Community
(… shoot, couldn’t think of a better word for capitol starting with “P”.) George’s comment yesterday under Marc’s post um, excuse me…. T H E S T A T E I S G O I N G B R O K E ! reminds me (how could I have forgotten?!) of the remarks that Minority…
Robert Nisbet, the noted American sociologist from the last century, identified a set of sociological ideas that couldn’t directly be derived from the other social sciences and therefore defined sociology as a distinct discipline. One such idea was that of “the sacred”. As is true of most basic sociological concepts (as identified by Nisbet and…
As Congressman Kennedy famously said, “WATER….” I’ve been lucky enough to still be able to work during the day and save the sloshing and pumping for the evening hours. Our property abuts a little babbling brook that turned into a quick-flowing stream over the last few days and the water went 4-5 ft. higher than…
Today, Bill Reynolds writes about Floyd Narcisse, the much-beloved Central High basketball coach who recently passed away from cancer: I first met him at a summer league game in North Providence in the late 1980s. He had moved here from Springfield, Mass., transferred then by AT&T. From the beginning he brought an energy, a love…
Like Justin, I read Michael Knox Beran’s piece about the loss of the marketplace (the agora) with interest. Beran contrasted the emptying agora (the town square or marketplace) with the filling up of castles both old and new built. Beran points to an upper class culture striven for by the modern day aristocrats (czars and…
Returning home from the Johnston, a couple of weeks ago, I floated along in the fast lane of 195, my mind flitting through political thoughts, and it took me a moment to register the fact that traffic in both of the other lanes had come to a crawl. A sign explained the reason: “Left two…
… painted by Michael Morse over at Rescuing Providence. When one of them, a twenty something shirtless tattooed tough guy refused to get out of the way I had to give him a “little” nudge. The time to show you are a man is not when your aunt is dying in front of you. If…
Alright, there wasn’t really a fire, but since we’re talking radio, I like to imagine that there was one. Dan Yorke and I had that sort of conversation, yesterday, on 630AM/99.7FM WPRO. Those who missed it or who would like to revisit something (for kind or scurrilous reasons) can stream the whole segment (about an…
And the squeeze on non-governmental services — most notably from the Roman Catholic diocese — pushes another one over the edge: The Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence has told a state nursing home association that it is closing St. Francis House, its assisted-living center at 167 Blackstone St. later this year, a spokeswoman for the…
Apparently we are all well aware that the rich can afford to pay more taxes–“their fair share.” But can the poor afford it? The administration’s recently released budget will limit tax deductions on gifts made to charities by those earning over $250,000 a year, raising (we are told) almost $180 billion over the next ten…