NYTimes columnist Bob Herbert today cites Robert Reich’s new book “Aftershock” as he writes about the out-of-whack economic picture in the country. Read his column here, and get the NYT if you appreciate the thinking, whether you agree with him or not. There was plenty of growth, but the economic…
Read More »
Lowell City Councilor Franky Descoteaux The MassINC Associate Board presents: The New Faces of Politics in Massachusetts Roles and Responsibilities in a New Political Landscape Keynote Address At-large City Councilor Ayanna Pressley, Boston City Council Panel Discussion Featuring Councilor Brendan Crighton, Lynn City Council Councilor Franky Descoteaux, Lowell City Council…
Read More »
From the NYTimes: WASHINGTON – The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, proposed legislation on Monday to continue the Bush-era income tax cuts indefinitely, even for the wealthiest Americans, testing the willingness of Democrats to vote for a tax increase in a weak economy and making clear that the…
Read More »
Russell Banks (web photo courtesy of cmu.edu) After 22 years of the annual Lowell Celebrates Kerouac! festival on the first weekend of October, the long-time organizers and new allies and partners came together to boost the festival to a higher orbit. The re-named Jack Kerouac Literary Festival will open on…
Read More »
The NYT today has an article about the current exhibition of photographs by poet Allen Ginsberg at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. The article in the paper includes a photograph of Kerouac making a goofy face on the street in NY in 1953. Read the article by…
Read More »
Voices are getting louder and more anxious as the country openly re-examines its value system. I have a sense that some key brick in the wall of national identity has come loose, leaving us with a very shaky structure that is causing widespread instability. I had an encounter today with an…
Read More »
I know our readers can get national opinion columns elsewhere on the web, from the sources and other aggregators, but I feel compelled to bring some of the ones that make a lot of sense to me to our site for easy access. Also, any day now this growing controversy…
Read More »
Lowell is a generous community. You can say the same for the region: Greater Lowell and the Greater Merrimack Valley. The people, businesses, organizations, foundations, and institutions give and give to those in need and to important causes that benefit many of us. Here are a few upcoming fund-raising events from my…
Read More »
Common . Nineteenth-century designers saw parks as breathing spaces whose trees would pump oxygen through tenement and mansion alike. Even the vocabulary of green spaces freshens speech—grove and bee, clover and pebble, pine cone and jay. Seagulls on the common across the street from my family’s house stand as stout…
Read More »
He’s back with another brain-stretcher of a mega-concept. David Brooks is writing about a national “gentility shift,” a long-term trend in how Americans are organizing their society, that he suggests may be a root cause of today’s new kind of economic pain. This has to do with younger people mostly—what those with more…
Read More »
Menu