Getting away with rape
Editor’s note: This letter is in response to “Owen Labrie, rapist or simply a jerk?” Nov. 19, 2015, an editorial in which editors Kristin Palpini and Jeffrey Good wrote about their interpretations of the sexual assault verdict. Good says Labrie was an oaf, while Palpini calls him a rapist.
Boys, and men, will be boys — read predators — as long as we allow them. And girls and women may be intimidated and “frozen.” That’s the way it was 60 years ago when I was a teen and it doesnt seem to have changed much. It takes a bunch of villages to change this, and editorials such as Palpini’s are part of that. I suggest Jeffrey Good get some training on power differentials.
Is Pelham a food desert?
“Food Deserts of Springfield” (Nov. 12-18, 2015) is a lot more dramatic than “Some people have trouble finding a ride to the grocery store,” but a lot less accurate. Can’t this problem be solved by the much-vaunted social media? An app that connects volunteers to the ride-needy does not seem to be impossible to create. It should also be noted that someone in Pelham without a vehicle is probably in more of a food desert than one in Springfield. I wonder if no car in Pelham causes as many cases of obesity and diabetes as it does in Springfield?
Springfield is a transportation desert
I don’t think that we have a food desert in Springfield (“Food Deserts of Springfield,” Nov. 12-18, 2015). We have many full service and other types of grocery stores in Springfield, and surrounding towns. We have a transportation desert.
If someone has their own transportation, it is easy to go grocery shopping. They can get heavy items, buy for weeks or more, and be done. They can travel around to different types of stores for bargains, or ethnic foods, or bulk buying. But, if no vehicle is available what are they to do? Take the bus there and home. And, that is very time consuming especially with the system that we have in Springfield.
“Food Deserts of Springfield” said that lack of grocery stores was a reason for obesity and diabetes. I think lack of knowledge is more a reason than a lack of grocery stores. I manage a farmers market in Springfield. A couple of years ago someone from an agency in the North End called me and asked for help in establishing a farmers market because he wanted his clients to eat better. I told him that that would be no guarantee that they would eat better, because he couldn’t control what was purchased. I told him that he should teach his clients how to cook. Cooking from scratch certainly stretches food dollars, and there is more control over what is eaten.
Facebook: Syrian refugees and Massachusetts
Editor’s note: These comments were posted to the Advocate’s Facebook page under an article about Gov. Baker’s talk of barring Syrian refugees from Massachusetts.
Mark Lattanzi: Until 9/11 the biggest terrorist attacker in America was a white male Christian citizen.
Josh Pelland: ^ Says your school book. As the marketing director for WRSI 93.9 do you typically make offensive and inaccurate statements directed towards large swaths of the population? Good marketing! Good for Baker having some common sense. This isn’t a GOP/Dem issue. Almost everyone I speak to agrees we need to put the brakes on Islamic refugees and hit ISIS before they hit us.
Michele Tarczynski-McAuliffe: Our safety on our own soil is of the utmost importance. If that means saying no to refugees than so be it. They can’t stand us anyway. I find it hard to believe there is not one country in the middle east that will not accept them. Or maybe the countries that are not accepting them aren’t accepting them for a reason. … Let that side of the world clean up their own mess. We have enough of our own, and those should be the priority!!!
John Simmons: Josh is it your standard habit to deny non-controversial historical facts? You need to find different people to speak to. Sounds like you hang out with a bunch of assholes. Way to represent Jesus.
Correction: In our Nov.12 story, “Food Deserts of Springfield,” we erroneously attributed receipt-collection efforts — geared at proving Mason Square’s spending power — to the Springfield Food Policy Council. This project was actually launched by the Mason Square Food Justice Initiative — an agency under the Mason Square Health Task Force umbrella.
