As Anne-Marie Desmarais, a consultant hired with a
grant by the Friends & Neighbors of Glen Park, explained in a March
10th informational session, "contamination occurred by dribs-and-drabs,
over many years." The toxins released then slowly spread out through
the groundwater.

Recently, Tufts Medical School interviewed
residents from 39 different households within the affected area and
found no health effects clearly linked to the pollution. The results
were encouraging, said Pirie, but the sample size much too small to be
definitive.

GEI, a firm hired by Unifirst, the company
responsible for the pollution, is currently working at the site to
extract contaminants.

Unfortunately, there is a limit to what
can be accomplished mechanically in such a densely populated area. GEI
looked into possible methods of "cleaning up", like the installation of
a miniature purification plant. They found, however, that the
contamination itself is irreversible, explained Desmarais. "It took 50
years to spread out," she said, "and it could take even longer to be
cleaned up naturally." What is not left up to time, however, is the
action that can be taken by residents.

According to an
investigation undertaken by GEI and the Massachusetts Department of
Environmental Protection, the only remedy that can guarantee the safety
of residents would be an installation within the basement of each
building in question. Exposure can only occur through the air, after
evaporation, as noxious fumes enter the house through the cellar. At
the cost of Unifirst, the cellar can either be sealed, or a pipe that
pumps toxins out of the basement could be installed. This method has
already been used at the Capuano Center, where four classrooms were
found with traces of the pollutants.

A handful of landlords and
tenants, however, have not been cooperative with GEI and MDEP's
investigation. "They aren't sure what do with people with high levels
of toxins who either won't have their houses tested or who won't allow
for remediation," Alex Pirie, Coordinator of Immigrant Service Projects
and Health. Such landlords are not required by law to notify their
residents of the possible health risks and may fear that doing so will
scare them away. As Desmarais emphasized, such a "head in the sand"
approach is potentially very dangerous. "Based on what we know," she
said, "there shouldn't be alarm, but there should be caution."

In response to a
lawsuit filed against the Zoning Board of Appeals by three abutters of
a property slated to become 14 condos on the 300 block of Summer
Street, the board voted March 18 to file an order in the Middlesex
Superior Court asking the case to be brought back within its
jurisdiction.

The property, owned by the Dakota Partners, has remained empty as a seven-year legal battle has

unfolded
among abutters, the developer and the city. With the construction
permit on the brink of lapsing, the ZBA's unanimously approved
extension at its Feb. 18 meeting.

In effect, the remand order filed in the court acknowledges that Assistant City Solicitor David Shapiro

gave
information to the board after the Feb. 18 vote granting a one year
permit extension to Dakota that could have changed the vote.

The
plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the ZBA say Shapiro made a critical
mistake when he told the board at its Feb. 4 meeting that the Dakota
Partners could apply for an extension only once – a fact which several
members cited in justifying their votes at a meeting two weeks later.

A
day after the meeting, Shapiro sent an e-mail to the ZBA explaining
that Somerville's one-year limit was susceptible to legal challenges
based on a 2002 decision by the Massachusetts Attorney General's

rejection of a similar ordinance proposed in Swansea.

The order voted on at the March 18 meeting, drafted by Shapiro, asks for the case to be remanded from

the
Middlesex Superior Court back before the ZBA "for the limited purpose
of considering whether to reopen the proceedings in light of additional
legal guidance received after the decision was rendered."

Tom Bok, an abutter to the Summer Street property, filed the request to re-open the case. He and

lawsuit
plaintiff George O'Shea waited outside a closed-door executive session
held at the March 18 meeting as Shapiro briefed the board on its
options.

While Bok sees the remand order as a positive step, he said it was unfair that a 20-day limit on

requesting a case to be re-opened forced them to pursue both a request through the ZBA and a legal appeal at the same time.

"The part of this process that frustrates me is that there are two paths, one just says 'Are you

sure?' and another that is more costly," Bok said.

If
the court decides to allow the ZBA to reconsider the permit extension,
a new pubic hearing process will be required – giving residents another
chance to protest the permit extension.

Attorney Rich
DiGirolamo, who has represented Dakota before the ZBA, said he doesn't
expect a new hearing to take place. "We don't believe the appeal is
meritorious," he said. "We think the board gave due regard to the
hardship arguments presented and I don't think (the abutters) will
prevail."

Big-Belly trash cans made their debut in
Somerville in 2007, according to Lesley Hawkins, Public Information
Officer. As part of his ongoing efforts to ensure that Somerville is a
sustainable community and to reduce our city's carbon footprint, Mayor
Curtatone participated in a pilot program with the company in 2007,
installing seven BigBelllys throughout Somerville."

The number
of them rose to a total of 42 by 2008. At that time, "The City opted to
make a significant investment in this program and currently has a total
of 42 BigBellys," said Hawkins. Each can cost around $3,600.

If you want to locate the nearest BigBelly, look all over Somerville, but especially in business districts, and parks.

However,
now some of the BigBellys are broken. This winter, cold weather caused
that to occur, according to Hawkins. "Four of the barrels had minor
software malfunctions. The manufacturer has since repaired all four at
no cost to the City," she said. "The City did not spend any man hours
or funds on the repairs."

Hawkins directed individuals
interested in the process of repairing the new trash cans, including
the amount of time, as well as the cost of that project to the trash
can's manufacturer.

How do these souped-up trash cans work? All
of the BigBelly "trash compactor[s]" includes a series of lights, which
are located on the can's side. That feature signifies its status –
empty or full, according to Hawkins. Not only do they fire off a
text-message upon their being filled to capacity, but they "will also
upload that information to a website" that can be accessed by the City
at any time," said Hawkins.

Fortunately, "No City positions have
been eliminated as a result of the implementation of the BigBelly
barrels," she said. Instead, "the barrels have allowed for better
allocation of City resources and staff." Therefore, money for gas and
productivity were saved. Further, the expense of trash removal is lower
"because the trash in the barrel is compacted and is not exposed to the
elements, therefore not becoming wet, it weights less."

Today,
Monsignor Romero's legacy is commemorated around the world. Here in
Somerville, Centro Presente, a Latin American immigrant organization,
honors the legacy of Monsignor Romero through the organization's every
day work in the community.

"At Centro Presente, every day, we
try to commemorate the legacy of Monsignor Romero through our work,"
said Patricia Montes, the Executive Director of Centro Presente.
"Monsignor Romero worked for the defense and promotion of human rights,
and denounced the systematic violation of human rights by the social
and economic power structures which still exist in El Salvador today.
He was the voice of those without voices. At Centro Presente, we are
trying to give voices to our members from the Latino immigrant
community, those who can not speak for themselves because this society
is not giving them the opportunity."

Some twenty-seven years
after it was established, Centro Presente has grown to service upwards
of three thousand people a year, mostly in Somerville, Boston,
Cambridge and Chelsea. Immigrants from all over South America benefit
from the countless services that the organization offers. From adult
education classes in English or computer skills, to legal immigration
counseling, to after-school programs, Centro Presente is an invaluable
support system to thousands of residents in the local community.

"We
are a member-driven, state-wide Latin American immigrant organization
dedicated to the self-determination and self-sufficiency of the Latin
American immigrant community of Massachusetts," noted Montes. "We work
for immigrant rights and for economic and social justice. Through the
integration of community organizing, leadership development and basic
services, Centro Presente strives to give our members voices and to
build community power."

Just as Monsignor Romero once strove
to give voices to people in El Salvador, Centro Presente commits every
day to helping Latin American immigrants by continuing the traditions
of Monsignor Romero. On March 19th, the organization will dedicate an
entire evening at Machu Piccu Restaurante Turistico in Monsignor
Romero's honor, to celebrate "la lucha" for Justice and Human Rights
and to recognize Jim and Julia Wallace for their continued dedication,
mission and lifelong commitment to social justice.

Through
Centro Presente's continued dedication and commitment to the Latin
American immigrant community, Monsignor Romero's legacy will always be
heard.

The
current financial crisis has added angst to the level of urgency among
educational public policy makers. The challenge of closing the
achievement gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students,
improving student learning overall, getting the most out of limited and
declining dollars, and surviving in an unprecedented stressful time for
young students are only some of the daunting challenges in everyday
life in public education.

Media reports are full of stories
about teachers, superintendents and local elected officials who must
confront and comply with the voluminous regulatory mandates imposed by
state and federal legislators and bureaucrats. Editorial pages are
crowded with highly charges points and counterpoints between school
committee members, administrators, teachers, business leaders, and
academic thinkers about charter schools, standardized testing, longer
school days, and fair finance. But what's missing from this picture?
Why are parents and citizens in general not engaged more attentively
and actively in the battle for the heart and soul of public education?

Governor
Patrick has called for a campaign for civic engagement. The
Massachusetts Association of School Committees has called for linking
this goal with parent empowerment. In fact, the dirty little secret
that real school reformers never want to reveal is that they really
don't want parents actively involved in schools. Of more concern are
the calls by people like former US Secretary of Education and some
conservative think tanks for parents to do their job getting kids ready
for school and leaving the rest to the faculty. In other words,
"Parents, keep out!"

So, what we have are citizens who are
disengaged in public school issues and parents who limit their
involvement to the traditional roles of preparing their kids, going to
parent nights, and attending the school social activities.

Moreover,
we live in an era where we are pulled in so many directions that our
"complexity tolerance" is low. We simply give up on the
hard-to-comprehend issues. Unfortunately, public education is one of
them. Who but a handful of people can explain the principles of
Education Reform, a "foundation budget," the details of state financial
aid to school districts, the state and federal mandates around special
education, or any one of the 15 different accountability, assessment,
and accreditation systems that create a virtually unmanageable maze of
school regulations?

When the citizenry is disengaged, the public
regulator acts without restraint. Do we really want unelected
bureaucrats determining whether school districts should consolidate or
merge against their will? Should people who can't even teach make rules
about standardized testing and accountability? Should the average state
public educator have to spend an average of 160 hours per year on
compliance mandates, paperwork, and tasks unrelated to teaching? Are we
powerless to deal with the stress of intensive curricula, voluminous
testing requirements, and the humiliating labels imposed on kids and
schools from of bad regulations and sloppy lawmaking?

Who will champion the cause of children if not parents, active citizens and the people they chose to oversee their schools?

That's
why the role of parents and school officials needs to come front and
center. In 1993 the legislature created school councils to empower
parents. Today they have not come close to living up to their potential
to advise principals and school committees about school-based concerns
or to run issue forums presented for the citizens at large.

We propose some solutions:

First,
as we look to tune-up education reform and preserve our status as the
best in the country and, in several categories, best in the world in
academic achievement, let's strengthen the role of the school council,
add meaning to the annual school improvement plan, and require close
scrutiny of these measures before the local school committee.

Second,
rev up the advocacy part and get more people interested in the most
fundamental activity of civic engagement: running for local office,
including the school committee.

Third, come face to face with
local legislators and ask that they take a direct interest in both the
large picture and fine details of school policy.

When you speak
with your legislators, the Advocacy Committee of MASC asks that you
focus on six key areas: 1) adequate funding for public schools through
the state's Chapter 70 formula and appropriation; 2) fully fund special
education's unfunded mandates, including the special 'circuit breaker"
program for high cost cases; 3. Require that federal stimulus money for
education go directly to classrooms and not to state bureaucracy; 4.
Control the regulatory monster and impose no regulations and mandates
without paying for them; 5. Support the mandated cost of transporting
students to school; 6. Reform the way charter schools are overseen and
financed so that local taxpayers have a say in how their money is taken
away and used.

Every
humane society in the world today with the means to do so provides
healthcare to all of its citizens, except for the United States of
America. And "if we had set out to design the worst system that we
could imagine, we couldn't have imagined one as bad as we have," says
Marcia Angell, former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of
Medicine.

The U.S. health care system is the most expensive in
the world on both a per-person basis-$7-8,000-and as a percentage of
the total economy-15-16%. Switzerland's, the next-most-expensive
system's, per-person costs are 56% of ours. Canada's are 44%; Great
Britain's, 22%.

Yet 47 million U.S. residents have no health
insurance, and the numbers keep growing. Back in the economy's boom
days, more than half of all personal bankruptcies were the result of
medical emergencies.

While American healthcare is the most
costly, its outcomes are shameful. The United Nations ranks U.S. life
expectancy at 29th in the world and our infant mortality rate at 33rd.
Our own CIA puts these rankings at 45th, and 42nd respectively. The
World Health Organization ranks the U.S. 37th in health system
performance, between Costa Rica and Slovenia.

Our system's
staffing levels are low, and it lacks safety controls, putting staff
and patients at risk. Estimates of annual deaths resulting from medical
errors range from 48,000 to 98,000.

Virtually every analyst who
studies the entire system from a perspective free of self-interest and
ideological presuppositions concludes that a single-payer healthcare
system is the best solution. In such a system, the government
negotiates contracts with doctors and hospitals and pays their bills.
Citizens pay for healthcare through the kind of payroll tax that now
funds Medicare.

Propagandists and fools call this "socialized
medicine," but that would be a system that is owned by the government
and employs the doctors. The Veterans Administration is socialized
medicine. A single-payer system is not.

From statistics already
cited, it should be clear that single-payer systems produce better
health outcomes. By covering everyone and emphasizing preventative
care, many health problems never arise, while those that do can be
identified at an early stage, where treatment is more effective and
less expensive.

Single-payer plans can also disseminate and
encourage best practices. Mitchell Selzer, a leading hospital
consultant studied the practice profiles of 24,000 physicians treating
1.5 million patients. He found that a subgroup of those doctors studied
consistently admitted, diagnosed, and treated patients using 20-to-30%
fewer resources and incurring correspondingly lower costs than the
average doctor studied. Yet this group produced better care-fewer
errors, shorter stays, fewer infections, fewer readmissions, fewer
deaths.

Preventative care and best practices are not the only
reasons why single-payer is less expensive. A landmark Harvard Medical
School study determined that some 30% of healthcare dollars go to
administrative costs. Health insurance companies dispute this figure,
citing an industry-average administrative expense of 15 percent. But
they don't acknowledge that healthcare practitioners absorb the
expenses required to deal with insurance companies. By comparison,
Medicare's administrative costs are 1%. And insurance companies don't
have the will or bargaining power to negotiate the kind of prices that
send Americans to Canada to purchase their prescription drugs.

Single
payer is a fiscally conservative solution. Between decreased healthcare
costs and increased taxes, Americans would spend less. And American
businesses would be more competitive. General Motors' healthcare costs
are $1,500 for every car that it manufactures.

I began this
series during the elections, when the word most often on presidential
candidates' lips was "change." My intent was to show that in every
policy area, a fundamental transformation of our economic and political
institutions would be required to achieve the basic conditions that all
Americans should expect.

Single-payer healthcare is an
excellent example in that its implementation would not require such
fundamental change. But apparently, its adoption would.

Instead,
policy makers support piecemeal solutions that add large costs, reward
those responsible for the mess, and do not solve the problem. The
prescription drug benefit passed in 2003 comes to mind.

A CBS
News/New York Times poll published in February reported that 59% of
Americans say the government should provide national health insurance.
Other polls put this figure as high as 70%. Meanwhile, 59% was also the
portion of doctors who told researchers for an Annals of Internal
Medicine study that they support legislation to establish national
health insurance.

Opposing these citizens and doctors are
lobbyists and publicists, well paid by the multibillion-dollar health
insurance industry. In addition to broadcasting falsehoods that
single-payer healthcare is a "socialized" system that would be more
expensive and less effective, they say that consumers would have fewer
choices.

The reverse is true. Freed of restrictions imposed by
their current medical plans, consumers could choose any doctor or
hospital that they wanted, increasing competition.

Politicians
who posture as defenders of the people's interests quail in response to
forces mobilized by health insurers. It's not just the huge campaign
contributions that insurers can invest. Once something is considered to
be politically unfeasible, it's suicidal for a politician, no matter
how well established, to keep advocating it. He or she is considered to
be hopelessly unrealistic and disloyal to the party.

Journalists
focus on politics rather than substance. They reflect opinion rather
than inform it. They confuse objectivity with impartiality,
uncritically quoting both sides of an issue and thereby passing along
myths and lies.

Forceful and consistent presidential leadership
that continually points to hard evidence and poll results could defeat
the health insurers, for-profit hospital chains, and right-wing
ideologues. Instead, we are moving toward another piecemeal policy.

In
Canada, politicians had the courage and vision to say to health
insurers, "you're out of business. You have a much better chance to
find new work than citizens have to improve their health under the
current system." In the United States, we allow an industry with
140,000 agents to kill policies that would benefit 250 million
Americans.

Doug
Holder: When you started this novel "Or So It Seems" you were divorced,
bitter and angry. How about when you finished the novel?

Paul
Stone: It is an interesting arc that I traveled. The novel evolved into
something bigger and less driven by the forces that made me start the
novel. There has always been a novel in me. When I started "Or So It
Seems' I was bitter, I needed to feel like the victim, and my now
ex-wife was the guilty party. I was told that my first attempt with the
novel lacked narrative tension. I sat down to reorder events. As soon
as I did this, this spiritual aspect came in to play. It was if someone
hit me on the side of the head and said: "Now you are going to write
the novel you are supposed to." All of a sudden all these concepts and
ideas came flooding in. I really hadn't wanted to rewrite.

DH: Was it therapeutic for you?

Ps:
Absolutely. It saved at least 20 years of paid therapy. It allowed me
to vent…the time to look closely at something. I moved on from
feeling like a victim all the time. I am no longer a victim but the
author of a novel.

DH: Before you started your rewrite of you
said it was like you heard a voice guiding you. If you had to personify
the voice who would it be?

PS: Well I am not hearing voices! But
I feel there is someone, a muse, or some force, an elder, whatever that
helps me. An entity that wakes me up at 3AM with ideas. I'm in
advertising. I get ideas for my work as well that way -they come from
somewhere. I get a lot from these "voices"

DH: The protagonist,
Paul Peterson, constantly steps back with his spiritual guru-to observe
the material world/ reality. In a way this is like the novelist, right?

PS:
I think so. One of the intriguing conceits of the novel is that
Petersen talks in the present moment sharing the action with the
reader, as if the reader was there. It is almost as if the narrator and
the reader are there at the same time together-going through it. The
first time I wrote this I didn't need the conceit. The 2nd time it made
sense.

DH: The writer Thomas Wolfe holed up in the Chelsea Hotel
in NYC and wrote (standing up) for hours on end. It was described as
"automatic writing" Anything like that happen with you?

PS: No.
I have had experiences where things get done through me so easily all I
have to do is make the pen hit the paper. Other times I have to sit
down and think about it.

DH: A lot of writers self-promote these days. How do you going about getting the word out for your book?

PS:
I took a workshop at Grub Street, given by this lady who recently had a
successful book. I was amazed at how she had treated marketing her book
as if it was an advertising campaign. Up until this time I had not
thought about it this way. But she was very methodical. She had a
website in place; she had pieces that she would send out to the
different publishing arms. She had different elements-it seemed all
part of a brand. So I saw what I was supposed to do. The way I
approached it was I looked at every avenue that was low cost. I made
business cards. I have unique cards that fold out like little books,
with reviews from readers inside. I try to take the least expensive
avenues and try to do it at a high level. A level that people don't
expect from someone who is doing it himself. If you act as if the book
is important in everything you do it will seem important. The book will
be treated importantly.

DH: In the book you write about the advertising world. It is not a flattering picture.

PS:
I think the world would be a much better place without advertising. But
there is always going to be advertising, and it is a business, so I
think of myself as a positive influence. So it is good to have people
in the industry like that. The work I do for W.B. Mason is fun stuff.
People enjoy seeing the TV commercials. But I think there is something
shallow where art is second to commerce.

DH: Can you tell us about your next book that will be a collection of columns you wrote for a south shore newspaper.

PS:
Yes. They were written in many different voices and with many different
subjects. Some were short fiction pieces, one column celebrated
adversity. The columns deal with things I found of interest or
concerned me at the time. The book will be called "How to Train a
Rock." I wrote a series of columns on training rocks. This will be a
diverse collection.

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Back and Forth

Heritage is shadows standing beneath

the pecan tree and black gold

strapped and slumped

from the oak

Rusted relics;

yoke and choke;

sweat and blood spilled

for land and consumption

History is freedom's journey

Is a long walk from manicured, porcelain toe tips

to a soft and tender step,

barefoot, fungus-scarred;

eyes glistening in the woods

Back and forth

Back and forth

95 North is sweet

like the piston of April flowers;

bitter like the citrus' rind;

is a crimson and gold sunrise;

star spangled sky

A blue note specialty song

is bitter; is sweet juice;

a gold filled heart;

a belly pot; a bouillabaisse,

simmering over the ages;

slow cooked and roasted Negros,

red men, white knuckle,

black body swinging

like the bell's hammer

Heritage is blue night,

white star, black line

white finger;

back and forth

on 95 North

Redemption is a bible verse;

an unbroken circle;

a token to take you

back and forth

A long walk is history's course,

from Heavenly father to

Holy hip-hop,

barber shop talk,

the wino's walk;

baked apricot;

cobbled peach;

palmetto tree;

moonlight;

stars shine the sea;

apple for pies;

truth for lies

Back and forth

on 95 North

Southern belt;

the whip's welt;

a cry, praise,

a song, a long river

to the planter's inn

A sin-soaked whisper;

the liar's grin;

the black finger rising

with a raging spirit

A call; a response;

Back and forth

— Bridgit Brown