Image by Kent Buckley November 30, 2015 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS As the latest round of the ongoing neoliberal campaign to shift the cost of mass transit in Massachusetts from state government to individual riders gets in gear—a necessary step along the road to privatizing the MBTA—regular readers will be unsurprised to find that I […]
BETWEEN THE BALLOT BOX AND BOGOTA
Part I in ‘A Higher Allegiance: The Rise of a Transnational Identity in Boston’s Immigrant Communities,’ a BINJ series (Click Here For Spanish Version) Ona recent cold Sunday evening in mid-November, Oscar Gutierrez landed at Logan Airport and immediately hopped on the Blue Line toward East Boston. In a rush and rocking his signature fedora, the […]
REMEMBRANCE AND PROTEST: THANKSGIVING THEN & NOW
November 23, 2015 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS The following passage is excerpted from a piece I wrote in 2005. It recounts the story of King Philip’s War—which was fought across southern New England 340 years ago, and started not far from where I attended a Thanksgiving dinner that year at my cousin’s place in North […]
LEFT BEHIND: THE PARIS ATTACKS AND THE NEED TO FUND A MASS INDEPENDENT AMERICAN NEWS MEDIA
Image by Kent Buckley November 17, 2015 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS Shortly after the Paris attacks on Friday, I flipped on the TV and saw that Fox 25 was feeding Fox News live during its normal evening entertainment slot. I was not surprised to find that News Corp HQ was taking full advantage of Americans’ […]
MASS BAIL REFORM NOW
November 9, 2015 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS Lots of innocent people are spending time in jail in Massachusetts. And unsurprisingly many of those people are poor and a disproportionate number are people of color. But they are not convicted criminals. They are people who are charged with a crime—often a minor infraction—and can’t afford to […]