Occupy My Heart

19Jan12

Goodbye eHarmony.com. Hello eOccupy.com.

The January 16, 2012 Boston Globe Metro section featured the touching story of a romance that bloomed in the Occupy Boston encampment before the 99 percent were forced out of Dewey Square by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and the forces of the evil one percent.

The Globe described Anya Karasik, 18, and Robert Stitham, 25, as the “archetype of an Occupy couple: he a redheaded Mainer with tattoos on his arms; she, a petite upstate New York girl with a heart-shaped face and a boyish haircut, wearing a knit grandmother sweater three sizes too big.”

They sound positively adorable, don’t they?

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Tags: Boston, Boston Globe, Boston MA, Boston Massachusetts, Daily Item, demonstration, demonstrations, Mark Sardella, Occupy Boston, Occupy Wall Street, Politics, protest, protests, romance, Starbucks, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Item

Remembering Paul Faler

22Dec11

There are certainly many who knew Paul Faler better than I, although I had the privilege of knowing him for a good long time. When we spoke on the phone two days before Thanksgiving, it did not even cross my mind that it would be our last conversation.

I first met Paul Faler in 1970 or 1971, when I walked into his classroom at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. He was a 30 year old assistant professor of history in his first or second year at UMass. This was before the Boston campus moved out to Columbia Point. Back then, most classes were held in the old office building at 100 Arlington St. in Park Square.

If I had to pick one word to describe Professor Faler, it would be “clarity.” After going over a subject matter once, he would invariably say, “In other words…” and explain it again from a different angle until it was crystal clear.

Around 1978, I was in a downtown Wakefield place of business when a man walked in whom I recognized instantly.

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Tags: Assessor, Board of Assessors, Boston, Boston Massachusetts, History, Paul Faler, Paul G. Faler, professor, property tax, tax, tax assassor, taxation, taxes, UMass, University of Massachusetts, Wakefield, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Massachusetts

PAC Attack

05Dec11

The attack ads currently airing against Sen. Scott Brown aren’t anything new. They started as soon as he was declared the victor in the 2009 Special Election to complete the US Senate term left vacant by the death of Teddy Kennedy.

Brown’s win set off a period of deep mourning and hand-wringing in the “progressive community.” But as soon as they recovered from the shocking news that the 12-member Massachusetts congressional delegation would include one moderate Republican, they set about to correct this travesty.

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Tags: ad, advertisements, committees, Congress, congressman, Daily Item, Elizabeth Warren, John Tierney, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Political Action Committee, political ads, Politics, Rep. John Tierney, Richard Tisei, Scott Brown, Sen. Scott Brown, senator, Senator Scott Brown, Ted Kennedy, US Senator Scott Brown, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Massachusetts

Dan Hicks & the Hot Licks Swing Through Harvard Square

04Dec11

Several hundred aging hipsters, baby boomers and a few relative youngsters packed the First Parish Church in Harvard Square on Friday, December 2, 2011 to see San Francisco Bay area legends, Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks. The Cambridge concert was the Boston area stop on the band’s “Holidaze in Hicksville” tour.

A few minutes before the band appeared on stage, a man who introduced himself as “Dave” from Heptunes, the concert promoter, took the stage and announced that “a week from tonight is Dan’s 70th birthday.” Dave said that after the second song of the first set, bassist Paul Smith would signal the crowd to stand and sing “Happy Birthday” to Dan.

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Tags: 2011, Benito Cortez, Cambridge, Cambridge MA, Cambridge Massachusetts, concert, Dan Hicks, Dan Hicks & the Hot Licks, December 2 2011, First parish Church, Harvard Square, Heptunes, Lickettes, music, Paul Smith, review, sing, songs

A Monumental Achievement

17Nov11

This is how it’s done.

If you take on a worthy cause and through persistence and hard work, you create something of value, the public will turn out in droves to support you.

Wakefield’s World War II Memorial Committee could teach the “Occupy” organizers a thing or two.

About a thousand people packed Veterans’ Memorial Common on Veterans’ Day last Friday to witness the unveiling and dedication of the new World War II Monument. Many of them were the children or grandchildren of the servicemen who in their teens and twenties left their cozy hometown of Wakefield 70 years ago to fight and defeat ruthless dictators thousands of miles away. In those days, they understood that you don’t wait around for evil to arrive on your own doorstep.

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Tags: Daily Item, John Encarnacao, memorial, memorials, monument, monuments, Phyllis Hull, Second World War, soldier, soldiers, veteran, veterans, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Mass, Wakefield Massachusetts, Wakefield World War II Memorial, World War 2, World War II, World War II Memorial, World War II Monument

A Fitting World War II Monument

15Nov11

A grateful town paid tribute to its veterans on Friday, especially those who fought in World War II, as a huge crowd packed Veterans’ Memorial Common for the unveiling and dedication of the new granite World War II Monument.

The Veterans’ Day crowd, which some estimated at more than 1,000, included World War II veterans and descendants and relatives of World War II veterans who turned out to dedicate a new monument to those citizens of Wakefield, Massachusetts who left home in the 1940s to fight tyranny overseas.

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Tags: ceremony, Colonel Michael Zarbo, Daily Item, dedication, Donald Wong, Fred Marshal, Gen. Gary Pappas, John Tierney, Katherine Clark, memorial, memorials, military, monument, mounuments, Patrick Glynn, Paul Brodeur, Phyllis Hull, Second World War, Sen. Scott Brown, Senator Scott Brown, soldier, soldiers, veteran, veterans, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Masachusetts, Wakefield Mass, Wakefield World War II Memorial, World War 2, World War II, World War II Memorial, World War II Monument

Occupational Therapy

03Nov11

I hate winter, but in this Year of the Occupation, I found myself dreaming of a white Halloween. Mother Nature obliged on Saturday, October 29.

Who says dreams don’t come true?

I suppose the Occupy protesters think that by camping on public and private urban parks indefinitely, they are demonstrating their commitment to whatever cause they are espousing. But have you noticed that when anything – good or bad – is around all the time, one of two things tends to happen? Either it wears out its welcome or it becomes part of the landscape and you stop noticing it.

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Columbus: the Man and the Myth

06Oct11

Another holiday, another opportunity to vilify the United States. Actually, the upcoming Columbus Day holiday is just a warm-up for the Thanksgiving main event.
We know the narrative by now. Christopher Columbus was not a heroic explorer who discovered a new world. He was a villain who set in motion the centuries-long American reign of terror, including rampant genocide in the pursuit of our greedy, imperialist corporate agenda of war and conquest. (Just ask the kids occupying Wall Street.)

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Tags: America, Americans, Christopher Columbus, Columbus, Columbus Day, discovery, explorer, explorers, Genoa, holiday, holidays, Indians, Italian, Italians, Native Americans, United States

Teachable Moments

25Sep11

Last week, two things happened in Wakefield, Massachusetts that at least temporarily restored my hope for America’s self-image.

First, Paul D. Wedge, a lacrosse coach at Wakefield High School, convinced the Board of Selectmen to let him mount a bronze cast with Big Jim Landrigan’s Silver Star Citation at Landrigan Field where future generations of Wakefield students can see what it means to be a true American hero.

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Remember How We Felt on 9/11

08Sep11

Every generation has one of those “always remember where you were” dates. For the Greatest Generation, it was Pearl Harbor. For the Baby Boomers, it was the JFK assassination.

September 11, 2001 is one of those dates.

The 10th anniversary of 9/11 is upon us, and even more than any of the preceding anniversaries, the 10th is calculated to remind us of how we felt on that clear blue Tuesday morning.

As it should.

Those of us old enough on September 11, 2001 to see and comprehend what occurred will never forget the sights and sounds that day. Planes flying into skyscrapers. Skyscrapers collapsing in a colossal cloud of dust and debris. Horrified screams and cries audible even over the television.

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Tags: 9/11, 9/11 attacks, America, Daily Item, Ground Zero, Lorne Michaels, Mark Sardella, New York, New York City, Rudy Giuliani, Saturday Night Live, September 11 2011, SNL, terrorism, terrorist attack, terrorist attacks, terrorists, Twin Towers, United States, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Item, World Trade Center