Remember their daring performances on the bars or balance beam, in the vault or on the floor. All championship accomplishments. But their Olympic gold medal-winning performances are nothing compared to the bravery shown by Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, McKayla Maroney, and Maggie Nichols testifying in graphic detail before the Senate Judiciary Committee about sexual abuse …
Continue reading Olympic gymnasts are gold medalists on and off the floor
In the early morning of September 11, 2001, a small group of lawyers, engineers, contractors, developers, and architects gathered for a communications seminar on crisis management at the Seaport Hotel in downtown Boston. Their objective was to consider how best to react to a simulated collapse of a large building. My husband, a lawyer, was …
Nat King Cole's "lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer" linger on, offering precious time for reading and musing. Today I offer some non-fiction selections. Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest by Suzanne Simard is a surprisingly powerful and disturbing book. Simard is a Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of …
Continue reading Stretch summer with books, pt. 2, non-fiction
Summer remains the perfect time to kick back and experience the pleasures of reading. There's still plenty of time to extend the season. The Four Winds by Kristen Hannah packed a huge emotional wallop. By the author of The Nightingale, this family saga starts out in the early 1920’s in Texas. Elsa, the thoughtful and …
There is no pretty way to lose a war, but the chaotic exit from Afghanistan over the past week has been particularly disturbing, especially for short-term political optics and long-term shameful treatment of those who risked their lives to help coalition forces and their ever-evolving mission. Bodies falling from planes departing Kabul Airport, as desperate Afghans tried …
Continue reading Afghanistan collapse a predictable disaster
Getty Image Andrew Cuomo's well crafted resignation speech proves once again you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. The speech was outwardly everything a PR person could recommend when spinning such a deplorable situation, except for its having come weeks later than it should have. And it left unanswered questions of …
Continue reading Cuomo resignation leaves unanswered questions
Forty-two years ago, the city of Newton had four local newspapers: the Newton Graphic, the Newton Times, the Waltham Tribune (which also served Newton) and the Newton TAB. Residents had to work hard to be uninformed about local government and community comings and goings. As a reporter, then political editor of the Times, I thought …
Any-reason absentee voting, expanded early voting, drop boxes, all designed to limit exposure to COVID-19, all worked to enhance Massachusetts voter turnout for the 2020 election. 3.7 million - 76 percent of those registered - turned out, the highest percentage since 1992. Those procedures expired in June, and, while they have now been extended through …
Photo Time Inc When it comes to securing voting rights, rhetorical flourish will go only so far. At his eulogy for civil rights icon John Lewis last year, former President Obama waxed eloquent in support of comprehensive legislation. Last week in Philadelphia, President Biden's voting rights speech was occasionally stirring and substantively on target. But …
Continue reading Voting suppression and subversion: the GOP’s American dream
The sign hung over Fenway Park, just under the beloved Red Sox icon. It read, "Save Doug Kahn’s Life! BWH.donorscreen.org Kidney donor urgently needed!" A desperate move on behalf of a desperate young man. Things have never been easy for the 50-year-old Brockton accountant and father of two children, ages nine and seven. As a …
