The creepiest image from Donald Trump's announcement that he was withdrawing from the Iran deal was new NSA chief John Bolton’s looming presence as the president exited the podium. It's too soon to tell whether Bolton will get the Iran war and regime change he has lusted after, but Israelis were told to open bomb …
Remembering Barbara Bush
It was June 1990, Severance Green at Wellesley College. Blue sky, warm sunshine, graduating seniors and their families waiting to hear from two commencement honorees, Raisa Gorbachev, the wife of Russian premier Mikhail Gorbachev, and Barbara Bush, First Lady, wife of President George H. W. Bush. Local press and national networks were there to cover …
Rename Yawkey Way: yea or nay?
Renaming Yawkey Street next to Fenway Park as Jersey Street, its original name, should be a no-brainer. The reputation of the Boston Red Sox under the leadership of the late owner Tom Yawkey reinforced the sense of Boston as a racist city. In the 1940's, City councilman Isadore Muchnick had to pressure the team to …
Opioid epidemic: a solvable crisis
President Trump hints he wants the death penalty for drug traffickers. (He's an unabashed admirer of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.) Is the President calling for the death penalty for doctors prescribing Oxycontin, Percocet, morphine, and other pain killers? After all, an estimated 80 percent of people using heroin first got hooked by misusing opioids. On combating …
Good guy needs new body part
Every time you renew your driver’s license in Massachusetts you have a chance to say whether you’d donate an organ upon your death. Waiting lists for cadaver transplants can be six to eight years, far too long for many gravely ill patients. In the case of kidney disease, an alternative is a transplant from a …
Who can make the difference in 2018?
Since the evacuation of the HMS Birkenhead in 1852, “women and children first” has been the code of conduct to protect the most helpless among us from impending disaster. Today we look to them not only to save themselves but to save the rest of us as well. Last year, women were marching. Today, they …
Is this Trump’s Nixon-to-China moment or more “BS”?
It’s an article of faith that random violence can strike anywhere, but, when it strikes close to home, we are still surprised and shocked. My grandson went to a memorial service this week for the older sister of a friend of his. Her name was Deane Stryker, and she was 22 years old, a medical …
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Trump infrastructure proposal another administration fraud
Every day, as I either skirt around or clunk into and out of potholes, I’m reminded of our crumbling infrastructure and of the lame political promises of the Trump administration to fix our roads, bridges, airports, water and sewer pipes and more. Just before the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre in Parkland Florida, Donald …
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School shooting tragedy by the numbers
Every time I have written about gun violence and mass shootings, one reader or another (you know who you are) will charge me with being a bleeding heart liberal. So, let's take the emotion out of the equation. After all, we've been through this scenario multiple times. The horror has become part of our national …
Vietnam through New Eyes, part 5: The faces of today
The images will last forever, I am certain. The bustling narrow streets of the Old Quarter area of Hanoi, the water puppet show dating back to the 10th century, the 11th century Temple of Literature honoring scholars and men of learning, the Museum of Ethnology, the Women's Museum in Hanoi, the War Remnants Museum in …
Continue reading Vietnam through New Eyes, part 5: The faces of today
Marjorie Arons-Barron 