Community Comment

One in every five people in Boston’s minority communities is looking for work. In some areas, like the Blue Hill Avenue corridor, two in five are completely out of the workforce. And the city and state are in no position to help those people. They are dealing with their own budget crises.  Read more

I write this article on the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and we have just had a wonderful service here to commemorate his life and ministry. I think we were all inspired by his vision which continues to challenge all of us to carry on the work of freedom and justice for all. For that work is not over and the struggle and suffering continue. It is also now nearly a week since the devastating earthquake struck Haiti and we are all filled with grief and concern over the suffering and loss of life brought on by this tragedy.  Read more

His fall from grace was hard, fast, and probably deserved. Anthony Galluccio of Cambridge resigned from the state Senate a couple of days too late. Had he decided to do so at his probation surrender hearing, he may have been able to avoid going to jail.

Having been ordered as a condition of probation to abstain from alcohol, he was apparently confident that his “toothpaste” defense would work and the judge would give him another chance. He claimed any alcohol detected in his system at a random breathalyzer test came from toothpaste he had just used.  Read more

Mary Casey ForryThursday, January 1, 1987
Dear Diary:
What an exhilarating day! So much fun doing things for the first time in the new year.  Read more

If you ever have the occasion to attend the same school for grades 1-8 and then to attend the subsequent 15 year-reunion of the graduating class, I recommend both. The latter, I must confess, was almost as daunting for me as all those years of academic rigor.   Read more

Every fall in the early 1960s Massachusetts legislators were accustomed to being invited to our state’s great university in Amherst to see the campus, watch a football game, and otherwise be lobbied by the administrators there to see the benefits of public higher education and support the University of Massachusetts. My Dorchester neighbor and colleague, George Kenneally, and I would always ask our hosts about how many students were being served and how many came from where we lived. My family didn’t have money, and neither one of us had ever gone away to study at college.  Read more

So I open the paper at 6:45 a.m. on Saturday morning and read an article about 3,000 free tickets being distributed at 9:00 a.m. for a free skate in January on the Bruins rink that's been set up at Fenway Park. My son had been begging to go to the game so I have visions of placing these tickets in his and his sister's stockings and receiving a big thanks from them on Christmas Day. I really could have been the good and resourceful Dad with that one.  Read more

I have a beautifully crafted Bible with more than 200 images made from woodcuts by the artist Barry Moser. I have spent many an hour meditating on these illustrations. One of my absolute favorites is a full-page image of the biblical passage of the Annunciation in which Mary is visited by the angel Gabriel and is told that she will bear a son, Jesus, and that this son is of God, is holy, and will be a great leader of his people.  Read more

The golf clubs have been put away and the skis are out. So begins another season. The sand in the upper chamber of life’s hourglass slips inexorably below where all my yesterdays are stored.

With every season, the grains of sand in the “what’s to come” chamber diminish as the “what has been” portion grows. At 70, one’s future is measured not in years but in tomorrows.

When the snow falls, I’ll be back on my skis, fighting both the winter chill and the aging process, refusing to give into the aches and pains that become harder to ignore with every passing year.  Read more

Two years ago, Michael Stella, a developer of local properties, began taking notice of the activity of a man named Michael David Scott, who was busily engaged in purchasing three-decker homes, re-habbing them into separate-floor condo units, and quickly selling them, often to out-of state buyers. Many of the properties, he noticed, were then foreclosed on in short order.  Read more

When the idea for “Operation Cinderella” came to Sue Dunigan, she literally heard bells ringing.

In 1999, Dunigan, who with her husband William Dunnigan, heads the Salvation Army’s Jubilee House in Dorchester, was ringing the Salvation Army bell for their annual holiday donation drive outside of a local mall. Dunigan noticed that many of the women shoppers were accompanied by children or co-workers, and most came out carrying purchases for their children or their company parties.

Few, if any, noted Dunigan, had bought anything for themselves.  Read more

The day was cold and blustery but the prospects for Dorchester’s Malibu Bay become noticeably brighter with the reintroduction of water cleansing oysters on Sat., Nov. 28. Each oyster can filter 30 gallons of water per day, removing silt, plankton, bacteria, and heavy metals from the water column. Approximately 200 oysters were placed in milk crate cages off of the docks at Dorchester Yacht Club under the auspices of the non-profit Massachusetts Oyster Project in conjunction with Dr. Anamarija Frankic and her students at UMass-Boston.  Read more

It was General George Washington as he bade a tear-choked farewell to his commanders; Evita emoting a final address to the good people of Argentina; Jimmy Valvano offering life advice at the ESPYs; Tiger on the phone with his PR agency about a charmed life slipping away.  Read more

(Editor’s Note: Due to popular demand, we are pleased to reprint Mary Casey Forry’s classic column about her schedule of activities around the house for Thanksgiving Day. This article first appeared in the Dorchester Reporter in November 1986. Download a copy as it appeared in print.)

6:15 a.m. - Rise and attempt to shine. Find way to kitchen without falling over sleeping animals on the dark, narrow, back stairs. Remove cold, dead fowl from refrigerator and give it a sponge bath, remembering to remove innards in little plastic bags which butcher hides in any number of cavities throughout carcass. Preheat oven.  Read more