To grow up in Boston in the mid-20th century in an extended multi-neighborhood family, where an Irish cultural atmosphere dominated time spent away from school for the children and away from work for the adults, was to know that while the United... Read more
Community Comment
Faith is a crutch. It helps those of us who need it to cope with a world that is dangerous, confusing, unfair, and often cruel. We desperately cling to the notion that within what often appears to be chaos and disorder there is purpose and meaning.... Read more
The Vietnam War was tearing our country apart, many Dorchester youth were serving and dying, and an unlikely speaker was at the monthly Columbia Savin Hill Civic Association meeting one night in the early 1970s.
He was the historian Howard Zinn... Read more
This country is fast becoming dysfunctional. Government doesn’t seem to work, we’re accumulating huge deficits, the financial system is a mess, and unemployment has exploded.
There was a time not too long ago when we believed we could overcome... Read more
Late last year, a young man was shot and killed in broad daylight near the John Marshall Elementary School in Dorchester. This was just the latest example of violence in a city that has grown weary of seeing its schools become urban battlegrounds.... Read more
One in every five people in Boston’s minority communities is looking for work. In some areas, like the Blue Hill Avenue corridor, two in five are completely out of the workforce. And the city and state are in no position to help those people. They... Read more
In the face of a globally challenging economic climate, one of the most positive signs for Boston is that our population continues to grow. In fact, last year, for the first time since the 1970s, Boston’s population surpassed 600,000 people. It may... Read more
I write this article on the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and we have just had a wonderful service here to commemorate his life and ministry. I think we were all inspired by his vision which continues to challenge all of us to carry on the... Read more
His fall from grace was hard, fast, and probably deserved. Anthony Galluccio of Cambridge resigned from the state Senate a couple of days too late. Had he decided to do so at his probation surrender hearing, he may have been able to avoid going to jail... Read more
Mary Casey ForryThursday, January 1, 1987
Dear Diary:
What an exhilarating day! So much fun doing things for the first time in the new year.
At 7:04 a.m., got out of bed for the first time and hurried... Read more
If you ever have the occasion to attend the same school for grades 1-8 and then to attend the subsequent 15 year-reunion of the graduating class, I recommend both. The latter, I must confess, was almost as daunting for me as all those years of... Read more
Every fall in the early 1960s Massachusetts legislators were accustomed to being invited to our state's great university in Amherst to see the campus, watch a football game, and otherwise be lobbied by the administrators there to see the benefits of... Read more
So I open the paper at 6:45 a.m. on Saturday morning and read an article about 3,000 free tickets being distributed at 9:00 a.m. for a free skate in January on the Bruins rink that's been set up at Fenway Park. My son had been begging to go to the game... Read more
I have a beautifully crafted Bible with more than 200 images made from woodcuts by the artist Barry Moser. I have spent many an hour meditating on these illustrations. One of my absolute favorites is a full-page image of the biblical passage of the... Read more
The golf clubs have been put away and the skis are out. So begins another season. The sand in the upper chamber of life’s hourglass slips inexorably below where all my yesterdays are stored.
With every season, the grains of sand in the â€... Read more
