Archive for the ‘Columns & Essays’ Category

Occupy My Heart

19Jan12

Goodbye eHarmony.com. Hello eOccupy.com. The January 16, 2012 Boston Globe Metro section featured the touching story of a romance that bloomed in the Occupy Boston encampment before the 99 percent were forced out of Dewey Square by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and the forces of the evil one percent. The Globe described Anya Karasik, 18, […]


There are certainly many who knew Paul Faler better than I, although I had the privilege of knowing him for a good long time. When we spoke on the phone two days before Thanksgiving, it did not even cross my mind that it would be our last conversation. I first met Paul Faler in 1970 […]


PAC Attack

05Dec11

The attack ads currently airing against Sen. Scott Brown aren’t anything new. They started as soon as he was declared the victor in the 2009 Special Election to complete the US Senate term left vacant by the death of Teddy Kennedy. Brown’s win set off a period of deep mourning and hand-wringing in the “progressive […]


Several hundred aging hipsters, baby boomers and a few relative youngsters packed the First Parish Church in Harvard Square on Friday, December 2, 2011 to see San Francisco Bay area legends, Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks. The Cambridge concert was the Boston area stop on the band’s “Holidaze in Hicksville” tour. A few minutes […]


This is how it’s done. If you take on a worthy cause and through persistence and hard work, you create something of value, the public will turn out in droves to support you. Wakefield’s World War II Memorial Committee could teach the “Occupy” organizers a thing or two. About a thousand people packed Veterans’ Memorial […]


A grateful town paid tribute to its veterans on Friday, especially those who fought in World War II, as a huge crowd packed Veterans’ Memorial Common for the unveiling and dedication of the new granite World War II Monument. The Veterans’ Day crowd, which some estimated at more than 1,000, included World War II veterans […]


I hate winter, but in this Year of the Occupation, I found myself dreaming of a white Halloween. Mother Nature obliged on Saturday, October 29. Who says dreams don’t come true? I suppose the Occupy protesters think that by camping on public and private urban parks indefinitely, they are demonstrating their commitment to whatever cause […]


Another holiday, another opportunity to vilify the United States. Actually, the upcoming Columbus Day holiday is just a warm-up for the Thanksgiving main event. We know the narrative by now. Christopher Columbus was not a heroic explorer who discovered a new world. He was a villain who set in motion the centuries-long American reign of […]


Last week, two things happened in Wakefield, Massachusetts that at least temporarily restored my hope for America’s self-image. First, Paul D. Wedge, a lacrosse coach at Wakefield High School, convinced the Board of Selectmen to let him mount a bronze cast with Big Jim Landrigan’s Silver Star Citation at Landrigan Field where future generations of […]


Every generation has one of those “always remember where you were” dates. For the Greatest Generation, it was Pearl Harbor. For the Baby Boomers, it was the JFK assassination. September 11, 2001 is one of those dates. The 10th anniversary of 9/11 is upon us, and even more than any of the preceding anniversaries, the […]