My daughter Jess just updated her blog and I'm going to take this opportunity, before turning to more serious things, to remark that both of my daughters and my granddaughter have blogs. Jessie's blog came about after she discovered a trove of old writings she did as a kid, including an advice column she wrote at age 13 on an old Smith-Corona typewriter-- this is pre-spellcheck days, mind you. (I strongly discouraged her from throwing her childhood writings away, and still... Read Full Story
Palmer Renewable Energy’s proposal to build an electricity-generating biomass plant in Springfield, Massachusetts is moving very quickly, now—the developers need two more permits and then they get the green light.
I myself refuse to call PRE’s proposal a biomass plant: it’s a construction and demolition wood-burning incinerator that will provide a few jobs, create a little electricity, and degrade and pollute our community. What a trade-off!
Some of us, in a new group called Stop To... Read Full Story
Can't let this sad, funny and infuriating event pass without comment: on Friday, Frank Keough, former director of the Worthington St. Shelter, was arrested in Rhode Island after attempting to steal his former furniture from his former house! Some people just don't learn.
Keough is on probation after his conviction for defrauding the federal government by stealing funds from the shelter to use for a variety of personal uses. All together, he served 30 months in prison, 20 of them... Read Full Story
I saw some of Springfield's Veterans Day parade today as marchers kicked off from State and Federal Streets.
Only a few blocks away, at Worthington St. shelter, I knew that more than a quarter of the homeless men and women "living there" are veterans.
Most are Vietnam Era vets, but the Veterans Administration says there are more than 2,000 vets of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are homeless right now in this country.
War-- especially the kind of wars we're fighting right now-- seem to tak... Read Full Story
Living in Springfield most of my life, sometimes I feel like every person's face I see is familiar to me, that I know everyone. That's probably why it took a trip to Boston yesterday to re-trigger that strange realization that everyone is at the center of their own consciousness: homeless people at the Boston Common, people in suits, the dozens who passed me while chatting on their cellphones-- everyone is more real to themselves than any other person. Realizing this is a strange... Read Full Story
Living in Springfield most of my life, sometimes I feel like every person's face I see is familiar to me, that I know everyone. That's probably why it took a trip to Boston yesterday to re-trigger that strange realization that everyone is at the center of their own consciousness: homeless people at the Boston Common, people in suits, the dozens who passed me while chatting on their cellphones-- everyone is more real to themselves than any other person. Realizing this is a strange... Read Full Story
