Under the moon, side by side, they weep.
Hundreds of books line the shelves of a tent on the north end of the Occupy Boston encampment. Poetry, psychology, philosophy (with special sections for Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky) — the subjects and authors are varied, if tending to the left of the political spectrum.
To serve those without an Internet connection, the website, the wiki, and working group meeting notes have been printed. Any book can be checked out anonymously and returned whenever the reader is finished.
It is fitting that, in the city that is home to the first free public lending library in the nation, the movement create a library open to all.
See also:
Librarian.net: Interview with Kristin Parker
New York Times: Occupying Boston and Beyond, With Tent Libraries for All
Mayor Menino has said that the Occupy Boston protests are costing the city too much money in police overtime. City Council President Stephen Murphy went so far as to peg that cost at $2 million a month, a number he made up. But why is the city spending so much money on police in the first place?
Four or five officers are assigned to stand duty in Dewey Square around the clock. But for what? Unless the protesters are marching, there have been no security issues which necessitate such a presence. One of the officers even admitted to getting a little bored. If problems arise, the 911 emergency system can function in Dewey Square and its surroundings just as it functions in the rest of the city.
Besides, the encampment is surrounded by more than a dozen security cameras, cameras which the police have said they will use:
Police will employ the use of video-cameras in areas surrounding the Rose Kennedy Greenway. The video will be used to capture the images of individuals who are engaging in disorder. Those images will then be used to lodge criminal complaints in a follow-up investigation conducted by Boston Police detectives.
— Boston Police Media Relations
So why the overtime? I guess it is to protect the city from peddlers of a few dollars worth of prescription drugs. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money have not been spent in vain.
Update (Feb. 10, 2012): Total spending on the Occupy Boston encampment came to $1.4 million.
Daniel Avila claims the devil makes people gay. He makes this claim in an appeal to science, theology, and reason, all of which he bastardizes. And The Pilot, the Catholic newspaper for the archdiocese of Boston, has given him a voice.
Avila, pointing to the lack of a “gay gene,” says that “something other than the hardwiring found in the genetic code must explain [homosexuality].” But a trait does not have to be encoded by a single gene to be genetically influenced. Height and skin color are examples.
After getting his science wrong, Avila moves on to theology. He says that “the best natural evidence of what God causes and wants for us is our genetic code.” I knew that the Bible was required reading for Christian disciples, but I did not know about this accompanying natural text. Maybe it is the Bible 2.0 — organic and personalized.
Anything not genetically determined must, of course, be the work of the devil.
Disruptive imbalances in nature that thwart encoded processes point to supernatural actors who, unlike God, do not have the good of persons at heart… the ultimate responsibility, on a theological level, is and should be imputed to the evil one, not God.
If we follow this reasoning, God chooses to afflict some of us with genetic disorders while the devil is responsible for the Mozart effect. Avila creates for us a new and interesting moral universe.
But some things stay the same: the devil performs his best work in utero, inside the body of a woman.
Update (Nov. 2, 2011):
The Boston Pilot has retracted the article and Avila has issued an apology. However, it is the standard “sorry I caused hurt and confusion” apology and not an admission of factual inaccuracy or theological error.
Terrence Donilon, spokesman for the archdiocese, thinks that “this one clearly just got away from [Avila]” and expects him to continue to write for The Pilot.
Osage-orange fruit litter the ground under a tree in the Arnold Arboretum like overstuffed tennis balls.