Letters to the Editor

A wake up call

During the last presidential election I stood at the polls for hours carrying a sign for Barack Obama. I didn’t believe that he was the lesser of two evils in giving him my support. I believed him to be the better of two good candidates.

Well, enough of us believed, hoped and voted to win the election. One thing for sure, we weren’t afraid to stand in line to vote. But there are “teabaggers” who think they can get enough red state voters to scare us into doubting ourselves.

Do they really think we’re so stupid as to agree with their nonsense that if the election was held today, President Obama would lose ... to Sarah Palin?

If  Sen. Brown wants to talk any “ying-yang” to the voters in the minority community about his ties to Sarah Palin, he can let us know at his peril. Ted Kennedy earned our respect, while Scott Brown was earning a centerfold. He will honor tradition and come to speak with our leadership like any other politician.

Over a million dollars has been given out every day for the past year to stop health care reform. That money went to Republicans and Democrats. What has been particularly disturbing is the fact that the Black Caucus has been all but invisible in this battle which has impacted even more unfavorably on the black communities of America.

Washington just might be in for more of a housecleaning than it expects.

Marvin Clark

Street workers are crucial for maintaining peace

The last six months were difficult for those who work the dangerous streets of Boston.

 In August, a street worker was shot in the head while talking to a teenager with whom he worked.  And over the last few months, three street workers were arrested on drug and assault charges.  These incidents began a long overdue dialogue regarding policy around street workers, including their qualifications, supervision, support, and pay.  

Street workers are hired to engage gang-involved youth and mediate gang conflicts. But the work doesn’t end with bringing gang-involved youth to the table. The needs of these youth are so great that street workers are forced to become more than gang mediators. They serve as advocates for gang-involved youth around employment, housing, school, and the courts.

Street workers are on-call therapists without training, responding to crime scenes and staying to counsel grieving youth long after clergy, police officers, ambulances and the media cameras are gone.  

Sadly, the work of street workers goes unseen, unnoticed and unappreciated.  I know. I’ve been a street worker for the City of Boston. Street workers risk their lives each day. Street workers literally and figuratively stand in the precarious middle of the city’s explosive gang violence.      Imagine walking in their shoes up Blue Hill Avenue in the lonely dark, pushing against Boston’s wind without a blue and white cruiser, without a bulletproof vest, without a Glock glued to the hip.  All that a street worker has is his or her word — and a laughable salary.

Talia Rivera
Via email