited Laramie, Wyoming, after college student Matthew Shepard was beaten and left for dead, tied to a rural fence for 18 hours before someone found him. The play grew from over 200 interviews before and after Shepard died.
Comparisons with Our Town are apt and inevitable. The three-act play relies on moments, snippets of monologue or dialog in staccato presentation on a minimalist stage. A swarm of stagehands work constantly to move chairs and small wooden tables into place many dozens of times. The stage is polka dotted with white prop marks.
With the format, the actors did not have the traditional demands of serious theater or comedy. They had no physical performance or long orations. There were few personal interacti0ns and most characters had little development because of their short stage time.
At the same time, most actors played four to seven roles. They had to take off a jacket and tie, and then shift personality and sometimes voice for the next moment as someone else.
This is not the place for a formal theater review. However, I saw this as a good but not great production. The large cast varied in acting ability. Everyone was good and some shone.
The cohesion of Moisés Kaufman's play is key to this as satisfying theater. Grabbing a little over two hours of dialog that represents over a year of research and interviews is masterful. You leave with a clear sense of the actions and motivations of the dozens of sketched townspeople portrayed by the 23 actors. Shepard himself never appears, yet the anecdotes of him from those who do make him one of the most developed characters.
Oddly enough, to the purported objections of a small group of parents, neither the language nor the subject is particularly graphic or obscene, at least by any standard after the 1960s. For crying out loud in bucket! Here was a gay college student given a ride from a bar by two local men about the same age who certainly intended to rob him. One of them claimed that Shepard came onto him sexually, which flipped him enough that they savagely beat and pistol whipped him, tied him to the fence and abandoned him in no one should have found him to bleed and freeze to death. It as small town homophobia and a resulting brutal murder.
In that light, the language was tame, like prime-time network TV standards. Of course, TV also constantly deals with murders and sexuality. In those regards, the dialogs and monologues were very restrained, with little obscenity and the most graphic terms coming from one of the murderers' confession.
Acton Acting
If you go to next week's production, prepare yourself for a theater subculture. Like many schools have gym banners with their girls' volleyball championship years, A-B's auditorium touts the plays they have performed and won awards with. Also, when the drama director, Linda Potter, announced the evening, the kids applauded for her like she was a huge star, and she is to them.By the bye, from the looks of their schedule and the previous productions, it appears as though they mix it up. They put on one demanding drama a year, alternating with musicals, comedy and dinner theater. Next up is Brigadoon. Perhaps the Scottish-American anti-fantasy-land contingent will find fault with that.
It is a wealthy area. The children and parents appeared very wholesome. Quite a few of the youth wore the purple ERASE HATE t-shirts supporting the ideas in The Laramie Project. Also, they are a damned homogeneous group. Out of about 1,000 people I saw on stage, in the audience and in the many, many police present, I think I picked out one Black man, a Latino student, and a half dozen Asian-Americans...no melting pot this.
Yet, I have to say that this is another case of leaving feeling sanguine about us all, at least the future us as foreshadowed by these youth. A few parents acted out their own emotional problems with equality and gay rights, as did itinerant protesters. They had their say and the vast majority of students, facility, parents and community members disagreed and blew them off. Having the right to express your opinion does not by itself convince anyone.
We squinted through the downpour Saturday from JP to Acton. I'd say it was worth the trip.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, GBLT, Acton-Boxborough, Laramie Project
City Council — Connolly Completes My Card
This morning, I finished filling out my ballot list for the votes for Tuesday's Boston City Council at-large slate. I felt conflicts about John Connolly and knew he was coming to a house party this morning down my block.
For me, it is:
If you feel compelled to use all four votes, the GLBT-friendly Michael Flaherty should get the fourth. (No campaign website; he's Council president and understandably cocky about victory.)
Both Yoon and Arroyo are worthy on many levels. I know that Arroyo is infamous for his spotty Council attendance. However, as the two Team Unity at-large members, they both work for Black, Asian-American, immigrant and poor residents. They act as a conscience for the Council on social issues. They also have done fine work, particularly on their committees.
So, when the Boston cop a few doors away hosted a meet-and-greet for John, I made sure to go. There was another cop there, as well as another Connolly, John's father, former Massachusetts Secretary of State Michael.
The short of it is that John's statements and answers were solid enough that I'll add him on my ballot.
On the sticky issue of tenant's rights, I'm not 100% with him on the issues — I think rent stabilization or control should be on the discussion table and he does not. Yet, he has alternatives that work to the right aims. When I asked about his opposition to enabling tenant collective bargaining with large landlords, he explained that he sees that as "a disguised form of rent control." On the other hand, he said developers here are not living up their obligations and promises of mixed-use and affordable housing units. They want to build luxury housing only.
He said the standard answer of claiming the free market (har, I snort) would take care of housing prices. As a Councilor, he would work to ensure regulations and oversight to force developers to do what they say. He would also favor real mixed use housing, instead of insulating rich-folks' homes from others'.
In response to various questions about budgets and taxes, he climbed on what appears to be a favorite horse. He said that in Boston, 53% of property is tax exempt, much of it owned by colleges and universities. He said that the in-lieu-of-taxes fees they pay are woefully inadequate. He sees renegotiating them to fair rates as an important way to increase city revenue, thus expanding services and possibly reducing property taxes.
Also, I had wondered how an Irish Catholic out of Roslindale and now West Roxbury got to be so egalitarian. He is well known for progressive positions on matters such as race and GLBT issues. He answered by first sweeping his arm toward his father and saying it "came from home. My parents raised me that way."
John is fairly charming as well, which never hurts when you deliver big messages. Two years ago when he ran for Council the first time, he barely lost the fourth seat. This time, he told the room that he didn't have to be first on their "dance cards", just one of four. He concluded with a chuckle, "If I'm not in your top four on the dance card, I want you to stay home."
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, Boston, City Council, Sam Yoon, Felix Arroyo, John Connolly, Team Unity
For me, it is:
If you feel compelled to use all four votes, the GLBT-friendly Michael Flaherty should get the fourth. (No campaign website; he's Council president and understandably cocky about victory.)
Both Yoon and Arroyo are worthy on many levels. I know that Arroyo is infamous for his spotty Council attendance. However, as the two Team Unity at-large members, they both work for Black, Asian-American, immigrant and poor residents. They act as a conscience for the Council on social issues. They also have done fine work, particularly on their committees.
Connolly's and Cops
I've been concerned about Connolly, particularly in light of his position on tenants. On the surface, the questions he has answered suggest that his concern for keeping housing affordable in the city seemed to be for home owners, not renters.So, when the Boston cop a few doors away hosted a meet-and-greet for John, I made sure to go. There was another cop there, as well as another Connolly, John's father, former Massachusetts Secretary of State Michael.
The short of it is that John's statements and answers were solid enough that I'll add him on my ballot.
On the sticky issue of tenant's rights, I'm not 100% with him on the issues — I think rent stabilization or control should be on the discussion table and he does not. Yet, he has alternatives that work to the right aims. When I asked about his opposition to enabling tenant collective bargaining with large landlords, he explained that he sees that as "a disguised form of rent control." On the other hand, he said developers here are not living up their obligations and promises of mixed-use and affordable housing units. They want to build luxury housing only.
He said the standard answer of claiming the free market (har, I snort) would take care of housing prices. As a Councilor, he would work to ensure regulations and oversight to force developers to do what they say. He would also favor real mixed use housing, instead of insulating rich-folks' homes from others'.
In response to various questions about budgets and taxes, he climbed on what appears to be a favorite horse. He said that in Boston, 53% of property is tax exempt, much of it owned by colleges and universities. He said that the in-lieu-of-taxes fees they pay are woefully inadequate. He sees renegotiating them to fair rates as an important way to increase city revenue, thus expanding services and possibly reducing property taxes.
Also, I had wondered how an Irish Catholic out of Roslindale and now West Roxbury got to be so egalitarian. He is well known for progressive positions on matters such as race and GLBT issues. He answered by first sweeping his arm toward his father and saying it "came from home. My parents raised me that way."
John is fairly charming as well, which never hurts when you deliver big messages. Two years ago when he ran for Council the first time, he barely lost the fourth seat. This time, he told the room that he didn't have to be first on their "dance cards", just one of four. He concluded with a chuckle, "If I'm not in your top four on the dance card, I want you to stay home."
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, Boston, City Council, Sam Yoon, Felix Arroyo, John Connolly, Team Unity
Friday, November 02, 2007
Clinic Buffer Zone Law Passes
From 18 to 35 feet is the new standard for self-described demonstrators at women's clinics in Massachusetts. The wires report that the House joined the Senate in passing the clarified law with expanded distances and plain definitions.
The previous law was vague and there had never been a successful prosecution of the self-described counselors on the sidewalks. Numerous women complained they were physically accosted, insulted (as in "Murderer!') and verbally threatened. Regardless of whether the women headed to a clinic for fertility exams, abortions or birth control, they were often subject to yelling demonstrators touching them, giving them religious literature and otherwise trying to prevent them from accessing the clinic for services.
Gov. Deval Patrick has said he will sign this bill, which overwhelming passed both houses of the General Court. It prohibits demonstrators from entering or remaining on the clinic grounds or within a 35-foot radius from the entrance, exit or driveway of a reproductive health care facility. It exempts people who need to pass on the sidewalk to reach a destination, as well as police, firefighters, utility repair crews and such.
Those who have aggressively hassled the women coming to clinics for so long are already decrying what they say is a law that interferes with their First Amendment rights. It will be fascinating to see how soon and how many push the new law to see what will get them arrested.
Lackaday for them, we as a commonwealth and nation have a long history defining limits on free speech when it involves threatening or intimidating others.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, clinics, First Amendment, Planned Parenthood, buffer zone
The previous law was vague and there had never been a successful prosecution of the self-described counselors on the sidewalks. Numerous women complained they were physically accosted, insulted (as in "Murderer!') and verbally threatened. Regardless of whether the women headed to a clinic for fertility exams, abortions or birth control, they were often subject to yelling demonstrators touching them, giving them religious literature and otherwise trying to prevent them from accessing the clinic for services.
Gov. Deval Patrick has said he will sign this bill, which overwhelming passed both houses of the General Court. It prohibits demonstrators from entering or remaining on the clinic grounds or within a 35-foot radius from the entrance, exit or driveway of a reproductive health care facility. It exempts people who need to pass on the sidewalk to reach a destination, as well as police, firefighters, utility repair crews and such.
Those who have aggressively hassled the women coming to clinics for so long are already decrying what they say is a law that interferes with their First Amendment rights. It will be fascinating to see how soon and how many push the new law to see what will get them arrested.
Lackaday for them, we as a commonwealth and nation have a long history defining limits on free speech when it involves threatening or intimidating others.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, clinics, First Amendment, Planned Parenthood, buffer zone
Petite Peeks at Would-Be Councilors
Well, ladies and gentlemen, the Boston-Bay State Banner makes you squint, but the Boston Globe doesn't even try. Each runs one of those barely meaningful set of questions of the at-large City Council candidates.
In a move Edgar Allen Poe would appreciate, the Banner hides its chart's link in black on blue at the top of its home page. The Globe has its only in the print edition.
I think the former's heart was right, but web camouflage isn't the way to do it. The broadsheet apparently thinks its convoluted article beside the chart is all you foolish online readers need. It too lacks web savvy in this case, in not understanding how most of us assimilate dense info in a combo visual/verbal way.
Considering these two together, you can learn some of the fine distinctions among the at-large candidates. It's certainly not enough to base your decision on this coming Tuesday, but it can augment what you already know (or will assiduously learn by November 6th).
The Banner forces binary yes/no answers to long questions about:
- More local affordable housing resources
- Tenant's right to collective bargaining ordinance
- Translated candidate names on bilingual ballots
- A new city planning department
- Municipal election vote for those seeking citizenship
- More city money for summer and year-round youth jobs
- Higher standards for mortgage companies
In its invisible chart, the Globe allowed free-form answers to only three questions, about:
- Biggest issue facing the city
- Areas of improvement for the Council
- Random drug tests in new firefighters' contract
- Incumbent Steve Murphy apparently blew off the Banner's request. Did he figure if he got the Irish-American vote he didn't need the Black vote?
- While known as a pretty liberal guy, contender John Connolly revealed some pretty conservative areas — pro drug tests, con expanding tenant protections, anti-votes for those seeking citizenship.
- Arroyo and Yoon were progressive across the board in both, such as fundamental expansions on programs to keep youth in school and reduce youth violence.
- Flaherty's only No to the Banner was significant. He still opposes giving tenants access to collective bargaining with big owners.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, Boston, City Council, Sam Yoon, Felix Arroyo, Stephen Murphy, John Connolly, Team Unity, Boston Globe, Bay-State Banner
The Daily Mensch: 2
Recently, the new neighbor across the street suffered a tragedy. I respect that word and its implication, and write that she did indeed. Two weeks after she and her youngest son moved in, the son died. He had come to stay with her after she lost her daughter in a car wreck three years ago. Her son and his brother were visiting their father on his birthday. On the way home on their motorcycles, the younger man ran off the road and into a phone pole. He died in his brother's arms.
There are so many levels of sadness in that, it remains overwhelming. As Priam pleaded with Achilles, it is not the natural order for parents to bury their children. Now she had buried two of hers.
A Jewish friend said that I was a mensch for making a series of meals for her and sitting with this woman I barely knew. My neighbor wept, showed me photographs, and spoke of her son's virtues and personality.
This is part two; part one is here.
Granddad, William Benjamin Michael, (right in a college photo just after he returned from WWI) sought neither praise nor thanks, but did the right things daily. By example he taught me. In retrospect, I marvel at the elegance of his deeds.
He was relentlessly industrious. He had a full-time job as a yard foreman on the B&O Railroad. He read, but did not waste time on TV. Among other avocations, he had a dry cleaning/tailor shop, and he grew vegetables. Therein lay the basis for good deeds.
Every summer, he grew one or two patches, as he called them. These were one-acre (a lot of veggies) little farms. He would sell enough to the local grocers to earn back his seed and fertilizer expenses. I weeded and harvested beside him all summer, and I got to sell whatever I could for spending money.
Much of the output though went to the other side of the tracks.
There were 14 Black families in this small town (about 2,000 in the area). The adults from there worked in service jobs, like housecleaning, or the few large corn or fruit storage and shipping facilities. There were no manufacturing jobs for anyone. While the few Blacks did not face overt racism, life wasn't easy.
At my Granddad's funeral, the unofficial Black mayor of the town in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia said to me, "Your grandfather was a great man."
That was my own Atticus Finch moment, á la To Kill a Mockingbird. The seed for this post came from Laurel reminding me of that in a recent BMG post about Nelle Harper Lee's latest award. I thought of the moment at the end of the trial when the elderly Black minister, Rev. Sykes, said to Scout, "Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passing."
I hadn't thought in those terms of Granddad's relationship with the small Black community there, but yes, he was very helpful. He provided money and clothing, but more important, from his gardens, he gave countless bushels of vegetables and fruits to the Black community every year I was there and apparently before.
Mr. Pankhurst and others would come to the gardens and I would pick what they wanted or we'd do it together. We'd fill up the backs of pickups. Apparently for low-wage families, that was a huge help. The canned foods continued to supplement their meals throughout the cold weather as well.
So, the rest of the town may have ignored the Black families, but we were always welcome in their homes. We were friendly on the street too. Funny stuff.
My mother said once in high school, she referred to him as Mr. Pankhurst when speaking with her mother. Mable scolded her saying, "Don't you ever call a coon Mister!"
That was quite a shock, my mother said. Her father did not use and did not allow racist terms around him. His wife was not so egalitarian. My mother responded — she said she surprised herself with her firmness to her stern mother — that she had always been taught to call adults Miss, Mrs. or Mr. There was no reason not to do this because Mr. Pankhurst was Black. He was still older and deserved common respect.
At his funeral, Mr. Pankhurst said he took pride in representing his community in signing the guest book. He and I laughed about the vegetables, particularly the huge zucchinis that Granddad let grow to monster size because he knew that some on that other side of the tracks liked to stuff the giant ones for baking.
He went on about how respected Mr. Michael was. Honestly until that conversation, I hadn't considered how unusual that was. The other white folk were not hostile to the Black residents. They just didn't think of them unless they needed a worker. Yet, what Granddad did for so long, he considered a small effort and the right thing to do. He both treated them with dignity and gave what he had. The Black folk didn't think it was so trivial.
Granddad was a better person than I'll ever be. Yet I know that if I act as a mensch, I do so by his example.
The lessons include not making any display of piety or virtue. Stepping up for others instead of stepping back can be a daily opportunity. Sometimes it is easy and other times it can take considerable effort, expense and risk.
I am regularly pleased to see the number of lefty activists that perform mitzvahs simply because it is the right thing to do. While some want praise, many must have had their own examples.
As the chances present themselves, be a mensch.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, Virginia, New Jersey, West Virginia, Judaism, Yiddish, Victor Carpenter, Righteous Among the Nations, mensch
There are so many levels of sadness in that, it remains overwhelming. As Priam pleaded with Achilles, it is not the natural order for parents to bury their children. Now she had buried two of hers.
A Jewish friend said that I was a mensch for making a series of meals for her and sitting with this woman I barely knew. My neighbor wept, showed me photographs, and spoke of her son's virtues and personality.
This is part two; part one is here.
Humble Social Action
My grandfather was a mensch. Compared to him, I'm a misanthrope.He was relentlessly industrious. He had a full-time job as a yard foreman on the B&O Railroad. He read, but did not waste time on TV. Among other avocations, he had a dry cleaning/tailor shop, and he grew vegetables. Therein lay the basis for good deeds.
Every summer, he grew one or two patches, as he called them. These were one-acre (a lot of veggies) little farms. He would sell enough to the local grocers to earn back his seed and fertilizer expenses. I weeded and harvested beside him all summer, and I got to sell whatever I could for spending money.
Much of the output though went to the other side of the tracks.
There were 14 Black families in this small town (about 2,000 in the area). The adults from there worked in service jobs, like housecleaning, or the few large corn or fruit storage and shipping facilities. There were no manufacturing jobs for anyone. While the few Blacks did not face overt racism, life wasn't easy.
At my Granddad's funeral, the unofficial Black mayor of the town in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia said to me, "Your grandfather was a great man."
That was my own Atticus Finch moment, á la To Kill a Mockingbird. The seed for this post came from Laurel reminding me of that in a recent BMG post about Nelle Harper Lee's latest award. I thought of the moment at the end of the trial when the elderly Black minister, Rev. Sykes, said to Scout, "Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passing."
I hadn't thought in those terms of Granddad's relationship with the small Black community there, but yes, he was very helpful. He provided money and clothing, but more important, from his gardens, he gave countless bushels of vegetables and fruits to the Black community every year I was there and apparently before.
Mr. Pankhurst and others would come to the gardens and I would pick what they wanted or we'd do it together. We'd fill up the backs of pickups. Apparently for low-wage families, that was a huge help. The canned foods continued to supplement their meals throughout the cold weather as well.
So, the rest of the town may have ignored the Black families, but we were always welcome in their homes. We were friendly on the street too. Funny stuff.
Contagious Respect
My mother later told me a tale about her own mother in regards to Mr. Pankhurst. To nearly everyone, he was the diminutive Panky. To my mother and to me, we followed her father's example and gave the same honorifics to Blacks as to whites.My mother said once in high school, she referred to him as Mr. Pankhurst when speaking with her mother. Mable scolded her saying, "Don't you ever call a coon Mister!"
That was quite a shock, my mother said. Her father did not use and did not allow racist terms around him. His wife was not so egalitarian. My mother responded — she said she surprised herself with her firmness to her stern mother — that she had always been taught to call adults Miss, Mrs. or Mr. There was no reason not to do this because Mr. Pankhurst was Black. He was still older and deserved common respect.
Living Your Thoughts
My grandfather was quiet and never self-satisfied or arrogant. I spent months of hours with him over the years (parse that!) and knew him as kind, wise and generous. Giving to others was just what he did and was. I didn't think that other people took a lot of notice, much less felt strongly.At his funeral, Mr. Pankhurst said he took pride in representing his community in signing the guest book. He and I laughed about the vegetables, particularly the huge zucchinis that Granddad let grow to monster size because he knew that some on that other side of the tracks liked to stuff the giant ones for baking.
He went on about how respected Mr. Michael was. Honestly until that conversation, I hadn't considered how unusual that was. The other white folk were not hostile to the Black residents. They just didn't think of them unless they needed a worker. Yet, what Granddad did for so long, he considered a small effort and the right thing to do. He both treated them with dignity and gave what he had. The Black folk didn't think it was so trivial.
Granddad was a better person than I'll ever be. Yet I know that if I act as a mensch, I do so by his example.
The lessons include not making any display of piety or virtue. Stepping up for others instead of stepping back can be a daily opportunity. Sometimes it is easy and other times it can take considerable effort, expense and risk.
I am regularly pleased to see the number of lefty activists that perform mitzvahs simply because it is the right thing to do. While some want praise, many must have had their own examples.
As the chances present themselves, be a mensch.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, Virginia, New Jersey, West Virginia, Judaism, Yiddish, Victor Carpenter, Righteous Among the Nations, mensch
Thursday, November 01, 2007
The Daily Mensch
Shortcut: For the impatient, the key message of this two parter is you don't have to offer up your life for another every day to be a good guy. You need merely do the right thing time and again, even when it is a bit of trouble.
My move to New Jersey at 14 ended up joyful and Jew-ful. The latter is noteworthy, as coming from Southern Virginia, I knew very few Jews. In Danville, we rented an apartment in a mansion (770 Main) from one of the few Jews there. He was also my pediatrician.
In the summers, I stayed with my grandparents in the Eastern panhandle of West Virginia, apple and peach country. The one Jewish family there, Dave Shear's, did not affect the culture of Romney. They went to temple 28 miles away in Cumberland, Maryland. Amusingly enough, Dave was the long-term mayor and ran the only menswear store in the county.
In Plainfield, New Jersey, however, my culture shock was much less adjusting to Yankees as to a very Jewish culture. Jewish foods, Yiddish phrases, intense girls, Talmudic arguments and learning how it felt to be the outsider were all parts.
That wasn't true for all goyim in my high-school class of over 600. I was on the swimming team and newspaper, both heavily Jewish. I was in advanced classes in those days of graded education and a high percentage of my classmates were Jewish.
In class, after school, on dates and with friends' parents, Yiddish and the related concepts of Jewish religion and culture were suddenly ubiquitous. One word I heard a lot was mensch — that ideal of the stalwart who lived integrity and honor, religious principles, and of course, respect for his mother.
I heard friends charged by mother or grandmother to be a mensch, and high praise came to those described lovingly in "He's such a mensch." That often followed a person performing a good deed, a mitzvah, particularly one that acted out a commandment of Jewish law.
We need look only to the nearly 22,000 honored as the Righteous Among the Nations. These are gentiles who risked their lives or at least all they and their family had, including their freedom, to protect Jews. Many of these were in Europe before and during WWII. A large number of these were in Poland, where it was a capital offense to hide or even help a Jew.
Moreover, the award goes to those, who Maimonides listed as, "Whoever among the Nations fulfills the Seven Commandments to serve God belongs to the Righteous among the Nations, and has his share in the World to Come." As an aside, those ancient commandments contain a couple of anachronisms, such as not eating live animals and being against homosexuality. The concepts of being moral and just to all remain. In fact, a prime continuing commandment is to maintain the legal system so that all may have justice.
Surely we should be happy that we do not face the situation where we have the dreadful choices that the Righteous Among the Nations faced. Yet, that does not give us license to ignore the condition of others. At our daily level, social awareness and action possibilities are common. You and I too can be a mensch...with a lot less effort and at a lot less peril.
Living Righteous
Somewhere between the extremes of righteous living is Rev. Victor Carpenter (to the right in a shot from the First Church in Belmont). He literally risked his life hundreds of times when he lived and worked in South Africa. He was among other things, a courier for Nelson Mandela and others in the anti-apartheid movement. Later back in the United States, he was extremely active in the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s and 1970s.
As an amusing sidelight, he had a little family inheritance and never cared much for money. He donated his salary to various charitable causes when he was minister at the Arlington Church. Our venal IRS officials could not believe this. They audited him — perennially. No matter how many times he proved that all of his income went out to good causes, they kept demanding proof.
He was the minister who drew my family to the ASC. His preaching was powerful and personal, and demanding. He loved his roving microphone, which had an absurdly long cord and which he used to bring even those who thought they were hiding in the back of the huge nave into the conversation.
He also personally involved me in church politics and liberal religion. For example, not long after we began attending, he dropped by our little apartment on the North slope of Beacon Hill. He had been at the denominational headquarters at 25 Beacon Street and stopped by, as I recall, on his way to visit patients at Mass General. He directly asked me to reconstitute the moribund personnel committee and work on the dysfunctional staff.
Here was Victor's great gift. Not only did he recognize what needed doing and do what he could himself, he enlisted and delegated, charged and inspired others to do the rest.
In 2003, he received the UUA's Adin Ballou Peace Award. Many of us from his various congregations came to the ceremony to see him honored. As befitting his style, we ended up on the roving mic praising him ourselves. My primary message was that he went beyond what other socially active preachers did. We never left one of his sermons without homework. Every week, he gave us specific tasks to do, social, political or both, to make the world better.
Victor is no airy-fairy liberal. He is happy and driven to tell us what a mensch would do.
Part two returns to Romney to cite an ordinary man doing relentless good deeds. It looks like this one needs to end up at Harrumph! as well.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, Virginia, New Jersey, West Virginia, Judaism, Yiddish, Victor Carpenter, Righteous Among the Nations, mensch
My move to New Jersey at 14 ended up joyful and Jew-ful. The latter is noteworthy, as coming from Southern Virginia, I knew very few Jews. In Danville, we rented an apartment in a mansion (770 Main) from one of the few Jews there. He was also my pediatrician.
In the summers, I stayed with my grandparents in the Eastern panhandle of West Virginia, apple and peach country. The one Jewish family there, Dave Shear's, did not affect the culture of Romney. They went to temple 28 miles away in Cumberland, Maryland. Amusingly enough, Dave was the long-term mayor and ran the only menswear store in the county.
In Plainfield, New Jersey, however, my culture shock was much less adjusting to Yankees as to a very Jewish culture. Jewish foods, Yiddish phrases, intense girls, Talmudic arguments and learning how it felt to be the outsider were all parts.
That wasn't true for all goyim in my high-school class of over 600. I was on the swimming team and newspaper, both heavily Jewish. I was in advanced classes in those days of graded education and a high percentage of my classmates were Jewish.
In class, after school, on dates and with friends' parents, Yiddish and the related concepts of Jewish religion and culture were suddenly ubiquitous. One word I heard a lot was mensch — that ideal of the stalwart who lived integrity and honor, religious principles, and of course, respect for his mother.
I heard friends charged by mother or grandmother to be a mensch, and high praise came to those described lovingly in "He's such a mensch." That often followed a person performing a good deed, a mitzvah, particularly one that acted out a commandment of Jewish law.
The Epitome
Place and times can test us to the edge of heroism. Few of us can know whether we would risk all for others. Certainly, we are fortunate that life does not present such choices to each of us, rather only to a few and only occasionally.We need look only to the nearly 22,000 honored as the Righteous Among the Nations. These are gentiles who risked their lives or at least all they and their family had, including their freedom, to protect Jews. Many of these were in Europe before and during WWII. A large number of these were in Poland, where it was a capital offense to hide or even help a Jew.
Moreover, the award goes to those, who Maimonides listed as, "Whoever among the Nations fulfills the Seven Commandments to serve God belongs to the Righteous among the Nations, and has his share in the World to Come." As an aside, those ancient commandments contain a couple of anachronisms, such as not eating live animals and being against homosexuality. The concepts of being moral and just to all remain. In fact, a prime continuing commandment is to maintain the legal system so that all may have justice.
Surely we should be happy that we do not face the situation where we have the dreadful choices that the Righteous Among the Nations faced. Yet, that does not give us license to ignore the condition of others. At our daily level, social awareness and action possibilities are common. You and I too can be a mensch...with a lot less effort and at a lot less peril.
Living Righteous
Somewhere between the extremes of righteous living is Rev. Victor Carpenter (to the right in a shot from the First Church in Belmont). He literally risked his life hundreds of times when he lived and worked in South Africa. He was among other things, a courier for Nelson Mandela and others in the anti-apartheid movement. Later back in the United States, he was extremely active in the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s and 1970s.As an amusing sidelight, he had a little family inheritance and never cared much for money. He donated his salary to various charitable causes when he was minister at the Arlington Church. Our venal IRS officials could not believe this. They audited him — perennially. No matter how many times he proved that all of his income went out to good causes, they kept demanding proof.
He was the minister who drew my family to the ASC. His preaching was powerful and personal, and demanding. He loved his roving microphone, which had an absurdly long cord and which he used to bring even those who thought they were hiding in the back of the huge nave into the conversation.
He also personally involved me in church politics and liberal religion. For example, not long after we began attending, he dropped by our little apartment on the North slope of Beacon Hill. He had been at the denominational headquarters at 25 Beacon Street and stopped by, as I recall, on his way to visit patients at Mass General. He directly asked me to reconstitute the moribund personnel committee and work on the dysfunctional staff.
Here was Victor's great gift. Not only did he recognize what needed doing and do what he could himself, he enlisted and delegated, charged and inspired others to do the rest.
In 2003, he received the UUA's Adin Ballou Peace Award. Many of us from his various congregations came to the ceremony to see him honored. As befitting his style, we ended up on the roving mic praising him ourselves. My primary message was that he went beyond what other socially active preachers did. We never left one of his sermons without homework. Every week, he gave us specific tasks to do, social, political or both, to make the world better.
Victor is no airy-fairy liberal. He is happy and driven to tell us what a mensch would do.
Part two returns to Romney to cite an ordinary man doing relentless good deeds. It looks like this one needs to end up at Harrumph! as well.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, Virginia, New Jersey, West Virginia, Judaism, Yiddish, Victor Carpenter, Righteous Among the Nations, mensch
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Acton Youth on The Laramie Project
The MetroWestDaily/Acton/Wicked Local online thingummy has a nice set of comments on The Laramie Project play in their feature on it. The actors are much cooler than some of the parents.
By the bye, they did not interview the student who has been getting blog coverage. The actors they did quote seem to have a similar sangfroid though.
The student at the top, Meghan Veno, describes herself as a conservative Christian and not a liberal sort. She and her parents read the play and decided that she should audition. She got parts and concludes, "I don’t agree with everything in the play, but at the core it has a good message."
There are a few crackpot comments at the bottom of the article. One goes so far as to suggest that the school admins and the drama coach seem to want the kids to risk getting AIDS. Another says the director is simply publicity and money hungry. The other comments are rational.
The article also has a link to the local view of the protest forum by a couple of anti-gay groups who came to "educate" the parents on the evils of the play. Yada yada.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, GBLT, Acton-Boxborough, Laramie Project, Queer Today
By the bye, they did not interview the student who has been getting blog coverage. The actors they did quote seem to have a similar sangfroid though.
The student at the top, Meghan Veno, describes herself as a conservative Christian and not a liberal sort. She and her parents read the play and decided that she should audition. She got parts and concludes, "I don’t agree with everything in the play, but at the core it has a good message."
There are a few crackpot comments at the bottom of the article. One goes so far as to suggest that the school admins and the drama coach seem to want the kids to risk getting AIDS. Another says the director is simply publicity and money hungry. The other comments are rational.
The article also has a link to the local view of the protest forum by a couple of anti-gay groups who came to "educate" the parents on the evils of the play. Yada yada.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, GBLT, Acton-Boxborough, Laramie Project, Queer Today
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Ms. MassResistance Says Lesbian Daughter "Confused"
In a bloggy coup, Mark Snyder runs his interview with Claudia, the daughter of MassResistance blogger in chief, Amy Contrada. Among her comments is, "I am a lesbian, which my mom still does not get. She just says that I am confused."
Check QueerToday here for the whole thing. It's worth reading. She looks like a very together person, particularly for a teen.
Sounds like a job for the Irony Squad.
Also, praise Mark for getting through his post without throwing News you won't hear anywhere else back at them.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, GBLT, MassResistance, Mark Snyder, Queer Today
Check QueerToday here for the whole thing. It's worth reading. She looks like a very together person, particularly for a teen.
Sounds like a job for the Irony Squad.
Also, praise Mark for getting through his post without throwing News you won't hear anywhere else back at them.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, GBLT, MassResistance, Mark Snyder, Queer Today
No Kicking Sarah Loy
I don't know how I missed it (yes, I do, and I blame it on PodcampBoston), but the frivolous charge against Sarah Loy for walking into a VoteOnMarriage rally in Worcester went bye-bye Friday.
In her nah-nah-nah-nah moment, Worcester winger Shari Worthington did not follow through on her complaint scheduled for a judge magistrate hearing yesterday. She had waited until shortly before the Larry Cirignano trial opened to try to intimidate Loy into not testifying. Apparently Worthington thought Larry walking on assault and battery was enough damage.
Also, in a slick move, Cirignano notified KnowThyNeighbor's Tom Lang of the easing of vindictiveness. So, while I was off geeking out, I missed the post over there. I like being somewhere with enough happening that if you snooze you lose. Ban boredom!
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, same-sex marriage, Worcester, Cirignano, KnowThyNeighbor, Sarah_Loy, Worthington
In her nah-nah-nah-nah moment, Worcester winger Shari Worthington did not follow through on her complaint scheduled for a judge magistrate hearing yesterday. She had waited until shortly before the Larry Cirignano trial opened to try to intimidate Loy into not testifying. Apparently Worthington thought Larry walking on assault and battery was enough damage.
Also, in a slick move, Cirignano notified KnowThyNeighbor's Tom Lang of the easing of vindictiveness. So, while I was off geeking out, I missed the post over there. I like being somewhere with enough happening that if you snooze you lose. Ban boredom!
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, same-sex marriage, Worcester, Cirignano, KnowThyNeighbor, Sarah_Loy, Worthington
Press Pumps Irish Pols
It can't be more than timely coincidence, but the local rags held forth today on next week's Boston City Council. Globe and Herald editorials and the Phoenix' sag wagon comments followed my comments yesterday.
Note: We'd do our rambling rants on the issue at Left Ahead! today at 2:30 p.m. on our weekly podcast. Catch it then or download it later.
Sue-Prize, Sue-Prize. The two dailies like the Irish-American guys in the at-large race and steer clear of the Team Unity members. The Globe endorses only John Connolly. The Herald goes for Michael Flaherty and most conservative councilor, Stephen Murphy, plus almost-made-it-last-time Connolly. At Talking Politics, the Phoenix' David Bernstein quickly and pretty gently takes them to task for their pasty-faced endorsements. He does note that the elision of incumbents Sam Yoon and Felix Arroyo is a real slight.
The Herald one is a hoot too from my view. It calls Flaherty the loyal opposition, not afraid to speak up. That title equally or more reasonably belongs to Arroyo. Moreover, I have to wonder whether their editorial scrawlers have read Connolly's platform. He is as liberal and equality minded as Murphy is old school. Maybe this is their version of having one lover for good looks and another for good cooking.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, Boston, City Council, Sam Yoon, Felix Arroyo, Stephen Murphy, John Connolly, Team Unity
Note: We'd do our rambling rants on the issue at Left Ahead! today at 2:30 p.m. on our weekly podcast. Catch it then or download it later.
Sue-Prize, Sue-Prize. The two dailies like the Irish-American guys in the at-large race and steer clear of the Team Unity members. The Globe endorses only John Connolly. The Herald goes for Michael Flaherty and most conservative councilor, Stephen Murphy, plus almost-made-it-last-time Connolly. At Talking Politics, the Phoenix' David Bernstein quickly and pretty gently takes them to task for their pasty-faced endorsements. He does note that the elision of incumbents Sam Yoon and Felix Arroyo is a real slight.
The Herald one is a hoot too from my view. It calls Flaherty the loyal opposition, not afraid to speak up. That title equally or more reasonably belongs to Arroyo. Moreover, I have to wonder whether their editorial scrawlers have read Connolly's platform. He is as liberal and equality minded as Murphy is old school. Maybe this is their version of having one lover for good looks and another for good cooking.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, Boston, City Council, Sam Yoon, Felix Arroyo, Stephen Murphy, John Connolly, Team Unity
Monday, October 29, 2007
City Council Claw Contest
I've never seen stolid Tom Menino literally running and he certainly isn't figuratively in a mayor's race this year. Yet the whole City Council is up for grabs, without the powerful draw of a big election.
Question number one, will Team Unity survive a low-interest contest?
Two of the four Councilors of color, as they describe themselves, look to be at risk. They have done a fine job, in city business, constituent services and proposing laws. More risk comes from having nine candidates for eight fields, one who just missed two years ago.
You can check links to websites and emails for candidates who have them at this Boston Online post. You can see nearly everyone's responses to a specific GLBT position poll two years ago at this In Newsweekly one.
Rucker is an old hand, having lost six times to Yancey. He seems to like the Sisyphus thing. He doesn't have an organization, doesn't respond to position requests, and doesn't even have a website. Meanwhile, Yancey says he will take any challenge seriously and is out campaigning. For him at least, this is another chance to renew contacts or make new ones with his voters. That can't do anything but make him better at what he does.
Henriquez is an aide to Michael Flaherty, and is decidedly not Chuck Turner or anything like him. You can get a hint of that from his website, which is the only Council contender's on MySpace. He is a 30-year-old ward heeler, but his profile and campaign pitches make him seem much younger. For example, his general interest are:
The present at-large Councilors are:
The field also includes:
Murphy has been elected four times, but at least one blogger at Municipally Wasted figures Connolly has his best shot at Murphy and that the other four newbies are also-rans-to-be. Murphy is a good buddy of Albert (Dapper) O'Neil, the long-term, retired, ill, and socially reactionary Councilor. His hard-line politics are at odds with Team Unity members, and Connolly as well.
There's no race for President, Governor or Mayor. There are no huge ballot questions. I'm betting both Yoon and Arroyo are working hard and are nervous. Both are wildly popular with their voters, although Arroyo is infamous for missing Council sessions. They deliver for their folk and are top-notch committee chairs (Yoon chairs Housing and Arroyo Economic Development and Planning).
Can they get people out?
Well, they'll get me out. and I'll either bullet vote Yoon and Arroyo, or depending on how it goes when I spend a little time with Connolly down the block on Sunday, add him.
Meanwhile, Sam and Felix are likely visiting every public gathering they can and ringing those doorbells. That's the final risk, their other challenge — they have the whole damned city to cover.
Add-on Note: The Boston (né Bay State) Banner has a good analysis of the risks.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, Boston, City Council, Sam Yoon, Felix Arroyo, Stephen Murphy, John Connolly, Team Unity
Question number one, will Team Unity survive a low-interest contest?
Two of the four Councilors of color, as they describe themselves, look to be at risk. They have done a fine job, in city business, constituent services and proposing laws. More risk comes from having nine candidates for eight fields, one who just missed two years ago.
You can check links to websites and emails for candidates who have them at this Boston Online post. You can see nearly everyone's responses to a specific GLBT position poll two years ago at this In Newsweekly one.
Sitting Pretty
The two district councilors are opposed, but in great shape. In District Four, Charles Yancey is up against chronic candidate for the spot, Joseph (J.R.) Rucker. Over in District Seven, Chuck Turner's opponent is Carlos Henriquez.Rucker is an old hand, having lost six times to Yancey. He seems to like the Sisyphus thing. He doesn't have an organization, doesn't respond to position requests, and doesn't even have a website. Meanwhile, Yancey says he will take any challenge seriously and is out campaigning. For him at least, this is another chance to renew contacts or make new ones with his voters. That can't do anything but make him better at what he does.
Henriquez is an aide to Michael Flaherty, and is decidedly not Chuck Turner or anything like him. You can get a hint of that from his website, which is the only Council contender's on MySpace. He is a 30-year-old ward heeler, but his profile and campaign pitches make him seem much younger. For example, his general interest are:
Politics, Money Investment, Writing, Music, Internet, Poetry, Love, Family, Dancing, Education, Real Estate, Social Justice, Sustainable Economic Development, Youth Development, Basketball, Xbox 360, Football, Dancing.About the race, he concludes:
What this means to me is that we all have something in common. We’ve all politicked with one another. We have all connected. We have done it socially, to find out where the party is, maybe get on a guest list or even for marketing and promotion. That’s all good. But now, I want to take those politics to the next level. Politics is simply about people connecting to do business. Many of us younger people have left this to our parents and grandparents, thinking that it is something complex that comes with age. It’s not. We are the best at it. We have the vision, the knowledge and the spirit to continue on the work our parents and grandparents have done before us. It’s time we work together to change Boston.It's not his year.
Nine for Four
Two Team Unity members, Sam Yoon and Felix Arroyo, are at risk though. As at-large candidates they face a crowded field. Again, turnout should be light and interest has been low, with scant attendance at and coverage of fora.The present at-large Councilors are:
- Stephen J. Murphy
- Sam Yoon
- Felix Arroyo
- Michael F. Flaherty
The field also includes:
- John R. Connolly
- David James Wyatt
- Martin J. Hogan
- Matthew Geary
- William P. Estrada
Murphy has been elected four times, but at least one blogger at Municipally Wasted figures Connolly has his best shot at Murphy and that the other four newbies are also-rans-to-be. Murphy is a good buddy of Albert (Dapper) O'Neil, the long-term, retired, ill, and socially reactionary Councilor. His hard-line politics are at odds with Team Unity members, and Connolly as well.
There's no race for President, Governor or Mayor. There are no huge ballot questions. I'm betting both Yoon and Arroyo are working hard and are nervous. Both are wildly popular with their voters, although Arroyo is infamous for missing Council sessions. They deliver for their folk and are top-notch committee chairs (Yoon chairs Housing and Arroyo Economic Development and Planning).
Can they get people out?
Well, they'll get me out. and I'll either bullet vote Yoon and Arroyo, or depending on how it goes when I spend a little time with Connolly down the block on Sunday, add him.
Meanwhile, Sam and Felix are likely visiting every public gathering they can and ringing those doorbells. That's the final risk, their other challenge — they have the whole damned city to cover.
Add-on Note: The Boston (né Bay State) Banner has a good analysis of the risks.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, Boston, City Council, Sam Yoon, Felix Arroyo, Stephen Murphy, John Connolly, Team Unity
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Podcamp Boston Snippets
My Sunday was jammed, but I did get do the whole Saturday Podcamp Boston 2 at the Boston Convention Center. It was about as non-political as you can get. Lots of fellow geeks (about 1,300) spoke of vlogs and such, two kilt wearers acted out, and virtually no one was talking Iraq, Bush, or Presidential candidates.
So, I learned quite a bit over there and shall post some. Those rightfully belong over at Harrumph! There's a short with links to recommended Web 2.0 freebie tools here. There's also a personal tech-related one here. I'll likely do a few other short write-ups for more technical sessions.
So, I learned quite a bit over there and shall post some. Those rightfully belong over at Harrumph! There's a short with links to recommended Web 2.0 freebie tools here. There's also a personal tech-related one here. I'll likely do a few other short write-ups for more technical sessions.
Tags: massmarrier, Harrump!, Podcamp Boston, podcasting, Podcamp, pcb2
Friday, October 26, 2007
More Playing Jimmy Olsen
That Nieman Foundation seminar on reporting with a local slant was full of how-to as well as philosophy, and nearly as useful for bloggers as for its target audience of weekly newspaper reporters.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, newspapers, citizen journalism, blogs, Nieman Foundation
- The basic information is here at this blog.
- Constructing a narrative tale is here.
- Coverage of finding the time to do the meaningful stories is here.
- More general talk about bloggers as reporters is here.
- A personal tale of white folk at Black papers is here.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, newspapers, citizen journalism, blogs, Nieman Foundation
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Free Speech, Ours...Not Yours
Still gulping their political pain pills, The Mass Family Institute (MFI) keeps its focus on afflicting others. Since June when they lost their two-plus year crusade to stop same-sex marriage here, they have been relentless in reframing themselves.
Along the way to their goals of promoting sexual abstinence, keeping kids safe on the internet, and pushing for enforcement of statutory rape laws, MFI is perfectly happy to jettison such inconveniences as free speech — for progressives and liberal sorts. For their own demonstrations, rallies, and sidewalk protests, however, they claim absolute rights to declaim, fulminate and verbally accost others.
They are, if you pardon the expression, snugly in bed with anti-women's rights organizations and protesters. Aborting inviable fetuses is murder in their loaded lingo.
In the trial, the defense position asserted an absolute right of free speech to MFI for its anti-SSM rally. That is, their permits (assembly and sound) to the city hall plaza gave them total control to that area. This meant that anyone with an opposing view had to stay out of the designated rally area. The defense further held that this included the right "to use reasonable force" to remove anyone speaking or carrying a sign with a different viewpoint...even if they did not ask nearby police to help.
Moreover, in heavy-handed efforts to intimidate the woman whom Cirignano pushed across the plaza and who ended up injured, the permit holder for MFI, Shari Worthington, filed a complaint against her for disrupting the rally. Even though she had known since April that the trial was coming up, Worthington waited until just over two weeks before the trial to file. In her blog, she openly bragged that "But this causes a big problem for Loy. If she testifies against Larry on Oct. 16, she risks incriminating herself in a trial against her!"
Free speech...not yours.
That complaint comes before a judge magistrate next Monday. It seems without merit and is unlikely to lead to any charges.
For example, on her closeness to Cirignano, she couldn't say they were buddies. Rather "I worked with him through Catholic Citizenship, but we do not socialize." Likewise, when the prosecutor asked whether she "kept on top of the case," rather than answer, she dissembled with, "I'm not sure what you mean." When pressed about whether she had blogged about it and kept up it, she said, "Roughly, yes."
Moreover, her husband provided police with a video almost entirely of the protesters' separate area. As a result of apparently trying to get the pro-equality folks doing something they could point to later, they missed the incident where Cirignano pushed Loy. As a result, conflicting witnesses had various accounts of how hard he pushed her. When the prosecutor asked her how she could deliver the video to police and never mention that she was a witness or offer her account, she was at her most disingenuous. She said as justification that the investigating officer "didn't ask me for any (details)."
I found it fascinating to hear someone supporting the anti-SSM side admit that. Everyone related to MFI's campaign carefully avoided that before and during the drive because that aim would specifically violate our commonwealth's constitution. Even our then Attorney General Tom Reilly ruled that the obvious was not the real by declaring that the amendment would only stop SSM going forward, so it wasn't really, not really, overturning the court decision.
You may insert your own sound of derision here. If you have been around the screaming, threatening gangs of them near a reproductive clinic, you know what they are about and how they abuse the concept of free speech. Whether a woman arrives for a birth-control checkup, an abortion, or even to discuss keeping a surprise baby in the works, the wails and accusations of "Murder!" are not civilized or humane.
Analogy alert: Over at BMG, Bob promoted a post by ShillelaghLaw that notes the Mass Citizens for Life and MFI decry Senate Bill 1353, which passed yesterday. If a similar bill passes the House, it would define and expand the buffer zone around Planned Parenthood and similar reproductive clinics from 18 feet to 35 feet. It also provides for the first time specificity by including "a radius of thirty-five feet of any portion of an entrance to, exit from, or driveway". There have been no successful prosecutions of threatening screechers and rosary rattlers in large part because of the vagueness of the existing Chapter 266, Section 120E.
Left, right or just special interest, no one should be able to stifle others. Nearly all of us grew up with a strong belief in our First Amendment rights to whisper or rant publicly about matters important to us. In this era of a sharp right turn in the U.S. Supreme Court, we have to watch MFI and their ilk.
Hurley was only to let a parade permit holder limit who could march in a private parade on public streets. Nothing gives protection to act as police officers and decide whom to roust and eject.
Senate Bill 1353 was not a reaction to Hurley, but it might have that effect. When extreme ideologues show that they are willing to abuse free speech to attain their political goals, they need legal limits. The specificity in this bill that MFI so bemoans is necessary in that case and likely in many related ones.
To expand to a larger, differing analogy, this effect has ripples like the 1982 Tylenol poisoning. Some murderous type put cyanide in pain pills and now we have sealed everything. Previously, we opened tablet bottles or jars of mayonnaise without the protective layers and seals. We may have to revisit many state laws to keep free speech for all.
Now I expect that we'll see more groups citing or trying to stretch case law and statutes to get around our Bill of Rights. That will require state and federal tweaks or new laws to restore our understanding of free speech and other previously commonly understood principles.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, same-sex marriage, Worcester, Cirignano, MFI, First Amendment, Planned Parenthood, buffer zone
Along the way to their goals of promoting sexual abstinence, keeping kids safe on the internet, and pushing for enforcement of statutory rape laws, MFI is perfectly happy to jettison such inconveniences as free speech — for progressives and liberal sorts. For their own demonstrations, rallies, and sidewalk protests, however, they claim absolute rights to declaim, fulminate and verbally accost others.
They are, if you pardon the expression, snugly in bed with anti-women's rights organizations and protesters. Aborting inviable fetuses is murder in their loaded lingo.
Pushing All Limits
Consider two recent matters — related claims in the Cirignano trial in Worcester last week and a call to action on a Massachusetts Senate bill that would keep protesters from getting too close to women entering Planned Parenthood clinics. Free speech was the pivot for both.In the trial, the defense position asserted an absolute right of free speech to MFI for its anti-SSM rally. That is, their permits (assembly and sound) to the city hall plaza gave them total control to that area. This meant that anyone with an opposing view had to stay out of the designated rally area. The defense further held that this included the right "to use reasonable force" to remove anyone speaking or carrying a sign with a different viewpoint...even if they did not ask nearby police to help.
Moreover, in heavy-handed efforts to intimidate the woman whom Cirignano pushed across the plaza and who ended up injured, the permit holder for MFI, Shari Worthington, filed a complaint against her for disrupting the rally. Even though she had known since April that the trial was coming up, Worthington waited until just over two weeks before the trial to file. In her blog, she openly bragged that "But this causes a big problem for Loy. If she testifies against Larry on Oct. 16, she risks incriminating herself in a trial against her!"
Free speech...not yours.
That complaint comes before a judge magistrate next Monday. It seems without merit and is unlikely to lead to any charges.
Too Clever by Half
Worthington, who refers to herself on her blog in the third person, was more involved in this than just being the front woman for MFI at the rally. She and Cirignano worked together for two years and she was a sort of witness at his trial. Not only did she not see the incident, but she was so wrapped up in her attempts at cleverness, that she came off as duplicitous. She seemed to have missed the part of her oath about "whole truth and nothing but the truth."For example, on her closeness to Cirignano, she couldn't say they were buddies. Rather "I worked with him through Catholic Citizenship, but we do not socialize." Likewise, when the prosecutor asked whether she "kept on top of the case," rather than answer, she dissembled with, "I'm not sure what you mean." When pressed about whether she had blogged about it and kept up it, she said, "Roughly, yes."
Moreover, her husband provided police with a video almost entirely of the protesters' separate area. As a result of apparently trying to get the pro-equality folks doing something they could point to later, they missed the incident where Cirignano pushed Loy. As a result, conflicting witnesses had various accounts of how hard he pushed her. When the prosecutor asked her how she could deliver the video to police and never mention that she was a witness or offer her account, she was at her most disingenuous. She said as justification that the investigating officer "didn't ask me for any (details)."
The Lord's Business
No MFI tale can avoid irony. One passing twinge of it came at the Cirignano trial. The defense attorney, Michael Gilleran, first repeatedly conflated that political action of the campaign with "doing the work of the Catholic Church." Neither the prosecutor nor the judge called him on that. Then during the motions portion before jury selection, Gilleran capsulized the amendment drive as trying to "overturn Goodridge."I found it fascinating to hear someone supporting the anti-SSM side admit that. Everyone related to MFI's campaign carefully avoided that before and during the drive because that aim would specifically violate our commonwealth's constitution. Even our then Attorney General Tom Reilly ruled that the obvious was not the real by declaring that the amendment would only stop SSM going forward, so it wasn't really, not really, overturning the court decision.
35 Feet
Yesterday was another trumpet call to action by MFI on a different matter. Yet this too was about free speech, theirs, not everyone's. In an email alert, MFI asked for folk to flood the House calling for no support of Senate 1353, which it called "a violation of the First Amendment rights of these sidewalk counselors who calmly attempt to give women considering abortion information to help them choose life...'This infringes on the prolifers' ability to reach out to women in crisis who need vital information,' said Marie Sturgis, executive director of Massachusetts Citizens for Life. 'These are prayerful people who want to help in some way.'"You may insert your own sound of derision here. If you have been around the screaming, threatening gangs of them near a reproductive clinic, you know what they are about and how they abuse the concept of free speech. Whether a woman arrives for a birth-control checkup, an abortion, or even to discuss keeping a surprise baby in the works, the wails and accusations of "Murder!" are not civilized or humane.
Analogy alert: Over at BMG, Bob promoted a post by ShillelaghLaw that notes the Mass Citizens for Life and MFI decry Senate Bill 1353, which passed yesterday. If a similar bill passes the House, it would define and expand the buffer zone around Planned Parenthood and similar reproductive clinics from 18 feet to 35 feet. It also provides for the first time specificity by including "a radius of thirty-five feet of any portion of an entrance to, exit from, or driveway". There have been no successful prosecutions of threatening screechers and rosary rattlers in large part because of the vagueness of the existing Chapter 266, Section 120E.
Safeguarding Rights
What we end up with is surely a portent of MFI and related groups' attacks on your free speech and mine. They shameless use the Hurley decision and extreme interpretations of laws two ways. They claim absolute free speech, including those rights to "reasonable force" to physically move protesters. At the same time, they are looking for reinforced limits on the rights of others to protest or even to display a sign with a differing viewpoint.Left, right or just special interest, no one should be able to stifle others. Nearly all of us grew up with a strong belief in our First Amendment rights to whisper or rant publicly about matters important to us. In this era of a sharp right turn in the U.S. Supreme Court, we have to watch MFI and their ilk.
Hurley was only to let a parade permit holder limit who could march in a private parade on public streets. Nothing gives protection to act as police officers and decide whom to roust and eject.
Senate Bill 1353 was not a reaction to Hurley, but it might have that effect. When extreme ideologues show that they are willing to abuse free speech to attain their political goals, they need legal limits. The specificity in this bill that MFI so bemoans is necessary in that case and likely in many related ones.
To expand to a larger, differing analogy, this effect has ripples like the 1982 Tylenol poisoning. Some murderous type put cyanide in pain pills and now we have sealed everything. Previously, we opened tablet bottles or jars of mayonnaise without the protective layers and seals. We may have to revisit many state laws to keep free speech for all.
Now I expect that we'll see more groups citing or trying to stretch case law and statutes to get around our Bill of Rights. That will require state and federal tweaks or new laws to restore our understanding of free speech and other previously commonly understood principles.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, same-sex marriage, Worcester, Cirignano, MFI, First Amendment, Planned Parenthood, buffer zone
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
On Playing Jimmy Olsen
How amusing it remains that some TV talking heads, as well as newspaper reporters and even columnists, continue to denigrate bloggers. They often phrase that disingenuously as a blanket assertion that bloggers are not reporters.To those of us who came out of journalism schools and newspapers, that is to laugh a bloggy laugh. They might ask more reasonable and more easily answered questions, such as:
- Do some bloggers do reporting?
- Are bloggers' analyses and comments any less worthwhile or insightful than a paper's columnists'?
- Do blogs fill in the ever widening news and reporting gaps that ever penurious newspapers leave?
Dummy Down
Let's get real, boys and girls. Consider the TV news anchors. We pretend that the teleprompter blurbs they read are real reporting. Yet, the last major TV anchor who reported was Roger Mudd, over 20 years ago. While he later ran Meet the Press and did essays on PBS, his ouster tells us too much about mainstream media. He was the rational replacement for Walter Cronkite, but one of his networks chose the much inferior Dan Rather and another the very LITE Tom Brokaw.I occasionally wonder if Mudd didn't have such a long, horse face and had been more of a pretty boy, if he would have gotten his deserved spots. MSM news coverage would be much better off if he had.
When I interviewed Mudd while he was still on CBS, he stood out from his TV peers. He said that he would never report a story on the air that he had not done the original work on or vetted personally. He was a reporter and from doing that had the insight the rest of TV news lacked then and lacks even more so now.
NIH MSM
Blog bashing is an amusing sport played by MSM. Yet, some bloggers are ignoring that and doing their business. As a result, you likely get coverage of events and ideas from blogs that either never appear in MSM or received the lowest-common-denominator treatment days, weeks or months later.One of the most encouraging trends in the future of news and analysis is the increasing number and quality of how-to sessions for bloggers.
You don't have to think too deeply to notice that the criticisms of blogs has a very defensive tone in general. Considering how newspapers and broadcast have decreasing staff and thus fewer and fewer meaningful stories, it's not surprising that they knock the much more numerous bloggers who do report and do analyze. Increasingly, some bloggers have the interest and focus that strapped MSM lack to notice and cover local events and trends.
Die Hyperlocal!
That written, I confess that hyperlocal gives me the willies. I suspect this trend will play itself out badly and quickly, even though its intentions are good enough. The concept is that the bloggers go down to the neighborhood, block or house level with coverage.The effect too often is to present trivia as substance. It resembles a facebook page or the far too common ain't-my-kitten-or-boyfriend-cute blog. That kind of self-indulgence gets real stale real fast, and consequently drives most viewers away quickly. The Internet makes hyperlocal coverage possible, but that doesn't mean it's worthwhile.
Doing It Right
In contrast, consider community journalism. If you don't know what that is, click over to H2Otown and see it done right. There, dedicated and savvy bloggers and other volunteers do play Jimmy Olsen. Some want to grow into paid reporters elsewhere. Others have a passion for reporting the unreported news, what they want to see in MSM and local weeklies but don't.You don't have to go that far or treat blogging as a separate career that burns all your spare cycles. Yet, for those who didn't come out of a reporting background, some smart groups have recognized that:
- Community journalism and reportage on blogs can only help us news-hungry sorts.
- Knowing how to go about it makes it much easier and more effective.
- You can teach the little that folks need to know.
In particular, I cite the Media Giraffe/New England News Forum conferences in Amherst and Lowell, and last weekend's Nieman Foundation seminar in Cambridge. The former blended MSM and new media sorts such as bloggers. The latter was mostly weekly newspaper reporters and editors. (I may have been the only blogger there.)
There's a far amount of coverage of the NENF conferences in this blog, including this. I posted one personal view of the Nieman one here, and shall do one or two more on the sessions last weekend.
Meanwhile, the key concepts for those new to news is that you can do this. You don't have to quit your day job or even stop your regular blog posting. You can pick a topic, do a little research and interviewing, and voila! you can be Jimmy.
Cross-posting: This also appears on Harrumph! Plus, there's finally more.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, conference, Lowell, newspapers, citizen journalism, NENF, blogs, Nieman Foundation, Roger Mudd
Monday, October 22, 2007
How About That Trial, on Left Ahead!
Over at Left Ahead!, we're looking beyond, "Just the facts, Ma'am," on the Cirignano trial. You know the ending, but do you know what's next for all of us what grew up thinking we had a right to free speech.
The guest will be Mike Benedetti, of Pie and Coffee and WCAA-TV. He was at the whole trial. He's a lot more pleasant about it all than I am. Together, we have opinions of what it may mean the next time we want to pick up a placard or march in a protest.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, same-sex marriage, Worcester, Cirignano, free speech, Left Ahead!, podcast
The guest will be Mike Benedetti, of Pie and Coffee and WCAA-TV. He was at the whole trial. He's a lot more pleasant about it all than I am. Together, we have opinions of what it may mean the next time we want to pick up a placard or march in a protest.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, same-sex marriage, Worcester, Cirignano, free speech, Left Ahead!, podcast
Courting Equality Flick Ready
Keen. The promised Courting Equality movie is ready for screening in a week. From the website:
The guys whose marriage I solemnized were over again last weekend for dinner. This is nothing but good.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, amendment, same sex marriage, movie, Courting Equality
October 29, 7:30 pm Concord Festival of Authors. Trinitarian Congregational Church, 54 Walden St, Concord, MA 01742. Join the authors for a screening of an iMovie of photos from Courting Equality and a reading illustrated with photos. The authors will update the marriage equality movement in MA and sign copies of Courting Equality. Special Guests Rep. Cory Atkins, a marriage equality supporter, and Bonnie Winokar, a local marriage equality activist and leader.That's next Monday. I must add that from the Courting Equality functions I've attended, it would be worth the trip. It's politically and emotionally satisfying. It may be more so after the defeat of the amendment to halt same-sex marriage.
The guys whose marriage I solemnized were over again last weekend for dinner. This is nothing but good.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, amendment, same sex marriage, movie, Courting Equality
Pale Men in at Black Papers
I hadn't thought about it a long, long time, but I suppose that most African-American oriented newspapers in the U.S. probably have at least one white editor or reporter. Having been one, I did think about it Saturday when I met and chatted with Dan Devine from the Boston–Bay State Banner.
He's not the Packer's football coach anymore than I am the musical star. What we do share other than famous names is stumbling from college to a Black paper.
Our occasion to meet was the day-long seminar Making the Most of Your Local Advantage: Community Reporter Seminar. Its sponsors were Harvard's Nieman Foundation for Journalism and the Alliance for Community Journalism.
I've done a lot of reporting for newspapers, magazines and in a new-media sort of way for several blogs. Yet, I thought it was well worthwhile, well worth the $25, and useful to blogger sorts as well as the primary audience of reporters for weeklies. If it rolls around again, bloggers as well as weekly reporters should grab spots. It focuses on how to research and write local stories, but the emphasis is definitely on how to write.
If any other bloggers were there, I'm not yet aware of it. I would have suspected that someone from H2Otown would have taken the bus to the square for it. They certainly do a lot more reporting than the type of political blog I favor does.
I'll put up some of what I took away from that seminar here and at Harrumph!
Before we started, Dan approached me and said he liked this blog. There a bit of a love fest, as I try to get the Banner from the box every week. Like Bay Windows, its stuff seems much easier to find on paper. Online, some of the small article aren't obvious and much of the art is gone. I get more about the Black communities in this area from the Banner than any other paper, and with its coverage ad supplementary stories from the South End News and the JP Gazette, I get Latino news that seems to be beneath the Globe or Herald.
At lunch, I sat with him and mentioned that I had run a Black paper for a year a long time ago. His spot and mine are surely not all that unusual, but odd enough to be remarkable. He's the deputy editor of the Banner and I was editor-in-chief of The Palmetto Post, the Black weekly in South Carolina's capital, Columbia. The board folded it after I left and a young Black editor too over, but that's another part of the story.
He was not having much luck finding a reporting job in Rhode Island when he looked around in Boston. I know from experience how hard it is to get job at papers here, even at indentured-servant style wages. They have waiting lists of friends and relatives of owners and employees, thank you very much. Eventually, the Banner offered him a clerical position and promoted him a few times to where he is now.
My case was a little stranger, but along the same lines. At our awards dinner for the college newspaper (honest-to-Zenger, the Gamecock), we heard the Palmetto Post board chair say they were struggling and had a very small pool of anyone Black with any newspaper experience. He asked any of us with some time to do volunteer reporting and maybe help teach neighborhood people.
I was the only one who volunteered. When I met a couple of board members at the office to say I was finishing and would do some reporting for them. He leaned deeply over the desk, took my forearm and said, "What we really need is an editor-in-chief." The board of business folk and academicians had been doing the work for which they were ill prepared.
I told them that I felt uneasy as a white person. He said I was more experienced than anyone they could find and that my writing convinced him that I had solid politics as well as expertise.
There's lots more to both of my story and his. Neither of us really owns the full tale of each other yet. To the central question everyone understandably asks, for the largest part, the community, sources and certainly the almost entirely Black staff are very accepting for him as they were for me. I did have to laugh when I told him of the white folk though.
There were no regular or alternate weeklies in Columbia. The same company owned the morning State and afternoon Record. There was no other Black publication. When I went to press conferences, it was as the representative of the Black community. Quite a few white politicians, including Gov. Robert McNair and the mighty long-term House Speaker Sol Blatt, would stutter and almost cross their eyes when they met me. They didn't get it.
Everybody else gets it here as they did then and there.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, South Carolina, newspapers, Dan Devine, Boston-Bay State Banner, Palmetto Post, Nieman Foundation
He's not the Packer's football coach anymore than I am the musical star. What we do share other than famous names is stumbling from college to a Black paper.
Our occasion to meet was the day-long seminar Making the Most of Your Local Advantage: Community Reporter Seminar. Its sponsors were Harvard's Nieman Foundation for Journalism and the Alliance for Community Journalism.
I've done a lot of reporting for newspapers, magazines and in a new-media sort of way for several blogs. Yet, I thought it was well worthwhile, well worth the $25, and useful to blogger sorts as well as the primary audience of reporters for weeklies. If it rolls around again, bloggers as well as weekly reporters should grab spots. It focuses on how to research and write local stories, but the emphasis is definitely on how to write.
If any other bloggers were there, I'm not yet aware of it. I would have suspected that someone from H2Otown would have taken the bus to the square for it. They certainly do a lot more reporting than the type of political blog I favor does.
I'll put up some of what I took away from that seminar here and at Harrumph!
Before we started, Dan approached me and said he liked this blog. There a bit of a love fest, as I try to get the Banner from the box every week. Like Bay Windows, its stuff seems much easier to find on paper. Online, some of the small article aren't obvious and much of the art is gone. I get more about the Black communities in this area from the Banner than any other paper, and with its coverage ad supplementary stories from the South End News and the JP Gazette, I get Latino news that seems to be beneath the Globe or Herald.
At lunch, I sat with him and mentioned that I had run a Black paper for a year a long time ago. His spot and mine are surely not all that unusual, but odd enough to be remarkable. He's the deputy editor of the Banner and I was editor-in-chief of The Palmetto Post, the Black weekly in South Carolina's capital, Columbia. The board folded it after I left and a young Black editor too over, but that's another part of the story.
He was not having much luck finding a reporting job in Rhode Island when he looked around in Boston. I know from experience how hard it is to get job at papers here, even at indentured-servant style wages. They have waiting lists of friends and relatives of owners and employees, thank you very much. Eventually, the Banner offered him a clerical position and promoted him a few times to where he is now.
My case was a little stranger, but along the same lines. At our awards dinner for the college newspaper (honest-to-Zenger, the Gamecock), we heard the Palmetto Post board chair say they were struggling and had a very small pool of anyone Black with any newspaper experience. He asked any of us with some time to do volunteer reporting and maybe help teach neighborhood people.
I was the only one who volunteered. When I met a couple of board members at the office to say I was finishing and would do some reporting for them. He leaned deeply over the desk, took my forearm and said, "What we really need is an editor-in-chief." The board of business folk and academicians had been doing the work for which they were ill prepared.
I told them that I felt uneasy as a white person. He said I was more experienced than anyone they could find and that my writing convinced him that I had solid politics as well as expertise.
There's lots more to both of my story and his. Neither of us really owns the full tale of each other yet. To the central question everyone understandably asks, for the largest part, the community, sources and certainly the almost entirely Black staff are very accepting for him as they were for me. I did have to laugh when I told him of the white folk though.
There were no regular or alternate weeklies in Columbia. The same company owned the morning State and afternoon Record. There was no other Black publication. When I went to press conferences, it was as the representative of the Black community. Quite a few white politicians, including Gov. Robert McNair and the mighty long-term House Speaker Sol Blatt, would stutter and almost cross their eyes when they met me. They didn't get it.
Everybody else gets it here as they did then and there.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, South Carolina, newspapers, Dan Devine, Boston-Bay State Banner, Palmetto Post, Nieman Foundation
Larry Slides in Worcester
Mike Benedetti apparently knows Worcesterites better than I. He called it when he told me the jury would let Larry Cirignano off on assault and battery. He just got back to his office and posted the news here.
Follow-up: The Telegram also has a short here. No one has gotten any comments from the jurors or parties to the case yet.
Follow-up Follow-up: Now Ethan over at Bay Windows has filed his story here. It includes this prepared statement from defense attorney Michael Gilleran:
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, same-sex marriage, Worcester, Cirignano, Despotopulos
Follow-up: The Telegram also has a short here. No one has gotten any comments from the jurors or parties to the case yet.
Follow-up Follow-up: Now Ethan over at Bay Windows has filed his story here. It includes this prepared statement from defense attorney Michael Gilleran:
We believe the overwhelming evidence was that the complainant in this case, Sarah Loy, tripped over someone’s foot and was not pushed by Lawrence Cirignano. In addition, the law is clear that since the Let the People Vote rally had a permit to hold its rally and therefore Ms. Loy did not have a right to disrupt that rally by bearing her contrary message into the permitted rally. The judge agreed with our position on this point and dismissed the violation of civil rights charge again Mr. Cirignano. Now the jury has agreed with the defense’s position on the assault and battery charge and exonerated Mr. Cirignano. This is a fortunate result for Mr. Cirignano and the law.In contrast, I think the law took a dirty bath on this, but he's a pro and knows how to spin.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, same-sex marriage, Worcester, Cirignano, Despotopulos
Cirignano Today — Slap or Slide?
Surely within six hours, by lunchtime, the Cirignano jury will have finished its work on what has become a simple assault and battery case. I'll stay on record that the result by all rights should be guilty.
Of course even if the fine would be a few hundred dollars (max. of $1000 by law and surely no jail time for a first offender), it is plain that an appeal would immediately follow. A fund raiser for right-wing causes would have to see a record for violent crime as a marketing minus.
I am more concerned about the Hurley decision's appearance as a justification for roughing up a protester. In the Cirignano case, Justice David Despotopulos did his best to keep it clean and distinct by components. He eventually agreed with the defense attorney that a counter-demonstrator pretty much ceded freedom of speech on the matter at hand by trespassing into a rally area where the demonstrators held a permit. However, just short of a directed verdict in the A&B aspect, he made it plain too that permit holders (or in this case, someone who was sympathetic to the cause of the permit holders) did not have a right from that to act as bouncers or police in manhandling anyone.
I'll investigate more and like elaborate on this. Combined with our current regressive U.S. Supreme Court and Justice Department, this could become a problem for everyone. If judges do begin allowing precedent for what they call "self-help" even when police are around, free speech would definitely suffer.
I won't rant on about this today. The verdict is at hand.
Previously some of the folk at the main rally trotted out patent lies. They had Loy watching Cirignano leave before throwing herself to the ground to hit her head and play act. The defense had the good sense not to put them on the stand. At the trial another incredible story emerged of Loy on her own stopping before moving farther into the crowd and tripping on a teen girl's foot.
All of the word tricks don't mitigate against Cirignano meeting the low bar of A&B here.
Back to the Hurley case and its implications, Cirignano is certainly extreme in both his background and his attempted justification for mugging Loy. He said on the stand that he received his catch-and-release training from the U.S. Secret Service when he was an advance man for the elder President George Bush. We should note that those are law enforcement professionals, authorized to protect politicians and others with force.
Larry is not, but he apparently continues to think of himself as a double-oh agent, still empowered to enforce the law. To complicate his current case, as the judge said a few times, the police were close and should have been the people enforcing order against a trespasser, Loy was moving away from the rally speakers and no threat to anyone, and while Cirignano testified that he was pushing her to avoid a confrontation, he was doing so directly into an angry crowd.
Because this is only a district court in one county, this case is not going to have overly strong legal implications. On the other hand, statewide and nationwide political extremist such as the Massachusetts Family Institute grab whatever weapons they can and push and push and push.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, same-sex marriage, Worcester, Cirignano, Despotopulos
Of course even if the fine would be a few hundred dollars (max. of $1000 by law and surely no jail time for a first offender), it is plain that an appeal would immediately follow. A fund raiser for right-wing causes would have to see a record for violent crime as a marketing minus.
I am more concerned about the Hurley decision's appearance as a justification for roughing up a protester. In the Cirignano case, Justice David Despotopulos did his best to keep it clean and distinct by components. He eventually agreed with the defense attorney that a counter-demonstrator pretty much ceded freedom of speech on the matter at hand by trespassing into a rally area where the demonstrators held a permit. However, just short of a directed verdict in the A&B aspect, he made it plain too that permit holders (or in this case, someone who was sympathetic to the cause of the permit holders) did not have a right from that to act as bouncers or police in manhandling anyone.
I'll investigate more and like elaborate on this. Combined with our current regressive U.S. Supreme Court and Justice Department, this could become a problem for everyone. If judges do begin allowing precedent for what they call "self-help" even when police are around, free speech would definitely suffer.
I won't rant on about this today. The verdict is at hand.
Mug and Fling
I did promise to expand on why the A&B should be certain. Justice Despotopulos touched on various aspects of that charge in his opening, throughout the trial and in his instructions to the jury. The criteria for the charge are there:- Touching someone without reason or justification, and that the person did not want
- Intentionally doing the touching
- Touching in such a way that might cause damage
Previously some of the folk at the main rally trotted out patent lies. They had Loy watching Cirignano leave before throwing herself to the ground to hit her head and play act. The defense had the good sense not to put them on the stand. At the trial another incredible story emerged of Loy on her own stopping before moving farther into the crowd and tripping on a teen girl's foot.
All of the word tricks don't mitigate against Cirignano meeting the low bar of A&B here.
Back to the Hurley case and its implications, Cirignano is certainly extreme in both his background and his attempted justification for mugging Loy. He said on the stand that he received his catch-and-release training from the U.S. Secret Service when he was an advance man for the elder President George Bush. We should note that those are law enforcement professionals, authorized to protect politicians and others with force.
Larry is not, but he apparently continues to think of himself as a double-oh agent, still empowered to enforce the law. To complicate his current case, as the judge said a few times, the police were close and should have been the people enforcing order against a trespasser, Loy was moving away from the rally speakers and no threat to anyone, and while Cirignano testified that he was pushing her to avoid a confrontation, he was doing so directly into an angry crowd.
Because this is only a district court in one county, this case is not going to have overly strong legal implications. On the other hand, statewide and nationwide political extremist such as the Massachusetts Family Institute grab whatever weapons they can and push and push and push.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, same-sex marriage, Worcester, Cirignano, Despotopulos
Friday, October 19, 2007
Cirignano Don't Need to Share Rights!
The flying fingers of Mike Benedetti captured the fourth day of the Larry Cirignano trial. He and I hung around the new Worcester court house (as did Bay Windows' Ethan Jacobs).
The jury got the case about 12:25 today and deliberated for four hours before Justice David Despotopulos sent them home for the weekend. Check back at Pie and Coffee and Bay Windows for truth and knowledge about the verdict. Mike figures acquittal and I'm leaning toward guilty. More on the reasoning follows tomorrow.
For what it's ended up as — a third-rate assault and battery misdemeanor — we've put in a lot of electrons on it.
There are several levels of assault and battery. The heavy ones are with a deadly weapon, against someone over 60, sexual on a child, for intimidation and so forth. The simple version looks like Cirignano's charge. It carries a maximum penalty of 2½ years in jail or $1,000 fine. For someone like Cirignano with no violent crime convictions, it would almost surely be a fine he wouldn't even blink at (Although we're all sure he'd appeal the devil out of any penalty. So there!).
This started out with real promise of being a seminal trial. The relatively trivial A&B charge carries underlying significance, but mostly in its relationship with the pretty plain abrogation of the rights of the victim, Sarah Loy.
Such a political agon would be nothing without a tinge of irony. In this case, one group gets freedom of speech and Loy gets literally and figuratively tripped up in pursuing the same.
As background:
- The Mass Family Institute got a permit to use the public plaza by Worcester City Hall (actually two permits, one for sound) to hold a 12/16/6 VoteOnMarriage rally to urge a plebiscite on the amendment to stop same-sex marriage here.
- Cirignano was not part of the group, although he was the sympathetic head of Catholic Citizenship at the time. He came to the rally to offer the prayer. Instead, it appears he preyed.
- Loy walked near the rally group holding a pro-SSM sign to her chest, facing the rally.
- Cirignano took it upon himself to come behind her and use his forearm to push her into the crowd to get her out of the way, in effect to neutralize her message.
- Loy hit the ground (how is a matter of some dispute).
- Cirignano ended up with the A&B charge and another for violating Loy's freedom of speech.
It looked like a great test for freedom of assembly and freedom of speech, with a little gratuitous violence tossed in for spice. Instead, the defense lawyer, Michael Gilleran, convinced the judge that case law, particularly, Hurley v. Irish American Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Group of Boston, in which the U.S. Supreme Court let a South Boston Irish-American group forbid gay Irish-American groups from marching in a privately funded St. Patrick's Day parade, gave the MFI the right to roust protesters from their rally.
Before finally agreeing to a directed acquittal on the civil-rights charge, the judge brought up the salient points of vigilantism and of avoiding the police who were handy and who had been redirecting pro-SSM demonstrators for hours before the incident. His sentiments clearly were that removing a protester in the rally was the job of the police if they were present, which they were.
In addition, even after he quashed the civil-rights charge, he noted that Cirignano was not a permit holder, not part of MFI, and that the defense argument suggested that any of the anti-SSM folk at the rally would then have had a right to rough up a protester and toss her off their plaza. Gilleran continued to hold that absurd position, but the judge did not buy into that aspect. To that point though, he did accept that Loy could not claim free speech rights when use of the space temporarily belonged to the MFI.
Those are really not picayune points either. With our present repressive U.S. Supreme Court, we can likely expect more such efforts to trample the rights of protesters, particularly lefties.
Here's hoping and anticipating that the jury will agree that taking the law into his own hands in such a case earns Cirignano a conviction. Shoving anyone around because you disagree with their message or where they display it is not what we should be about.
I'll cover trial impressions, likely Sunday, but that's a rant that can't wait.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, same-sex marriage, Worcester, Cirignano, Despotopulos, Gilleran, Quinlan
EXTRA! (Nah, Cirignano Jury Still Talking)
I just arrived off the 5:38 p.m. train from Worcester after the last day of testimony in the Larry Cirignano trial. After the jury considered the evidence in his assault and battery charge for four hours, the judge sent them home for the weekend. Deliberations restart Monday morning at 9.
I'll have more Saturday late or Sunday (PodCamp tomorrow for me). Meanwhile, check Pie and Coffee and Bay Windows. Both aces Mike and Ethan were there too. I expect glories from Mike, who squirreled up with Cirignano for a long time at a recess.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, same-sex marriage, Worcester, Cirignano, Despotopulos, Gilleran, Quinlan
I'll have more Saturday late or Sunday (PodCamp tomorrow for me). Meanwhile, check Pie and Coffee and Bay Windows. Both aces Mike and Ethan were there too. I expect glories from Mike, who squirreled up with Cirignano for a long time at a recess.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, same-sex marriage, Worcester, Cirignano, Despotopulos, Gilleran, Quinlan
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