Two genuinely decent men and upstanding elected officials got really unpleasant in Tuesday night's U.S. Senate debate. Four-term Congressman Joe Kennedy III had a more polished and coherent presentation than in previous debates. Four decade former Congressman, now Senator Ed Markey, after a slow start, finished strong. But the whole event just made me want …
Continue reading Markey, Kennedy fight nasty with 20 days left
The peaceful protests continue amidst emerging proposals for policy change, but will they amount to anything? Longtime Boston leader and community activist Hubie Jones, in his unpublished book Black in Boston: A Lover's Quarrel, came to understand the dynamics of race demonstrations in the confrontations and riots of 1967 and 1978. Usually, he says, they …
Continue reading “Defunding” versus “reprioritizing” the police: language matters
Newark's charismatic mayor, Cory Booker, took the stage Sunday at Salem State University's Speaker Series. A man on the move politically (he's planning a run for retiring Frank Lautenberg's U.S. Senate seat in 2014), he's on the move physically. Using a hand-held mike and roaming the stage at the Lynn Auditorium, Booker held forth for close …
The NRA's Friday press conference revealed the powerful organization to be utterly tone deaf when it comes to how to reduce violence and protect children. Do we need any more evidence of that than NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre's comment that "The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good …
Marjorie Arons-Barron 