Author Archive
‘Remembering Arthur Ramalho’ by D-Tension
Our friend in Lowell, D-Tension, the writer, performing artist, record producer, and all around-er, recently shared this appreciation of Arthur Ramalho, icon of the city’s boxing scene on his Facebook page. With his permission, we are cross-posting the piece here. The image of the famed trainer is by Danielle Levitt,…
Read More »“September 11” by Stephen O’Connor
The author of two novels and a collection of short stories, Smokestack Lightning, Stephen O’Connor of Lowell is a past contributor to this blog whose writing in included in History As It Happens: Citizen Bloggers in Lowell, Mass. (2017), a collection of the best of the RichardHowe.com blog in its…
Read More »‘9/11 at Home’
Remembering those persons who perished on 9/11 today, especially those with local connections. This entry is cross-posted from my blog at paulmarion.com Posting this on 9/11/2019 in memory of John Ogonowski of Dracut, Mass., where I grew up, and the other persons affiliated with the University of Massachusetts-Lowell who perished,…
Read More »“Trees of Bolton”: A New Poem by Chath pierSath
Chath lives and works on a small family farm in Bolton, Mass., where he contemplates writing as a form of escape, but he can’t just rid himself of human ties. He paints the American sky thinking of Cambodia’s tyranny and blood. He’s alone, but not lonely, and tries living to…
Read More »Hannah Arendt’s Insight Applies: Some People Will Not Comply
Hannah Arendt (web photo courtesy of the L.A. Times) Certain national observers have been saying for some time that America is in a state of emergency, and many of us have felt like that since late 2016. This is no normal time. The policy disruption at the federal level is…
Read More »Need a New Luther, Now
Web photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons We write about a lot of things here, many under the umbrellas of politics and history. There’s no escaping the religious element in our present political moment when ethical questions about fair payment for work done, equal treatment of all persons, humane responses to…
Read More »Main Issue for 2020 Election?
The median American household has only about $12,000 in savings. This quotation is from today’s New York Times, a guest essay on the opposite-editorial page by Caitlin Zaloom about the high cost of a college education and the financial impact on families who are not wealthy. Here’s the essay link…
Read More »Thoughts on the Second Democratic Party Debate (Part 1)
The Democratic candidates need to argue over the best way to improve health care coverage and settle on a party position before Iowa. Let them have a health care insurance summit in September to sort this out. Come to an agreement and stick by it. Make it clear to the…
Read More »Farewell, Charles Nikitopoulos, Humanitarian & Poetry Fan
My friend and mentor Charles Nikitopoulos of Lowell, Mass., passed away a few days ago. His obituary is here. I want to share my thoughts about what he meant to me as well as to the community and university of which he was a part for decades. He came to…
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