Join us at our neighborhood meeting in Dorchester! This Saturday, May 17, 11:30 a.m.  Fields Corner Library 1520 Dorchester Ave. Dorchester The 15 Now campaign is coming to YOUR neighborhood. Check out our Dorchester neighborhood meeting and discuss the issues working people face in your neighborhood this Saturday and how you can get involved with the campaign dedicated building a strong movement of working people in the city! 15 Now New England ballot launch meeting in Boston a success! Read more here.         Big things are happening! Massachusetts Teachers Association endorses 15 Now!   As an acknowledgement of the growing momentum for 15 Now and the movement for $15/hr, the Massachusetts Teachers Association, a union of 110,000 teachers and education staff from around the state, voted to endorse the 15 Now campaign! This a huge victory and sends a message that working people are united in our demand for a $15/hr minimum wage!     Fast Food Workers to Strike in Boston!   This Thursday, there will be strikes by fast food workers in 150 US cities and in 33 countries on 6 continents demanding $15/hr and a union. This will be be the single biggest day of action by fast food workers since the movement began in 2012.    Come join 15 Now and others on the picket line this Thursday at either of the two actions in Boston! 5:30 AM - Dorchester 9 Dewar St (Corner of Dewar and Dorchester Ave)   11:30 AM - Downtown Crossing Outside Macy's on Summer Street    RSVP on Facebook!

Glenn Greenwald on NSA Bugging Tech Hardware, Economic Espionage & Spying on U.N. excerpts, from DemNow: "Nearly a year after he first met Edward Snowden, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald continues to unveil new secrets about the National Security Agency and the surveillance state. His new book, "No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State," is being published today. It includes dozens of previously secret NSA documents, including new details on how the NSA routinely intercepts routers, servers and other computer hardware devices being exported from the United States. According to leaked documents published in the book, the NSA then implants backdoor surveillance tools, repackages the devices with a factory seal and sends them on. This gives the NSA access to entire networks and all their users. The book includes one previously secret NSA file that shows a photo of an agent opening a box marked CISCO. Below it reads a caption: "Intercepted packages are opened carefully." Another memo observes that some signals intelligence tradecraft is "very hands-on (literally!)." ... The second story which I think was probably even more responsible for the worldwide explosion was the PRISM program, because this program revealed that Facebook and Google and Yahoo and Skype and Microsoft were directly cooperating with the NSA in all sorts of extensive ways to ensure easy NSA access to the communications that take place through those companies. And the reason that was so significant is because, unlike the NSA story of 2005 that involved AT&T and Sprint and Verizon, U.S. domestic telephone companies, these Internet companies are the primary means that the entire First World, for lack of a better term, uses to communicate, and even lots of people in developing countries who are now looking to these companies as the primary means. So you’re not just talking about one country; you’re talking about hundreds of millions, probably billions of people around the world who use these companies. ... but I think what became apparent to people is that literally the mission of the NSA—and this is them in their own words—is to eliminate privacy globally. And that’s not hyperbole. Literally, their institutional mandate is to collect and store and, when they want, analyze and monitor all forms of electronic communication that take place between human beings around the planet. And once people understood that this extraordinary system of suspicionless surveillance, which was truly unprecedented in scope, had been created completely in the dark—I mean, no one knew about any of this, even though it had been done by allegedly democratic governments—it became more than a surveillance story. It became a story about government secrecy and accountability and the role of journalism, and certainly privacy and surveillance in the digital age. AMY GOODMAN: Your book is called No Place to Hide. In it, you reveal previously—previously secret NSA files. Why don’t you go through some of those? ... And then, one of the biggest stories that’s new in the book is this program that really is quite remarkable, which is, all over the world, people buy routers and switches and servers, which are the devices that let corporations or municipalities or villages provide Internet service to large numbers of people at once, hundreds or even thousands. And there are American companies that are leaders in these products, such as Cisco. And what the NSA will do, whenever it decides that it wants to, is, once somebody orders a product from Cisco, Cisco then ships it to that person; the NSA physically intercepts the package, takes it from FedEx or from the U.S. mail service, brings it back to NSA headquarters, opens up the package, and plants a backdoor device on one of these devices, reseals it with a factory seal and then sends it on to the unwitting user, who then provides Internet service to large numbers of people, all of which is instantly redirected into the repositories of the NSA. ... I mean, one of the remarkable parts about this story, this specific story, is that for many years the U.S. government has been warning the world not to buy routers, switches and servers from Chinese companies, on the grounds that the Chinese government is invading these products and putting backdoor surveillance devices onto them, and saying, "You cannot trust Chinese products." And in fact, the largest Chinese technology company, Huawei, recently announced it was leaving the U.S. market, because they had been so demonized by the U.S. government that they couldn’t sell their products anymore. And so, to find out that the U.S. government is doing exactly that which they’ve been accusing the Chinese doing— ... video and full transcript prior to break after the break: http://www.democracynow.org/2014/5/13/the_stuff_i_saw_really_began excerpt: AMY GOODMAN: That’s Edward Snowden. A federal judge or the president of the United States—and this, of course, is what the Obama administration at first completely denied. GLENN GREENWALD: Right. And the Obama administration—and I say this really advisably—was knowingly lying to the public when they denied the truth of what he had said. And, you know, this was in the very first week, and that was explosive claim, and the NSA had no idea what evidence we had, so they could—they thought they could lie with impunity. And then we ultimately published documents, and I publish on purpose a lot more in the book, that demonstrate exactly what analysts are capable of doing. And what they’re capable of doing is exactly what Edward Snowden said, which is—the phrase that describes what the NSA is attempting to do and is close to doing is their own phrase, which is "collect it all." They want to collect and store the entire Internet, literally every email, every chat, every Google search, every website that you click on.

Dear Al, Every year Congress has two chances to reduce Pentagon waste through the appropriations and authorization bills.  Next week the House will vote on its version of the National Defense Authorization Act. Email your Representative now to reduce Pentagon spending. As it stands, the bill would authorize $521.3 billion plus approximately  $80 billion for the Afghanistan War and other unrelated Pentagon expenditures that are funded in a separate Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) account.  Next week, your Representative may offer or support amendments that will cut wasteful Pentagon pork. There will only be a short time next week when we will know exactly what amendments the Republican leadership will allow to be voted on so please write your Representative today. We expect amendments that will: *End the Afghanistan War as soon as possible — it’s time to bring all troops and contractors home and to not leave any behind after this year. *Cut the OCO slush fund — Last year it funded some $30 billion of unrelated items. *Cut the F-35 — the most expensive plane and Pentagon project in history. *Audit the Pentagon — The Pentagon is the only part of the Government that cannot pass an audit. *Cut the Littoral Combat Ship — experts say it will cost over three times the original estimate. *Reduce General's Pensions — currently they are allowed to make MORE in retirement than when working. *Cut the M1 Abrams Tank — the Pentagon doesn’t even want it. *Reduce the Nuclear Triad — Without the Cold War we cannot afford to upgrade all the nuclear weapon delivery systems while we significantly reduce our stockpile. *Cut overseas military bases and support a Base Realignment and Closure Commission — There are over 1,000 U.S. military bases abroad including those in countries who can afford their own security.  Within the U.S. there are bases that the Pentagon doesn’t want. Again please take time NOW towrite your Representative to cut the Pentagon budget so we can afford other priorities like job creation, education and infrastructure. Humbly for Peace, Paul Kawika Martin Political Director Peace Action Take Action Email Your Rep Now to Cut Pentagon Spending CONNECT TO US:  Find us on Facebook  Follow us on Twitter  Read our blog  Contact us You are subscribed to Peace Action's Action Alert Network. You can unsubscribe here.

NO TO FASCISM IN UKRAINE

NO WAR WITH RUSSIA!

 

Rally

May 17 • 1 pm

Park St T Station

Boston

 

 MONEY FOR JOBS, NOT WAR!

 BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW

 STOP NATO EXPANSION

 HANDS OFF DONETSK & LUGANSK

 END U.S. AID TO NEO-NAZI COUP REGIME IN KIEV

 JUSTICE FOR MURDERED ANTI-FASCISTS

 

 

PART OF THE MAY 9—26 CALL TO ACTION BY UNITED NATIONAL ANTIWAR COALITION

INITIATED BY: INTERNATIONAL ACTION CENTER IACenter.org

Endorsers list in formation 617-286-6574 iacboston.org No2NATO.org

 

LET’S STOP THE NEXT U.S. WAR BEFORE IT STARTS!

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Crisis in the Ukraine: Cold War? Civil War? Roots of the Conflict

When: Wednesday, May 28, 2014, 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Where: First Parish Unitarian Church • 3 Church St • Harvard T • Cambridge

Ukraine in 2013; Crimea is now part of the Russian Federation

speakers:

Mark Solomon, professor of history (emeritus), Simmons College

Gary Leupp, professor of history, Tufts University

President Obama in his April visit to Japan commented, "Mr. Putin has had an increasing tendency to see the world through a Cold War prism."  But there are many questions:

• is the US/NATO push into Eastern Europe after the collapse of the Soviet Union  the real source of tension with Russia?  
• Did the US government spend five billion dollars for democracy or regime change?
• Who are the fascists in the new Kiev government?  
• Will sanctions isolate Russia?
• What is behind the conflict in Odessa and Eastern Ukraine and will it lead to civil war?

How should the peace movement respond to rising tensions between the two biggest nuclear powers and the US shift towards covert war?   The UJP forum will examine these issues and possible action items.

sponsored by United for Justice with Peace

617 383 4857 or info@justicewithpeace.org 

United for Justice with Peace is a coalition of peace and justice organizations and community peace groups in the Greater Boston region. The UJP Coalition, formed after September 11th, seeks global peace through social and economic justice. Help us continue to do this critical work! Make a donation to UJP today.
info@justicewithpeace.org	617-383-4857	www.justicewithpeace.org

 

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Alfred, It would be hard to have missed Michelle Obama's photo with the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls, displaying sad eyes as she gave the pre-Mothers Day President's talk Saturday, assuring the public that the US would do everything it can to help rescue the hundreds of girls kidnapped by the Islamic fundamentalist group Boko Haram in Nigeria. We hope this turns out like the New York Police Department's Twitter campaign recently, which asked for photos of people with #MyNYPD, and got barraged with photos of police brutality from Occupy protests, stop & frisk arrests and unjust murders by the NYPD. In fact, Buzzfeed has gathered some of the response which either turns Michelle's sign into something truthful -- "My husband has killed more girls than Boko Haram ever could," or "BringBackYourDrones." The civilian toll of US drone strikes has penetrated US alternative news media this week like never before. Abu-Bakr al Shamahi writes 8 Stories of Civilians Killed by U.S. Drone Strikes in Yemen about the need to tell the stories of people killed because they are invisible: “That lack of humanity is part of the problem: Drone operators tucked away somewhere in Nevada or New Mexico are shielded from the casualties of their work, the human beings killed, the damage and destruction caused when a hellfire missile explodes into a car packed full of people....The following stories of eight people killed by drone strikes are important to tell because they show that behind every sanitized report of drone casualty figures, there are real people with goals, loves and dreams whose lives have been extinguished.” Learn about these people who lived in Yemen: Abdulaziz al-Huraydan, a child Aref al-Shafi'i, a father Salim Al-Taysi, a father of 6 children Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, a teenaged American citizen Salim Ahmed Jaber, an imam who spoke against al-Qaida Waleed Abdullah Jaber, a police officer Jabir al-Shabwani, a deputy governor Ali al-Qawli, a school teacher Pratap Chatterjee writes on TomDispatch, in The Three Faces of Drone War about Rene Lopez, an Army intelligence specialist who says he “has been working in the dark arts of hunting and killing ‘high value targets’ using a National Security Agency (NSA) tool known as Gilgamesh.” Chatterjee explains: “That tool is named after a ruthless Sumerian king who ruled over Uruk, an ancient city in what is now Iraq. With the help of the massive trove of NSA documents leaked by Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill recently explained that Gilgamesh is the code name for a special device mounted on a Predator drone that can track the mobile phones of individuals without their knowledge by pretending to be a cell phone tower.” Brandon Bryant, a 28-year-old U.S. airman, whose squadron has been credited with 1,626 kills, and is “among the first to be openly critical of the impact of remote tracking and targeting, of, that is, robot war.” Chatterjee says that in a new film on the US drone war, “Drone,” by Norwegian film maker Tonye Schei, “Bryant reveals that his former colleagues in the Air Force had not just been carrying out drone strikes on the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq where the military was involved in open warfare. They were also conducting the strikes in the supposed CIA drone assassination campaigns in Pakistan and Yemen.” Heather Linebaugh, a former drone intelligence analyst, who wrote in The Guardian in December 2013 about the effects of robotic killing on the targeters: “‘How many women and children have you seen incinerated by a Hellfire missile? How many men have you seen crawl across a field, trying to make it to the nearest compound for help while bleeding out from severed legs?’ She added, ‘When you are exposed to it over and over again it becomes like a small video, embedded in your head, forever on repeat, causing psychological pain and suffering that many people will hopefully never experience.’” Sunrise Anti-Drone War Protest When Obama Speaks at West Point Commencement Wednesday May 28 Knowing what is going on is really important, a first step to stopping it.  But ACTING against it in many different ways is necessary.  We have just learned that President Obama is giving the commencement speech at the US Military Academy at West Point on Wednesday May 28.  It's unlikely he will be dis-invited because of protest. See Rice, Condi. We'll be on public roads at two West Point gates as cars enter the campus for the ceremony.  We will gather at 6:45 am near the Stoney Lonesome Gate of West Point just off Route 9W, one exit north of the exit leading to Highland Falls, NY, home of West Point. The protest will end shortly before 10 am when the commencement is scheduled to begin. MAP  Write for more info. Friday May 23 Global Day of Action to Close the Torture Camp at Guantanamo & End Indefinite Detention Emad Hassan, photographed in Guantánamo. He has been cleared for release since 2007. Actions have been added in Pittsburgh, Portland OR, Mexico City and Redwood City CA. Check Facebook. Received this week from Reprieve in the UK, representing several of the prisoners held in Guantanamo, a letter from Emad Hassan on the ongoing hunger strike, now whited-out by the U.S. military who has stopped reporting numbers of prisoners striking and being force-fed: “‘One Yemeni is 80 pounds and he was brought to his feeding by the Forced Cell Extraction (FCE) team, Guantánamo's official riot police. Yesterday the F.C.E team beat him when they came into and out of his cell. He is 80 pounds with one broken arm. He cannot walk, just crawl from his bed to the faucet or toilet once he needs to use it! How can someone with this condition fight 8 armoured guards?’ Emad, himself a Yemeni who has been on hunger strike since 2007 and cleared for release from the prison since 2007, has never been charged with a crime. He said in another letter: ‘As I write now, [a detainee] is vomiting on the torture chair, having been brought there by the Forced Cell Extraction (FCE) team. The nurse and corpsman have refused to stop the feed, or to slow the acceleration of the liquids.’” Download Organizers Toolkit for May 23rd Day of Action to Close Guantanamo, prepared by Witness Against Torture. Includes sample fliers, songs, poems, and many tips on how to stage a creative and powerful protest, even with just a handful of people! Share this message: World Can't Wait Conversations: Please join us tonight with a special guest who's deeply involved in defending Guantanamo prisoners. Thursday May 15: 10pm Eastern / 7pm Pacific Conversation with Carlos Warner, a federal defender and attorney for Guantanamo prisoners, as we prepare for protests May 23 to Close Guantanamo NOW. For background, see an interview with Carlos from last month on The Talking Dog blog which covers the work of Guantanamo attorneys.  Send in your questions & thoughts for Carlos ahead of time. REGISTER for dial-in info.  — CALENDAR — Join World Can't Wait, War Criminals Watch and the Stop Mass Incarcration Network at: The Left Forum May 31-June 1 John Jay College New Building 524 West 59th Street NYC PANELS: Vast Surveillance of Whole Populations: The NSA Revelations One Year Out The US government collects billions of bytes of “metadata” on phone calls, emails, bank traffic, text messaging, chats -- content, recipients, etc. – storing everything for future use, if not needed immediately.  Edward Snowden and others in the field say the amount of data collected doubles every two years. The ramifications of this data collection and storage process goes beyond issues of civil liberties and abstract rights.  It leads to how the US ruling interests can control whole populations – in this country and throughout the world – with the threat that whoever you are, if you act, or even think about acting in a way that this or a future government doesn't like, you could be targeted. How can this be countered? How do we organize ourselves to engage in visible protest? William Binney, Kevin Gosztola, Abi Hassen, Ray McGovern Bringing CUNY into the US War Machine – Students and Faculty Rise UpCUNY has restored ROTC on a number of campuses after it was driven out by protest 40 years ago. General David Petraeus, architect of the “surge” in Iraq, one-time CENTCOM and CIA Director, is teaching at Macaulay Honors College.  The US military is shifting recruiting on diverse urban campuses like CUNY, saying that in 15 years it needs officers who “reflect the geographic and demographic diversity of the country.” What is the challenge for those who want to stop unjust wars? Prof. Ian Hansen, Sharmin Hossain, Ray McGovern, Prof. Glenn Petersen US “Dirty” Wars, Targeted Killing & Secret Operations Supercede Military Occupations – But Are Still Illegitimate More than twelve years into the “war on terror,” the CIA and Pentagon war planners are increasing emphasis on special operations and targeting killing, with open discussion of targeting US citizens. International law has gone by the wayside, as have constitutional protections of citizens.Medea Benjamin, Ed Kinane, Ben Kuebrich, Nick Mottern, Paki Wieland Imperialist Wars & Global Ecological Degradation With 1100+ bases, the US military is the single largest user of fossil fuels in this century, while at the same time it fights wars and engages in occupations to both to ensure strategic access to those resources and deny rivals control.  In its military, it uses weapons of mass destruction, such as Agent Orange (in Vietnam) and depleted uranium (in the former Yugoslavia and in Iraq) which cause horrendous suffering including cancer and birth defects and remain over time as potent environmental toxins.  The ecological effects of war, such as the burning of oil fields and the destruction of large urban constructions, spreads poisonous fumes and dust, with devastating effects. Larry Everest, Dr. Mozhgan Savabieasfahani More Events Debra Sweet, Director, The World Can't Wait

If you were forwarded this message and would like to subscribe directly, sign up here. World Can't Wait | (866) 973-4463 | 305 West Broadway #185 NY, NY 10013 Make a donation online | Make a tax-deductible donation online Send checks or money orders, payable to "World Can't Wait": World Can't Wait 305 W. Broadway #185 New York, NY 10013 To make a tax-deductible donation of $100 or more in support of World Can't Wait's educational activities, please make checks out to "World Can't Wait/Alliance for Global Justice," a 501(3)(c) organization.

Massachusetts Workers need a Higher Minimum Wage and Paid Sick Time! Help Massachusetts Peace Action make sure they win both.  Raise Up Massachusetts Phase III is under Way A higher minimum wage and the right to earned sick days are a basic part of a social justice agenda. Join the Massachusetts Peace Action team supporting  Raise Up Massachusetts! Massachusetts Peace Action joins close to 100 other community organizations engaged in the struggle for economic and socail justice. Thanks to those of you who have already made a contribution to earlier phases of the campaign to raise the minimum wage and make earned paid sick days available to all workers in the commonwealth.  Massachusetts Peace Action is proud have helped raise the 285,000 signatures in phase 1 of the campaign, the first step in changing the Commonwealth's policies}. Many of us also called and wrote our Representatives in phase 2 of the campaign as the Massachusetts House of Representatives debated the issue.  Together, the Raise UP Massachusetts community organizations were able to beat back efforts to cut unemployment pay, special lower minimums for teens or new workers,  In the end, however, the Massachusetts House of Representatives passed a version of the Minmum wage that has no indexing so that it will begin losing its impact the minute it passes as any gains are eaten up.  The House version also disrespects tipped workers by proposing a $3.15 minimum wage for them.   The Massachusetts Senate which passed a much better bill and the House of Representatives will now try to reconcile the bill. The earned sick days bill has not passed in either the House or the Senate. The Raise Up Massachusetts Campaign  third phase has now begun.  By June 18 we need to collect roughly 11,000 valid signatures of registered voters on each petition. in order to be able to put the measures on the state ballot this November.  Fullfilling this requirement is also the best way to put pressure on the Massachusetts legislature to pass an acceptable minimum wage bill. Please click here to join in the Raise Up Campaign by getting signatures from your friends, neighbors or by joining the petition campaign efforts.   Minimum Wage Raise the minimum wage and ensure that it keeps pace with the rising cost of living. An increase in the minimum wage would impact one in five workers in Massachusetts and give them the financial stability to provide for their families. The minimum wage in Massachusetts has been stuck at $8 an hour since 2008, yet costs keep rising – and workers are long overdue for a raise. Workers can’t afford the basic necessities, and it’s an everyday struggle to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads. The Minimum Wage Petition will raise the wage up to $10.50 an hour in two steps and establish a cost of living adjustment to keep up with inflation. The ballot proposal provides for a tipped worker minimum wage of $6.30 an hour. Earned Sick Time Raise Up Massachusetts is fighting to ensure earned sick time for workers across the state. Under our proposal, workers would be able to earn one hour of sick time for every 30 hours worked, up to 40 hours a year, so that they don’t have to risk losing their jobs to care for themselves or their families. For nearly 1 million workers in Massachusetts, staying home to care for themselves or a sick child could mean losing their job. The ability for workers to care and provide for themselves and family members is a right, not a privilege, and now is the time to make it a reality for working families. Earned sick time is also good for business. Job retention policies like earned sick time reduce unemployment and strengthen the economy. When workers are able to earn sick time, it decreases employee turnover, limits the spread of illness at the workplace, and maximizes productivity. We need volunteers to collect our part of the signatures to put the Minimum Wage and Earned Sick Day issues on the Ballot.  Click here to volunteer to help collect the signatures needed. In solidarity, John Ratliff Massachusetts Peace Action Economic Justice Coordinator

Join Massachusetts Peace Action - or renew your membership today!   Dues are $40/year for an individual, $65 for a family, or $10 for student/unemployed/low income.  Members vote for leadership and endorsements, receive newsletters and discounts on event admissions.  Donate now and you will be a member in good standing through December 2014!  Your financial support makes this work possible! Massachusetts Peace Action, 11 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138 617-354-2169  • info@masspeaceaction.org • Follow us on Facebook or Twitter Click here to unsubscribe

***Out In The 1950s Be-Bop Night- Memories Of Snug Harbor Elementary School 

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman

A while back I went on to the class website established for the 50^th Anniversary reunion of my North Adamsville High School Class of 1964 (that’s in Massachusetts) to check out a new addition to the list of those who have joined the site. Now the way this site works, like lots of such sites, is that each classmate who logs in gets a profile page to tell his or her story of what has happened of interest in their lives over that previous 50 years, stuff at least that they wanted classmates to know about.  Donna, the site administrator (and class Vice-President back in the day), had recently added a poll section to the homepage in which various questions were posed. The first question asked was where class members went to elementary school and gave some choices from elementary schools that would have fed into North Adamsville High. I had gone to an “other” non-listed school, Snug Harbor Elementary,   on the other side of town that fed into cross-town rival Adamsville High and so I provided the following comments on the “Message Forum” page set up on the site to be used to make such timely comments.

********

Snug Harbor Elementary… Among The “Others”

[Snug Harbor was not listed by name on the survey so I made this comment on the “Message Forum” section.]

Since “other” is the largest segment of the “What elementary school(s) did you attend?” poll those of us who went elsewhere should identify themselves. Here’s my contribution.

I went to Snug Harbor Elementary School, 1952-1958 which I believe served both the Adamsville “projects” where I came of age  and the private homes up to Sea Street. I was in the first class to go from Grade 1 to 6 in that school. I know there are other NA64ers who went through the school although I am not sure how many went all six years. Identify yourselves. 

 

 

Snug Harbor Memories…

Recently I went down to the Adamsville projects in order to take some photos of Snug Harbor Elementary School to add to the elementary school attended list on our North Adamsville Class of 1964 site. I also took some other photos that I had not originally intended to put on the site. However since fellow ex-Snug Harbor students Johnny Terry and Danny Valentine in MF#31 and #33 have referenced various places there I have decided to place some photos here to give some context to what they/we are talking about.

Everybody who came out of “the projects” back in the 1950s (that is what everybody, residents and non-residents, called the Adamsville Housing Authority four-unit apartment complexes then, for good or evil) knows that there was that one little convenience store, then called Carter’s, to service the whole place if you needed some quick food purchases. The place is still there under a different name (see photo). Strangely there was not, and still is not, any large supermarket on the whole peninsula. I estimated that the nearest shopping area is about four miles away, not easy when you like in my day we had no family car or, as likely, a junk box that ran erratically. That despite the fact that there were/are several hundred families living in those apartments (see photo) many somewhat dependent on public transportation, then the dreaded never-coming Eastern Mass bus which I spent half my youth waiting for, or I should say would have spent have my youth waiting for if I had not taken matters into my own hands and just walked to Adamsville Center or wherever I need to go. Now the MBTA has that route and I hope provides more regular service to those in need of such services.

Naturally if your household ran out of milk or bread-milk to salute the President or somebody when we walked home at noon for lunch and watched Big Brother (no, not Orwell’s) Bob Emery on WBZ television and Jesus-white bread Wonder Bread for those endless peanut and jelly sandwiches-you walked down along the seawall on Palmer Street to the store to make your emergency purchases. But that was to placate the parents. The real draw for young kids then at Carter’s was the vast, vast to young eyes, display cases of penny candy (you know Mary Janes, no, not that Mary Jane, not then anyway, Bazooka bubble gum, Tootsie rolls, Milk Duds, root beer barrels, Necco wafers, etc.), soda (then called, ah, tonic by the civilized New England world now out of fashion, the word and the world) in a big ice-filled chest containing the Cokes and Pepsis of the day but also various flavored Nehis, Hires Root Beer, Robb’s, etc.), and Twinkies/Hostess cupcakes/Devil Dogs, Table Talk pies and I might as well add etc. here too. In short that sugar high we are all guarding against these days with a vengeance with weight programs, arcane and profuse medical advice, and sheer will-power but which fueled our fast brave young hearts then.

Astonishingly with a few minor changes and some upgrading of the units walking around “the projects” today is about the same as in the 1950s. Danny mentioned that he had lived at 115 Taffy Road so I know many of the spots that he referred to in his message. (See photo of the jetty when he and his father fished, my brothers and I built a raft to try to go out on the seven seas or our idea of that adventure, and the P&G factory across the channel that reeked of soap on warm summer nights when the wind was up. See also the photo of one of the beaches that we swam at, although not I think Red Beach, the beach where I almost drown when I was eight and was saved in just the nick of time as I was going down for the third time by the swimming instructor on the beach, now returned to its natural state. And a photo of one of the apartment complex units-four units to a complex with all the social pathologies of people, poor people living in small quarters too close together).

 

 

 

Our family, my parents and two brothers, Kevin (NAHS Class of 1966) and Paul (should have been in our class but dropped out in 10th grade) lived at 88 Taffy Road. We were the first family to live in our unit beginning in about 1950 and left in the winter of 1959 to return to North Adamsville where Paul and I attended North Adamsville Junior High, now Middle School (Kenny, the Quincy School and then NAJH). We missed the famous “long march” from North Adamsville High to the new junior high school that winter arriving just after that historic event. (I have heard, although, I consider it nothing but a nasty rumor that there are still five students missing who got lost on the way over and never reported to North Adamsville Junior High-ah, such is the nature of long marches.)     

Danny and Johnny both mentioned Saint Joseph’s Church as the church that they attended since there was no church, no Catholic Church, in the Adamsville projects until 1956 or so. (Saint Boniface’s since de-consecrated, exorcised, or whatever that process is called to un-church the building.) There had been CC services held in the Snug Harbor school auditorium before that time. Sunday school by stern unforgiving nuns who apparently believed that spare the rod, spoil the child was the way to go with unruly kids who did not know their Baltimore Catechism by heart, as I well know, was held in an adjoining area of the school. I confess that I do not remember where that Saint Joseph’s they mentioned is since I had my first communion (along with brother Paul) at Blessed Sacrament in Hough’s Point.  

The names that Danny mentioned as having attended Snug Harbor before North Adamsville High, Mickey Finn and Franny Lawrence from our storied NAHS football team especially, I recall as well. I would add Brad Badger the great cross country and track runner from our class who lived there until 4^th grade and who was my best friend back then (as well as later through high school). And Tommy McFarland, one of the guys from the NAS golf team. Forget all those guys though. Here is a real special remembrance. The projects is where I came of age (quaint, right?). Naturally I developed some “crushes” when I started being attracted to, ah, girls, those sticks that one year were so giggly and bothersome and then all of a sudden the next year had charms, and became, well, interesting. Interesting trying to figure out, no, not intellectually figure out but figure out how to kiss when they turned out the lights at some birthday party or “petting” party. The biggest crush I had over a girl, a girl all dewy, smelling of bath soap and wearing cashmere sweaters, is one who is a member of our NAHS class. Her initials are MG so you can scurry to the Manet [our class year book] and figure it out. And no I never spoke to her. Jesus, are you kidding she was not a “projects” girl but lived in one of the ranch houses for the up and coming middle class that were being build up the street outside the projects. So, no, no way did I talk to her. Such are the ways of forlorn young puppy love.     

The most important place in the whole projects, and which probably saved my life, was the Thomas Crane Public Library branch that was then located in the basement of the Snug Harbor school (and is now located at Sea Street and Palmer). Probably saved me from the troubled fate of a lot of projects kids that I hung around with, some like Ronny, George and Slim who later wound up in jail, Cedar Junction for major felonies, or like Peter, face down in some dusty back alley in Mexico with two bullets in his skull after a busted drug deal. Unfortunately the lure of the easy life hit both my brothers. In fifth and sixth grade I was torn between a very alluring life of petty crime (you know “clipping” stuff from stores, mainly jewelry, a little jack-rolling, daydream thoughts of big time armed robberies of gas stations and such) and books. I had always liked to read before but in the battle between books and satisfying a poor boy’s wanting habits the pull was toward the latter. In the summer after sixth grade immediately after school got out I just kind of wandered into the library one hot day to get out of the heat and read for the whole day and from then on I was hooked on books. As for the criminal life, well, it had its good points and I am simplifying this narrative too much to say that the romance of the bandit life stopped cold that hot summer day but I eventually figured out there were easier ways to survive in this wicked old world than that road. But it was a close thing, a very close thing.

In Honor Of May Day 2014-From The American Left History Blog Archives-Notes Of An Old Soldier-Greetings On May Day 2012 From The Boston Rally- Immediate Unconditional Withdrawal Of All U.S./Allied Troops And Mercenaries From Afghanistan –Ten Years Is Enough!

 

Sisters and Brothers, Hermanas y Hermanos, greetings on this glorious May Day, a day of international solidarity with the working people and oppressed of the world. Veterans for Peace proudly stands in solidarity with and defense of the just struggles of all people for political, social and economic justice in this wicked old world. And as witness our defenses of the encampments at Dewey Square in October and December of last year, and on a myriad other occasions, these are not just flowery words used on holiday occasions.

 

May Day is a very appropriate day to address the lessons of war and peace, lessons, as our organization’s name indicates, that have been dearly learned by war-hardened veterans on many of the battle fields of the 20^th and 21^st century.  I want to tell you a secret, a secret though that I want you to spread far and wide. I do not give a damn about the Obama Administration’s timetable for withdrawal from Afghanistan. I say, no I cry out to high heaven- Immediate Unconditional Withdrawal of All U.S./Allied Troops and Mercenaries from Afghanistan. Ten years is enough!

 

And since this May Day is a day for actions I call on our sister and brother rank and file soldiers in Afghanistan, abandoned by the Obama administration to international expediency, to tell, no order, their commanders from that lowly platoon leader out in the boondocks to Commander-In Chief Obama to rev up the jeeps now, rev up the truck transports now, rev up the transport planes now. All Troops Out Now! And when they get back here heal them! Enough of war! Thank you.