My wife and I are shopping again at the Arsenal Mall. And then waving in thanks to a Watertown Cop driving past. The new normal after lock down and neighborhood terror days. If you lived near here, you have indelible personal experiences about the meaning of ultra violence, running gun fights, sheltering in place, and manhunts.

Having skin in the game, makes me want to raise three questions. First, what did the FBI know, and when did they know it? That's the most politically explosive question, and should be answered in the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

Last Friday night, after news reports that one suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings had been killed and another was captured, the media became fixated on crowds of Bostonians taking to the streets to "celebrate."

There is nothing to celebrate. This week has been a tragedy at every level. It began with the horrific bombings at the Boston Marathon, killing three people, wounding over 180, and traumatizing an entire city. It finished with a gunfight that left two dead and the whole city locked down as thousands and thousands of police and military personal conducted a massive manhunt for a 19-year-old.

Massachusetts Peace Action shares in the sadness, appreciation, restraint and solidarity shown by President Obama, Governor Patrick, faith and civi

In 2012, four-year tuition at the average public university cost more than $15,000 – not counting books, meals or housing. At the average private institution, that figure was even higher, clocking in at over $32,000. Even two-year and vocational programs ran nearly $9,000 per certificate.

With the cost of higher education skyrocketing, it’s easy to assume that professors – the men and women who educate our students – are doing quite well for themselves. In some cases, that’s true: tenured faculty members’ salaries at leading universities can top $160,000 a year. But the average adjunct professor makes just $2,700 per course, with no health care insurance or other benefits.

It’s Valentine’s Day, and we at MassUniting.org couldn’t help but take a peek at the personal ads to see what lonely souls out there might be looking for love on this particularly romantic holiday. Imagine our surprise when we came across an ad titled “Gold Diggers Looking 4 Love.” [see image]

This personal ad may be a bit of a joke, but there’s nothing funny about Fix the Debt or their gold-digging agenda. While the corporate front group whispers sweet nothings in our ears about “shared sacrifice” and “debt reduction,” they’re hiding their true plan to break our hearts by cutting Social Security, raising the retirement age and taking more from our paychecks.

You may have seen their ads on TV or been accosted by a Fix the Debt canvasser on the street – they claim to be a grassroots effort promoting steps to reduce the national debt. But the truth is, Fix the Debt is just another corporate-financed DC lobbying group looking for taxpayer handouts.

That revelation prompted a flashmob-style demonstration today outside the New England headquarters of a major Fix the Debt funder and beneficiary, Bank of America. More than 75 workers and retirees, police in tow, descended on the financial giant’s Federal Street building to call Fix the Debt corporations out for what they really are: gold diggers.

Kaveri Rajaraman, who graduated from Harvard University in 2009 with a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology, was arrested In Bangalore, India on Saturday, Jan 19, 2013. She was picked up for resisting the demolition by the municipal corporation of tin-sheds in a housing area for the Economically Weaker Section in Bangalore city.

In 1984 the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP -The Greater Bangalore Municipal Corporation) built 1512 houses in Viveknagar, Bangalore and distributed them to Economically Weaker Section families in 1996. These residential units were not provided basic facilities like water or toilets. The buildings started cracking 5 years after being handed over and collapsed after 7 years of allotment. Three persons including a child died in the building collapse and several were injured.

What kind of society do we live in? Two disturbing trends help answer this question.

First, growing numbers of our citizens are living below the poverty level and even, alarmingly, below half the poverty level. Growing numbers receive food stamps, live in shelters, and are daily denied emergency shelter assistance.

Second, despite the rise in poverty and inequality, the percentage of Americans who favor government help for the poor is declining. According to a Boston Globe article (“The Great Divide,” 11/4/12, p.1), the slide in approval of public benefits is especially dramatic among Republicans, whose support for aid has dropped from 62% to 40% over the past 25 years. Among Democrats, support for government assistance has also declined, from 79% to 75%.

India is currently in a state of disgust and shock over the brutal gang-rape of a 23-year-old woman on a moving bus in the capital, New Delhi, on Sunday, Dec 16th 2012. This single event has galvanized the city of Delhi and has also made people across India sit up and take notice. In a country where violence against women is endemic - even the number of cases of sexual violence that do get reported are disturbingly large - one incident triggering such a mass reaction is quite rare. Delhi has earned the reputation as the "rape capital" of India and even assaults of women in moving vehicles, such as this one, are not without precedent - women have been forced into vehicles and gang-raped before. Of course, the brutality of this particular incident, where the female victim was also assaulted with an iron rod has particularly touched people to the core.

As a member of the Alliance for Secular and Democratic South Asia (“Alliance”), a Cambridge, MA based organization which champions issues in South Asia, the news of the November 24th Tazreen garment factory fire in Dhaka Bangladesh in which 112 workers lost their lives was a rude jolt. It was also a reminder that such things seem sickeningly repetitive. Only in October, the Alliance had organized a panel discussion called “Corruption and Capitalism in Bangladesh and Pakistan,” which dealt with the incident of fire this September that claimed the lives of 300 garment workers in Karachi, Pakistan. In the blurb of that event we had written that, “Such an incident is not an anomaly but the inevitable consequence faced by workers with near non-existent negotiation powers in Bangladesh and Pakistan.” On this occasion, faced with another horrific incident, the Alliance decided to come out to the streets, as it were, to hold a candle-light vigil and protest rally at Harvard Square on Dec 1st.