Or: fun with Boston Globe comments Most everyone has had the experience of reading something particularly enraging in the comment area below many online newspaper articles. I think it’s quite normal to feel frustrated and helpless in that situation. Because the nastiest opinions often appear to be the most popular ones. And there […]
GLOBAL WARMING NEEDS FRONT PAGE COVERAGE
Extinction Rebellion urges the Boston Globe to declare climate emergency For society to undergo the drastic, transformational change required to save our species, respected media like the Boston Globe should lead in communicating the existential risks of climate damage. The Extinction Rebellion is an international mobilization whose first demand is that governments and […]
A WORD ABOUT RICH KIDS IN THE ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT
(And in oppositional politics in general) For Earth Day, I’d like to write in brief about an internal dilemma the environmental movement is facing. Because if activist campaigns aimed at mitigating or stopping global warming have been failing to effect the necessary political, economic, social, and cultural changes toward that goal—as I think […]
STOP THE ELECTRIC SCOOTER SCAM
Mass needs expanded public transportation, not hazardous rental toys It’s not like I didn’t warn everyone. Last summer I wrote a column on the illegal rollouts of dockless electric scooters by Bird Rides in Cambridge and Somerville that was extremely critical of the company’s move on two grounds: safety, and the problem of […]
BREAKING CONCRETE CEILINGS FOR WOMEN OF COLOR COMES WITH A TAX
A response to the Boston Herald In response to the Boston Herald’s overtly racist and sexist article on Masshousing’s dining expenses and the appointment of its executive director’s new role on the MBTA Fiscal Control Board, I felt compelled to express my disappointment in the tired narrative that follows women of color in leadership […]
TRIFECTA: THREE VICIOUS ENVIRONMENTAL DECISIONS FROM GOV. BAKER
Everywhere you looked a couple of weeks back, there was the Green New Deal, an ambitious proposal to transition the entire US economy to a framework of sustainability and economic justice. A resolution urging creation of a GND was launched last week by freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and veteran Sen. Ed Markey, to enthusiastic […]
VOTE NO! HARVARD CLERICAL UNION REP CRITICIZES UNION’S CONTRACT PROPOSAL
Harvard University is one of the largest employers in Massachusetts, with over 18,000 employees. Thousands of Harvard’s workers are “contingent” and don’t have benefits such as health insurance or paid time off. The Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW) is the university’s largest union, with around 5,000 members. HU’s continuing ability to […]
EDITORIAL: MEDIUM WELL
Democracy requires public control of social media giants In this edition of DigBoston, our Editor-in-Chief Chris Faraone has already written at some length about how Medium—which is essentially a glorified blog farm with a puzzlingly opaque social media component—screwed our nonprofit, the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism (BINJ), a few days back by […]
TERROR AT 50 FEET
Acrimony over Seaport gondola plan speaks to need for expanded MBTA service Much ink has been spilled in the Boston press over a plan by luxury developer Millennium Partners and its subsidiary Cargo Ventures to spend $100 million to build an aerial gondola system from South Station up Summer Street across Fort Point […]
‘SELF AND OTHER’
The necessity of an international campaign to abolish nuclear weapons Recent comments by the leaders of the United States and North Korea have reignited public concern about the danger of nuclear war. The Nobel Peace Prize was given this past year to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. At the dawn of […]
