Massachusetts

Cycling Diary: 9/26/04 – Concord & the Battle Road

by Bryan Strawser · Sep 26, 2004

Today’s ride took us up to Minuteman National Historic Park where the colonists first took on the british on April 19th, 1775.

We started at the visitor’s center – road the battle trail west towards Concord – and ended up at the Old North Bridge. After some time there, motored down to Concord Center, had some ice cream, and then headed back.

12.7 Miles, Average Speed just under 9 mph. Top speed 15.7 mph.

Some pictures from today:

Bikes on the new Rack:

Yours Truly Posing with some Sheep:

The Sheep along the Battle Road:

You see some interesting people along the Battle Road – here’s a tour guide speaking about the British that are buried just off of the Battle Road:

Even the bikes need a break:

The Cradle of Baseball

by Bryan Strawser · Sep 4, 2004

A little more than a week ago, I visited that cradle of baseball – Boston’s Fenway Park to catch a game between Boston and Toronto.

Baseball at Fenway is just, well, different, than other ballparks. There’s the history and traditions – such as the last World Series won by Boston (1918):

Then there’s Coach Johnny Pesky, who played for Boston in the 40s and 50s – and continues to suit up for every game:

And the Green Monster out in Left Field:

And the famous Red Seat in the outfield where Ted Williams hit his monster home run:

Some scenes from the game:

There’s no place like Fenway Park…

Charles Yancey Blabs Away

by Bryan Strawser · Aug 9, 2004

Charles Yancey, a councilman on Boston’s City Council, warned that Boston was becoming a “police state”:

A city councilor on Sunday warned against turning Boston into a ”police state”, even as law enforcement officials touted the success of a new program that has beefed up police presence on the streets in response to a recent spate of violence.

Fourteen people were arrested Saturday night and Sunday morning as part of Operation Neighborhood Shield, which relies on the help of state police, FBI and other federal agencies for increased patrols across the city. Two guns and 500 rounds of ammunition were also confiscated, police said.

Things seem much simpler to me as I type this from my patio in the face of the rising sun.

Put additional police on the street and arrest the criminals.

Or do nothing and watch the young continue to be killed.

Easy decision? It is in my mind. Apparantly not in his.

Operation Neighborhood Shield

by Bryan Strawser · Aug 7, 2004

The Boston Globe is reporting today that the Boston Police are going to begin taking aggressive measures to curb the sharp increase in violence in South Boston:

In response to escalating violence in Boston, officials said yesterday that State Police and federal agents will be deployed throughout the city in a massive show of force, using the kind of cooperation between law enforcement agencies seen during the Democratic National Convention.

“We’ve had enough; we won’t tolerate bold acts of violence,” Boston Police Commissioner Kathleen M. O’Toole said yesterday in announcing what police are calling Operation Neighborhood Shield.

With officers on motorcycles lined up behind her outside police headquarters, O’Toole said federal agents from the FBI; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; and the Drug Enforcement Administration will work with Boston police, Massachusetts Bay Transporation Authority police, and State Police to patrol troubled neighborhoods, in uniform and undercover.

She said that federal, state, and city law enforcement will combine undercover and uniformed forces, a more significant level of cooperation than was attained during the antiviolence campaigns of the late 1980s and early ’90s, when the city saw a sharp rise in gang violence and homicides.

Boston’s violent crime rate – particularly in the South Boston, Dorchester, and JP neighborhoods – is skyrocketing. Already this year more homicides have occurred than in all of last year.

Task Forces such as this can work – but they are almost always temporary. At some point, they will go home. It’s going to take a long-lasting strategy in order to drive down this violent crime rate. But this is a good first step.

Speed Reading

by Bryan Strawser · Jul 29, 2004

Kerri is pointing to a speed reading test. So I took it:

You read between 850 – 900 words per minute. Virtual Speed Reader. (The average rate is between 200 – 250 words per minute.) It is assumed that you did not skim the words nor fail to understand the meaning of what was read.

Not bad….

The Politics of Racial Destruction

by Bryan Strawser · Jul 28, 2004

Boston is a city with a troubled past when it comes to race relations. But during my time here, I’ve seen nothing other than growth, opportunity, and community involvement from government, civic leaders, and community leaders to continue to improve race relations, crime, and other key issues in Boston.

But since Jesse was in town this week for the convention, he has to strut about, as the Boston Herald reports today:

Mayor Thomas M. Menino and the city’s black leaders are spitting mad over racial potshots the Rev. Jesse Jackson took at the city of Boston yesterday.

“Jesse’s talking trash and blowing smoke. This is Jesse’s showboat,” said the Rev. Eugene Rivers, chair of the National Ten Point Coalition and one of the city’s most respected leaders on racial issues.

Jackson stoked the Hub’s racial fires yesterday as he headed into the FleetCenter on the second day of the Democratic National Convention, saying Boston has yet to live up to its promise as a center of racial justice and equal opportunity for minorities.

“There is such a class gap between the haves and the have-nots,” Jackson said. “If you look at inner-city Boston and the suburbs, it’s like there is a doughnut and then there’s the doughnut hole.”

Jackson added that Boston falls short of being a model for urban democracy around the country.

“Boston must work even more diligently at being the academic center it is, at being the shining light on the hill,” Jackson said. “This can be the city with an urban agenda that becomes the ideal for all of America.Boston ought to aspire to no less.”

But there’s more to this story, you see. Jackson has apparently never once challenged, reached out, or consulted with Mayor Menino on any racial issues – or any other topic for that matter.

But Menino immediately fired back at Jackson, calling his statements not only “unfounded” but “unfair.”

Menino added that in the more than 11 years he has been mayor, Jackson has never called or reached out to him in any way on racial issues or any other topic.

“It’s nice he comes into our city and makes a statement like that,” Menino said with more than a hint of sarcasm.

I’ve met Menino. He’s not one to stand by idly and let Jackson get away with something like this. Nor should be.

It’s the politics of racial destruction all over again. I’m glad to see Menino and Reverend Rivers standing up to his smoke.

The Patriots of Massachusetts

by Bryan Strawser · Jul 27, 2004

Those of you that know me, know that I am not a fan of Senator Ted Kennedy. He is the senior Senator of the state in which I reside and other than that, I don’t really have much kind to say about the man.

I watched his speech tonight, and while most of it went as I expected from the Senator, I was rather impressed with this section of his speech:

The roots of that America are planted deep in the New England soil. Across this region are burial grounds, many so humble you find them without intending to. You’re in a town like Concord, Massachusetts, or Hancock, New Hampshire. You’re visiting the old church there, and behind the chapel you find a small plot. Simple stones bearing simple markers. The markers say ”War of 1776.”

They do not ask for attention. But they command it all the same. These are the patriots who won our freedom. These are the first Americans, who enlisted in a fight for something larger than themselves — for a shared faith in the future, for a nation that was alive in their hearts but not yet a part of their world.

They and their fellow patriots won their battle. But the larger battle for freedom, justice, equality and opportunity is our battle too, and it is never fully won. Each new generation has to take up the cause. Sometimes with weapons in hand; sometimes armed only with faith and hope, like the marchers in Birmingham or Selma four decades ago.

Sometimes the fight is waged in Congress or the courts; sometimes on foreign shores, like the battle that called one of my brothers to war in the Pacific, and another to die in Europe.

Now it is our turn to take up the cause.

One of the things I am most amazed by, as I walk the streets of Boston, or find myself out in Concord, or Lexington, or as I pass by the Old Granary Burying Ground, is that I’m walking the same places that these men walked – trodding the same ground that these men walked – and looking over the same sights as they did – though they are much different now.

They were the men who stood at the bridge in Concord, Massachusetts and refused to yield:

Senator Kennedy is right. As you walk through the town square, you’ll spy the church just off of the village green. You’ll be drawn through the front doors, off to the side, and then out the door that leads into the church plot out back. You’ll spy the more modern stones of recent years – but you’ll be drawn to the dull white one at the edge of the field. And there, you’ll come face to face with a man that died in 1775.. or 1776.. or 1777.. and you’ll hear his call from beyond.

That’s one of the wonders of living in this place where our country was born as an idea in the heads of men like John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, John Hancock, Sam Adams, Paul Revere… and many others.

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