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Brookline TAB Column
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From 1999 to 2006 I wrote a local political column that frequently applied themes from my academic
essays to issues in Brookline, Massachusetts, where I was living at the time. When I wasn't doing my regular column I sometimes wrote occasional guest columns.
See
also:
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 Guest Column 2008
Gadflying
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- 2006
2005
2004
- Town Meeting Inconsistent on Police Discretion (2 December)
- Members should do more to curtail police abuse
- Town Meeting in Blue Brookline (11 November)
- Liberal town agenda demonstrates Red State - Blue State cultural divide
- Town Meeting Should Push Stubborn Transportation Board (21 October)
- Town board opts for meaningless controls on police discretion
- Grand Labor Battle at Grand Opening! Sex Boutique (23 September)
- Progressive small business expands and runs into labor trouble
- Back to School Food, Tests, and Propaganda (9 September)
- Better nutrition on the horizon, but high-stakes tests and DARE cops in class remain
- Random Observations: Housing, Cops, Sex Offenders (19 August)
- Appreciating Summertime Brookline (29 July)
- Summering through political films and political protest....
- Zoned Out at Zoning Hearing (8 July)
- Will selectmen's consultants slow down or hasten over-development?
- Transportation Board Indecision Aggravates Cops and Car-Owners (17 June)
- Failure to modify rule worsens problems stemming from police discretion
- Professional Roles, Police Discretion, and Political Decisions (3 June)
- Transportation Director biases professional role with personal opinions
- Brookline Reflections after 100 Columns (20 May)
- Congratulatory self-image doesn't always match reality in schools, police, and elsewhere
- Israel Celebrants and Protesters Bring More Heat than Light
(6 May)
- Pro- and anti-Zionist Brookline demonstrators speak past, not with, each other
- Lessons from Kagoshima (22 April)
- Visiting Japan offers food for thought here at home
- Police Discretion Worsens Parking-Limit Unfairness (8 April)
- Institutional problems need institutional solutions, not individual favors
- Disappointing Development Debate (25 March)
- Town Meeting needs revised debate procedures for better results
- Normalizing Same-Sex Marriage Talk (11 March)
- Schools should address gay marriage and related issues rather than avoid the topic
- Leaving Children Behind Locally (26 February)
- School Committee rhetoric against No Child Left Behind law not matched by resistance
- Brookline Place Proposal Not as Bad as Most (12 February)
- Benefits might outweigh negatives
- Car versus Bike (29 January)
- Town Transportation Board blows off bikers
- Shmoozing with Cops (1 January)
- Brookline's modern police force needs Civilian Review Board
up to top
2003
- Town Snow Job (18 December)
- Town should clear sidewalks for residents, not just for businesses
- Break
the Chains (4 December)
- Brookline
should halt corporate chain expansion into Coolidge Corner
- Let's
Study That! (20 November)
- Sending
things to committee -- "more research needs to be done"
-- promotes inaction or masks predetermined decisions
- Competing
Middle East Stances Confuse and Clarify (6 November)
- Jewish
peace activists and pro-Palestine supporters talk at cross-purposes
- Waiting
for Military Recruitment Clarification.... (30 October)
- My
failed effort to find out Brookline High School's policy in response
to federal military recruitment requirements
- Uncertain
Certainty (9 October)
- Politicians
who promise scientific perfection are either liars or fools (death
penalty, bioterror lab, 100% student proficiency)
- Middle
East Mess (25 September)
- Israeli
policy makes two equal states unlikely
- Teaching
Justice (11 September)
- Federal
grant to improve teaching of justice raises question
- Summer's
End Sharpens the Pen (28 August)
- As
summer heat dissipates, will the sharp edge return to assessing
life in Brookline?
- Marriott
Musings (14 August)
- New
Coolidge Corner hotel doesn't yet deliver on promises made to
gain approval
- Chuck
Morse Takes On Barney Frank (24 July)
- Conservative
talk show host won't unseat quintessential liberal, but at least
he gives airtime to Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn
- Road
Maps and Road Blocks (10 July)
- Road
map to Middle East peace unlikely to succeed, but Jewish-American
Medical Project forges ahead
- Make
Participation Count (26 June)
- Defenses
of town government overlook those for whom it doesn't always work
- Restructuring
for Town Democracy (12
June)
-
Strengthen participation rather than convert from town to city
- Picking
Topics and Picking Fights (29 May)
- Skip
Sesling uses tired cliches to bully critics of Israeli policy
into silence
- School
Committee Diploma Delay (15 May)
- Brookline
SC stalls again
- Federman
Arrest Reveals Divided Jewish Community (1 May)
- Activist
arrested for protesting Pat Robertson speech
- Marijuana
Bills Move in Right Direction (17 April)
- Medical
use and decriminalization should expand to legalization
- The
War Muddle (4 April)
- Local
opposition to war on Iraq moves appropriately in different directions
- School
Committee May Do (Some of) the Right Thing
(13 March)
- Brookline
should grant diplomas to high school graduates who fail -- or
boycott -- state MCAS test
- Powell
Won't Convince Town Anti-war Residents (2
February)
- Speech
to UN Security Council omits proof of sufficient threat to justify
war
- Diplomas,
Licenses, and Bar Mitzvahs (16 January)
- School
committees should resist state plans to withhold diplomas from
high school students who fail corporate-driven high-stakes exam
- Alcohol
Sting Leaves Sour Taste (2 January)
- Undercover
operations unfair, overreaching, counterproductive
2002
- Will
the Brookline School Committee Escalate MCAS Opposition? (19 December)
- The
Committee should do more to oppose mandatory high-stakes testing
- Jewish
Peace Group Faces Difficult Questions (4 December)
- Brit
Tzedek v'Shalom organizes in Boston, facing and side-stepping
key issues
- Justice,
Peace, and Amer Jubran (Again) (21 November)
- Jewish
peace activists should help free Palestinian activist Amer Jubran
from INS detention
- For
an Anti-war Town Meeting (7 November)
- Brookline
Town Meeting should vote for resolution against Bush's war on
Iraq
- Election
Odds & Ends (24 October)
- Massachusetts
election offers unexpected interest as third-party candidates
join debate
- Time
to Cool War Fever (10 October)
- Quick-and-easy
war against Iraq --as unlikely as that is -- would dangerously
advance unilateral US dominance
- Electoral
Yawns (26 September)
- State
election demonstrates need for instant runoff voting and other
democratic reforms
- Back-to-School
Survey (12 September)
- Questions
for parents of Brookline's public school children
- Democrats
Seek Jewish Votes (29 August)
- Gubernatorial
candidates avoid controversy in forum for Jewish audience
- Latest
MCAS Report No Surprise (15 August)
- Authorities
should ignore flawed report on high-stakes testing
- Legislative
Choices: Easy, Hard, Strange, Nonexistent (8 August)
- Boston
politicians seek Brookline votes
- Rules
and Discretion in Community Life (18 July)
- Rules
aren't best way to resolve community differences
- Fourth
of July Ironies (11 July)
- Jaoudat
Abouazza arrested in Cambridge, held by USA Patriot Act
- Town's
Comprehensive Plan Sketchy on Diversity (20 June)
- Town's
Comprehensive Plan neglects diverse views of less-favored residents
- Democracy,
Brookline Style (6 June)
- "Representative
Town Meeting" isn't all that representative
- Civics
Education and Ritualistic Voting (23 May)
- Civics
plan: more voting, less democracy
- Talking
About Israel and Palestine: Part II (9 May)
- Progress
report on effort to create local discussion forum
- Schools
Hide MCAS Opt-out Policy (25 April)
- Town
makes it easy to skip high-sakes test, but doesn't want anyone
to know
- New
Brookline Peace Group Faces Challenges (11 April)
- Brookline
Peaceworks must coordinate internal and external tasks
- Can
Brookline Talk About Israel and Palestine? (28 March)
- It's
time to overcome liberal and Jewish resistance to discussing this
issue
- Lesson
Plan: High School Rape Controversy (14 March)
- Administration
reaction to students accused of rape misses the teachable moment
- Selectmen
Defense of Police Avoids Hard Issues (28 February)
- Questions
remain about Amer Jubran's arrest at Israel Independence Day Celebration
- Technoheaven
or Technodazzle? (14 February)
- Readjust
school spending priorities
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- What
Would King Say Today? (17 January)
- Schools
teach basics -- but not Martin Luther King's more radical inclinations
up
to top
Guest Columns 2001
-
September
11 and Aftermath
-
up
to top
Brookline Newcomer
2000
- Heralding
a change
- Boston
Herald buys TAB and other CNC newspapers; will quality improve?
(12 October)
- Zipcar
advances, Transportation Board reverses
- Car-sharing
good idea, but won't solve town's problems (5 October)
- Sydney
accuses, then loses
- Incumbent
state rep's campaign collapses over mistaken endorsement claims
(28 September)
- Chomsky-Zinn
and Reich in competing forums
- Professorial
politicos speak to Brookline audiences (21 September)
- MCAS
opposition: Another year
- State
efforts to salvage the high-stakes test matched by growing opposition
(7 September)
- Candidates'
ho-hum debate
- State
Rep candidates meet but shed little new light (31 August)
- Easy
diversity from Lieberman to Brookline
- The
veep nominee's middling tolerance test is like Brookline's claim
to diversity (24 August)
- The
corporate MCAS agenda
- Why
corporations work so hard to impose high stakes testing (17 August)
- [Published
in revised format
in alternative media]
- Kvetching
in Paradise
- Thoughts
on my one-year column-writing anniversary (10 August)
- Ronny's
PIPERS are a pip
- Would
you join a group called "Progressive Intelligent People"? (3 August)
- Barney
Frank's wrong about Ralph's run
- Congressman
Barney Frank vs.the moderately Green Ralph Nader (27 July)
- Sydney
and Smizik: Debate Now!
- Liberal
State-Representative candidates should clarify issues (20 July)
- Resident
parking concerns still ignored
- Transportation
Board shrugs off widespread concerns (13 July)
- Toward
a living wage
- Town
Meeting votes to study a living wage for private employees (6 July)
- Urban-suburban
MCAS opposition
- Anti-MCAS
movement embraces justice agenda (29 June)
- Power
in high places
- School
Committee Chairperson cuts off debate (22 June)
- Missing
the process point
- Expertise,
justice, values, and principles in town policy making (15 June)
- Procedural
injustice on Greenough Street
- Town
government's decision violates promise (8 June)
- The
MCAS boycott-support workshops and beyond
- High
school students grapple with direct action options (1 June)
- Opinions
and disclosures
- What
should columnists disclose about their political allegiances? (25
May)
- Voters
stay home, progressives lose
- Progressive
Selectman candidates avoid issues & get trounced (11 May)
- MCAS
boycotters one, School Committee less than zero
- School
Committee hides from MCAS boycott; students boycott anyway (27 April)
- Town
election campaign sidesteps substance
- Candidates
avoid differentiating issues (6 April)
- Some
solutions to our parking problem
- More
on Brookline's insoluble problem (23 March)
- Anti-MCAS
momentum
- Statewide
test boycott growing, but town's position remains ambiguous (9 March)
- Town
Meeting needs a boost
- Voice
of the People or Selectmen's Rubber Stamp? (24 February)
- Tax
the rich
- To
pay for town services (3 February)
- Kill
MCAS--before it's too late
- Boycott
ill-conceived standardized test that's required for HS diploma (20
January)
- Think
locally, organize globally
- Organize
against corporate chains & the World Trade Organization (6 January)
up
to top
1999
- Another
backyard paved over?
- To
make yet another parking lot! (16 December)
- Preventing
high school rape starts in early childhood
- Must
also end traditional sex roles (2 December)
- How
about a parking experiment?
- Inequities
in Brookline's No Parking policy (11 November)
- School
magazine sale teaches wrong values
- Raise
money without competition & consumerism (28 October)
- Impressive
hotel debate sidesteps core issues
- Don't
sell town-owned open space (7 October)
- Let
a thousand handbills bloom
- Ignore
town regulation against handbilling! (23 September)
- A
call to arms against big development
- Prevent
neighborhood destruction (9 September)
- White
and yellow do not make a rainbow
- Town
is diverse, but blacks and Latinos are absent (26 August)
- Brookline's
inflated "A" grade in recycling
- Most waste still dumped! (12 August)
up
to top
Brookline
is an urban/suburban town of about 59,000 surrounded on three sides by
Boston. Lots of professors live here, and self-described progressives,
and there are parks and restaurants and movies and bookstores. But no
place is perfect. Social injustice, environmental destruction, restricted
speech, overdevelopment, corporate expansion, consumerism, political
cowardice, police abuses -- these are issues here, as everywhere...
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