Witch Hunt, 2007

One of the scariest things for The Mob (not organized crime, the neighborhood mob) to handle was the idea that the newest-to-the-neighborhood Sober Homes housed sex offenders. Now, if The Mob did a little simple online sex offender registry research it would've discovered that sex offenders were scattered throughout the neighborhood in places other than the Sober Homes. And had been. And if The Mob had thought even just the littlest bit instead of lashing out blindly, it would've considered that while proximity may exacerbate the problem, sex offenders do travel, so whether he lives next door or not, he can getcha.

But if The Mob had researched and if The Mob had thoughtfully considered before lashing out blindly, it would not have been a mob. And it would not have been as successfully manipulated and played by its elected leader, Diane Wilkerson. I watched, I must admit now with some shame, as part of The Mob. Diane is a master of mob manipulation. If any thoughtful remark was made, she quickly and vigorously fomented fear and hatred to divert attention away from real issues and thus avoid having to address them. She verbally attacked and disparaged the vulnerable people living in the Sober Homes as the problem. She deftly crafted a smokescreen of rage and fear and protected the disrespectful, racist developer and the disbarred lawyer behind it. These two men, in my humble opinion, with the assistance of someone with power at the State level, had created the problem and continue to derive benefit from it at the expense of the men and women they purport to aid and, too, at the expense of The Mob.

How Do We Define and Attain the Good Society?

United States of American government subsidizes banks and other failing corporate greedstrosities.
Canadian government subsidizes programs to answer questions like these:

Friday, November 13, 2009

2:00 PM - 4:00 PM, Lower Level Conference Room, Busch Hall

"The Measure of Our Success: How Do We Define and Attain the Good Society?"

• Amartya Sen, Nobel Laureate in Economics; Thomas W. Lamont University Professor and Professor of Economics and Philosophy, Harvard University; Chair Adviser of the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress;
• Jean-Paul Fitoussi, Professor of Economics and President of the Observatoire Français des Conjonctures économiques (OFCE) in Paris; Coordinator of the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress;
• Peter Hall, Krupp Foundation Professor of European Studies, Harvard University; Co-Director of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research's Successful Societies Program;
• Michèle Lamont, Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies and Professor of Sociology and African and African American studies, Harvard University; Co-Director of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research's Successful Societies Program

CES Special Event

This panel will feature Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen in person and Jean-Paul Fitoussi via videoconference from Paris. They will discuss the findings of the recent report issued by the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress that was headed by Sen, Fitoussi, and Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz.

In addition, Peter Hall and Michèle Lamont will be on the panel. Their Successful Societies Program is a Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) funded program that aims to quantify the measures of societal success. The resulting book, entitled Successful Societies: How Institutions and Culture Affect Health, integrates recent research in an effort to answer the question of why some societies are more successful than others at promoting individual and collective well-being.

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For full background information, please visit the following links:

Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress: http://www.stiglitz-sen-fitoussi.fr/en/index.htm

Successful Societies Program (CIFAR): http://www2.cifar.ca/research/successful-societies-program/

Successful Societies: How Institutions and Culture Affect Health (Cambridge University Press)
http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521516600

Moderated by Éloi Laurent, Senior Economist and Scientific Advisor at OFCE (l’Observatoire Français des Conjonctures Économiques).

Contact: Jason Beerman
Email: beerman@fas.harvard.edu

See the World

Walk.

Cleaning House

There are things you don't notice when driving or riding, things you only see when walking.  State troopers and Boston public works were cleaning out someone's home under the Mass. Ave. bridge at about 10 o'clock this morning.  There were blankets and makeshift beds and even a bike so someone had created an oasis in this dry, almost out-of-the-way cranny of the city.  The Pollyanna part of my brain pretended that the homeless folks who lived here were woken up and moved by city outreach workers to more comfortable, safer, indoor accommodation.  (I like to delude myself daily with dreams of a better world - it helps me to get out of bed.  Some mornings).

And then I got to H Square and as the Spare Change news hawkers waved their papers in my face I thought,  Shit! That home probably belongs to one of these people.  Some hapless guy is out here in the city somewhere working a godawful job (or three) that pays less than minimum wage and he's going to come "home" on this dreary, chilly, wet evening and everything that signified his home will be gone; all the stuff he's managed to collect or assemble to make the place livable now in the dump over by Magazine St. in Roxbury.  Nothing left but the rain streaked cement underbelly of the bridge.

This Place Matters

It housed Hook and Ladder #1, a horse drawn fire truck and was built around 1859.

One on One

Tonight, Haley House, 12 Dade St, Dudley Square from 8 pm. - 10 p.m. Mayoral Candidate Mike Flaherty answers your questions. Go. Ask. Vote.

The Donkey Show

Fairies, fairies everywhere; charming, callipygian fairies. I love fairies. So I loved The Donkey Show. The first time I saw it was with a thirty-something friend who's more grunge than disco. I took advantage of the 2-for-1 ticket offer and brought her. She was glad she'd seen it but wouldn't have paid to do so. It's not her scene, she said. I was transported to fairyland. The second time was with my soon-to-be-70-year-old mother and her friends. Watching them watch and be in the show was part of the fun.

The Things I Love Most About Roxbury

Discover Roxbury
Haley House Cafe
Franklin Park
Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative
Body By Brandy
Dillaway Thomas House
Shirley-Eustis House

space saver

One Reason Why Roxbury is Regularly Screwed

The Department of Families and Children and the MSPCC like to show their gratitude for the people working in the trenches of child welfare - those who care for kids whose parents either don't want them or are too sick to care for them or a combination of both.

This past Saturday a foster parent appreciation lunch was held at Academy Homes on Washington Street. Foster parents got lunch, simple entertainment, certificates of appreciation and gift certificates to Stop and Shop.

At one table, conversation turned to the upcoming mayoral election. Ms. State Worker thought Menino had been around too long. Ms. AFSCME, likewise, thought it was time for a change. Conversation turned to race and Ms. AFSCME stated that this country is not ready for a black president (all the more reason to get one in there) and that only reason Obama got elected was cause Dubya screwed up so badly (which is probably true). Ms. Runs Her Mouth said it didn't matter who got in - they're all the same and nothing ever changes.

"People have to create change. Everyone's gonna vote, right? Everyone here is gonna vote?"

"It's all in the hands of the lord," Ms. Runs Her Mouth asserted. "That's why I don't need to worry about it. The lord will decide."

Ms. BTD amen'd as did Ms. Stellar Foster Mom. And the retort of "the lord helps those who help themselves" was lost in the din of amens.

Looking Good at Both Ends of Dudley

At one end of Dudley, you can learn about Maximon, the Santiago Atitlan Mayan Lord of Looking Good. At the other end, you can shop at this store which has been in Dudley Sq. since the '30's. (It's grated cause the picture was taken on a Sunday).  Current proprietors came on board in the '50's. They sell some kick-ass wigs that'll keep you looking good.  For every book store in Harvard Square, Dudley has a hairdresser or barber shop.

Maximon, who was once persecuted and made to go underground, is a partier. I don't think Harvard Sq. does have a liquor store but Dudley has two on the same block and at least three more within easy walking distance. Giant Liquors is open on Sundays, thank Maximon, when the rest of Dudley is shuttered, cause if there's anything the poor and disenfranchised need, it's legal drugs.

Is this a great storefront or what? I see an old-fashioned soda fountain in there. Or a flower shop.

Blasphemy Day

Religion is only one excuse that people use for being intolerant, condescending, and distended with hubris and righteousness. Journalism and science are two others. An auto da fe in the name of science and rationality is still an Inquisition.

Feed me instead Knowledge of Angels.

Roxbury Fun fact of the Week

What is the State Rock (yes, State rock) of Massachusetts?

Stars in the Square

Riding into Harvard Square Tuesday morning, I noticed a bunch of cops and a crowd gathered around the T station.  Trouble, I thought, some kind of early morning, drug fueled fight.  Or the Red Line crapped out again.  But the crowd was eerily quiet and the cops weren't moving.  Rounding the Out of Town island, I saw the film camera.  All the faces of the people in the crowd, lifted toward the scene of action, resembled a mass of worshipers praying at the altar of their god.  Who in this case is Fame and Hollywood.  One of my colleagues, a talented filmmaker  in his own right, spotted Ben Affleck.  But the real stars in Harvard Square  that day were Felix Barrett and Maxine Doyle, Punchdrunk people, speaking at this class.

The Donkey Punch Drunk Show

Unfortunate for rhetorical reasons only that The Donkey Show and Punchdrunk run simultaneously. In my excitement to spread the word about both, after seeing The Donkey Show and touring the Old Lincoln School, I rushed into work and exclaimed, you have to check out The Donkey Punch! Oops. I didn't even know what a donkey punch was until this past summer and I wish I'd never learned.

The Thing I Hate Most About Roxbury

Roxbury (like the world, I suppose)  is full of incredibly bruised people.  The legacy of slavery, a history of second class citizenship, racism, poverty - these are all serious bruisers.  But so many folks ignore their personal pain and channel it toward thwarting good in the world.  It's an I hurt, I'm gonna make you hurt too way of being.  And it's most destructive coming from the folks in the area who have done well for themselves and are working (allegedly) to restore the area to its rightful place as a gem in Boston.

Victimhood, embraced too long, forges its own chains.  The negativity, hostility, blaming, and subtle undermining are wearing on me.  Deal with your own shit, please, and stop blaming everyone else.  Thank you.

Sheep No More: Screamer in the House

A cry rang out, one I didn't recognize, and it turned out to be a scream from an audience member.  A scream she repeated a few times when startled.   She was fine so it was kinda fun.

Another younger woman came up to me demanding, "Where do I go?"  When asked that question, sometimes I shrug, sometimes I point in two possible directions at once, which is what I did for her.  She whimpered and pulled out her Blackberry, its screen like another spotlight in the hall.

"Are you ok?"  I whispered.  She was sniffling and snuffling.  She was freaked out.

"The elevator guy separated me from my boyfriend," she said.

"It's ok.  You'll be ok.  Go to the bar.  Catch your breath.  Text him from there."

So she went into the middle of the main corridor with her Klieg light of a Blackberry.

I fed her to Norman.

Cornell West For Dictator of the World

Cause we all got to leave a little bit of heaven here when we go.

Relocalization Conference at RCC

What's so funny about peace love and localization? Beaucoup, according to Ms Average American. Better to commiserate over a glass of chardonnay about the obscene bonuses Wall Street continues to award itself and Global Warming rather than actively try to thwart the obscenity and warming. Someone Else will take care of those things. Ms American secretly hopes/believes that somehow/someday she'll be one of them, the blessed few who are financially rewarded no matter how badly or how much they screw up their own businesses and other people's lives. Their scales must be much different from those the rest of us use. Or they use their scales for false measurement while we just hold ours over our eyes.

Fortunately, about 200-300 people in the greater Boston area are willing to work for peace, love, and localization and these folks showed up yesterday to get the ball rolling here in Massachusetts or to join others already in motion.

In the Main Tent: Peak Oil, Environmental Havoc, Big Money in Washington, and Isolation and Alienation in Our Communities - which are all interconnected and part of the same problem that needs to be undone by all of us on a local level with the globe in mind. If that makes sense.

Chuck Turner welcomed us, Frances Moore Lappe inspired us and though Mel King and Bill McKibben spoke, I couldn't hang around to listen to them. The break-out sessions included Building Local, Sustainable and Just Food Systems and Applying Democracy in the Face of Corporate Power

The concept that most piqued my interest was Transition Towns. My neighborhood in Roxbury is in transition and I'd like that change to be in the best possible direction. Permaculture, everyone?

My gripe about the conference? We didn't need the to have the problems at hand detailed - speakers were certainly preaching to the choir - about Peak Oil, about Global Warming, about the value of supporting local agriculture. And along those lines - could we work a little on making the presentations a little more pithy and dynamic?

Sleep No More Stewarding

An interesting experience, stewarding for the Punchdrunk/ART production Sleep No More but the audience can influence the tenor of the night. And last night's audience was AWFUL. For those of you conversing at full voice: you suck. For those of you waltzing around all night without a mask: you suck. And you suck really bad.

Part of the beauty of Punchdrunk's vision and magic is their trust in the audience, their belief that the audience is a focal point of the production. There are no other theatrical productions that I've experienced where a member of the audience can be treated to an intimate one-on-one performance. And all that's required on the part of the audience to become a part of that magic and genius is openness and trust, requited. The production is a mystery best explored on your own, without your crew, without your honey. Go explore by yourself and compare notes at the end of the night. Be willing to be a little unsure, a little off center. Play the game. Play the play. The play is play.

Last night's audience was too - I dunno - mean-spirited? Afraid? Dull? Certain? Perhaps they'd consider themselves too clever, too sophisticated to be caught up in the playfulness of the event, to play with the venue, to play with the experience. Not willing to risk a little fooling, they become fools. That ugly, hard, practical, unimaginative attitude brought a really nasty energy to the whole site. Production crew and stewards were in bad moods by the end of the night thanks to the onslaught of the philistines.

Hopefully, they'll all stay home next time and tell their equally unworthy friends to do the same. Being around all those creepy people left me spooked in ways Macbeth and his Lady never could.

Better than must see...

Sleep No More is a must experience.