PregnancyFamilyEducation Blogs
February 23, 2009
"We all we got."
They seemed untamed and in need of a ring master.
She was tomboyish and tough, with baggy blue jeans, wheat-colored timberland boots, and a hooded sweater, of course. A high-school dropout, she learned how to hustle coke, working eight-hour days, sitting on a broken bench in the projects, selling crack to the same customers all day long. [more]
November 18, 2008
I'm tired of business as usual
What will it take for the leaders of our communities to see the reality? Why are service providers all trying to find their way by themselves? Is it not apparent that apart from each other we are acting aimlessly? I am tired of business as usual. There isn’t enough time in one day to continue to run into the same wall over and over again. The head bleeds, but no one notices. [more]
- Tags: Urban Life, Government, Community
November 17, 2008
I am from the streets
This afternoon, I sat next to the facilitator in a conference room full of conversational clatter. It was a monthly meeting in which advocates who work on legislative policy for Boston youth share their work. Every time I attend this meeting, I feel like I don’t belong there. The lingo alone leaves me lightheaded. I mean, what is a “9c"?
- Tags: Urban Life, Community
November 10, 2008
I'm pi**ed!
The city of Boston doesn’t pursue peace; instead, its pursuit is piecemeal. Harvard University, MIT, Northeastern University, Boston College, Boston University, and so on and so on. Yet we can’t identify even one Ph.D. professor who's poised and pragmatic enough to resolve our youth violence pandemic. Those academic sorts studied for the answer, right?
- Tags: Violence, Community, Bureaucracy
June 10, 2008
Finding my religion
My parents were both raised Jewish, but as a result of a few life experiences, they pretty much bailed on the whole religion thing. So, for the first nine or so years of my life, we celebrated Christmas (like the majority of the people I knew in those days). My brother, however, upon discovering our Jewish roots, re-ignited an Old Testament interest in our household, and before long I found myself in Sunday School, Hebrew School and well on my way to a Bar Mitzvah. [more]
