"We Were Dismayed?"
Dismayed in the Summit!
The Summit answers criticism in the East Side Moanthly.
We were dismayed? How so, Summit?
I got a big kick out of Alan Tears’ letter to the editor in this May’s East Side Monthly. Bold Headline: “ ... SNA responds to last month’s letter” “Last months’ letter”? Was there only one?
Does anyone in the Summit have the cojones to address the person who wrote the letter they are responding to? Was it written by anonymous? No. It was written by a man named Maurice Methot. But nowhere in the letter by Alan Tate is Maurice’s name mentioned. Is that meant as a joke? Or is it just gutless? I guess it is open to interpretation.
And in the Community News section an anonymous Summit author goes on to say,
“We were dismayed by last month’s Letter to the Editor about our actions with regard to the library’s request for a zoning variance.”“Last month’s letter to the Editor”? Com’on, is this a crass case of editorial cowardice in the Summit? Is the entire SNA afraid to say the name, Maurice Methot?
In his letter, Mr. Tear says,
“. . . SNA’s goal is to sustain the residential fabric of the neighborhood that gives Summit its unique and vibrant character.”
Don't you just detest that type of hyperbole, or is it self-deception?
Whoa! I didn’t know Summit had a “unique and vibrant character”. I didn’t think Summit had any character at all. Certainly the SNA has no character if it cannot even bring itself to name the name of the person who it is attempting to argue with. This reminds me of the weak ploy of Patriot coach Bill Bellichick who tried the same impotent antic when asked about his relationship with his former assistant and new head coach of the Jets, Eric Mangini.
As I recall Mr. Methot’s letter, he made a concise, point by point critique of the way the Summit Neighborhood Association went about the business of opposing the library sign.
But the Summit’s answer, by Mr. Tear, does not offer a point by point rebuttal of Mr. Methot’s argument but rather deals in generalities and a defensive smoke and mirrors ploy about the “transparency” of their methods.
Truth be told, the power of the SNA, like most neighborhood associations in Providence, consists of a few elites who find the time and energy to shape the political discussion in their immediate environs. They try to force their agenda down the throats of unwitting residents by creating hysteria about petty things such as a sign on the library or a strip mall on Hope Street consisting of a cleaner and a restaurant ( they lost that one) that serves the needs of the community. They want to be the arbiters of taste: signage, architecture, businesses. Trouble is, their taste is not everyone’s taste – their methods not appreciated by everyone. Thus Mr. Methot’s eloquent objection.
Mr. Methot’s letter, that Mr. Tear refers to, can be found in this website’s March archive.
Maybe Summit is afraid. Maybe Summit has no vibrancy, no character except in the imagination of the SNA. If Summit had any strength of character they would have long ago stood shoulder to shoulder with their neighbors, the good citizens of Mt. Hope, to fight against the street level drug dealing and criminality inherent to Mt. Hope (which Mt. Hope exports to the Summit in the form of criminal house break-ins, car break-ins, and property crimes, a direct outgrowth of the illegal drug trade allowed to operate with impunity in Mt. Hope.) And the Summit would have volunteered to take some of the subsidized housing so clustered in Mt. Hope and offered to build affordable/subsidized housing in the Summit.
I’d like to see how the Summit’s SNA would deal with a problem like Mt. Hope’s Pleasant Street project. How they’d deal with drug dealers in their parks. How would the SNA deal with drug dealers on the corner of Hope & Rochambeau if the drug dealers suddenly moved from Camp & Cypress in Mt. Hope to that Summit location. There'd be some hue and cry rising from the Summit, I believe. But they tolerate it in Mt. Hope, as if it isn't their problem.
The truth is the SNA has never offered any community solidarity to Mt. Hope. They look down on Mt. Hope. Like the rest of the East Side neighborhoods they are embarrassed by Mt. Hope, and they don’t know how to deal with it. They turn a blind eye. They are afraid to deal with Mt. Hope because in Mt. Hope it always comes downs to race. Ouch! Like the City government they wish to contain Mt. Hope’s problems in Mt. Hope, isolate the drug dealing and contain it there, but Mt. Hope already has exported its problems to the Summit for years and years and will continue to do so. That much is obvious.
John Twomey
Posted at 03:40 AM | Community | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Daisuke Mania Manifest in Fenway
Yea, the Dice Man Cometh
Dice-K's Debut
Yesterday, 26 year old Daisuke Matsuzaka, now know as Dice-K to Red Sox Nation, pitched in his Fenway debut. Unfortunately, he lost. The spoiler, a young man named Hernandez usurped Dice-K's debut by throwing a one-hitter at the hapless Red Sox bats.
Number 18, Daisuke Matsuzaka
Matsuzaka is now 1 & 1 as a Red Sox pitcher, and although not as sharp as in his previous win in KC, he did pitch well enough to win most games, but his opponent pitched an incredible game by any standard, a stellar, outstanding performance by Hernandez who many believe, at the age of 21, is on his way to an All Star career. We hope the same is also true of Dice-K.
This should be an interesting season, as the Red Sox reloaded on pitching in the off season, and the Yankees also strengthened their ranks, but other teams too are much improved and are ready to challenge the big spending Sox and Yanks for the AL pennant.
The 103 Million Dollar Man
So, Mt. Hope contingent of Red Sox Nation, take a bow, and welcome in the Dice-K Era.
Posted at 08:00 PM | The Arts | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Things Fall Apart
Poem of the Week Feature
The Second Coming
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in the sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
1920
William Butler Yeats
"The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."
What I love about poetry is that the poet him or herself does not know when writing the poem what it really means or what import it may have in days to come. The poet merely writes from what he or she thinks of as truth and the best of it remains as such, or at least a harbinger of such.
Take this poem for instance, written in 1920, could it have been
written yesterday about our sorry situation in Iraq. Absolutely! Our Post Modern and post-avant poets cannot write so succinctly lest they be called modernist, meaning old fashioned or worse yet, sentimental, as surely the avant garde in their day characterized Yeats in 1920.
It doesn't matter. Poetry reflects the times in which we live. The more complex our lives, the more complex our poetry. I wish roses were still red and violets were still blue, but, alas, that is no longer true.
What is true is that corporations rule.
Accept that as a given and proceed from there whenever you think of freedom or democracy.
Think about the so called facts that have been shoved down your throats.
Think about all the distractions that have been tossed your way to distract you from your own self interest.
Religion? Gay Marriage? Abortion? Gun Control? Morality? Family Values? Racism? Immigration?
Who cares?
What about taxes, jobs, health care, an honest voting system?
Have we been distracted from focusing on these important issues?
But I digress, what has all this to do with poetry?
Posted at 04:31 AM | The Arts | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Deer Storking & Other Search Queries
Below find the list of search terms used to access the Mt. Hope Community Website in the month of March, 2007, listed by frequency.
Blimey Limey, I'd like some Brit to tell me what is Deer Storking? What are those crazy English and their bad teeth up to now!
Anyroad, behold the list( the most interesting or unusual appear in bold):
maurice methot
mount hope court apartments in
mt. hope neighborhood association ri
mount hope providence
alix ogden
sergeant to1nya king harris 1
camp street crime providence
daniel sciotti
kevin kazlauskas
kevin lanni
library providence rochembeau
deer storking
mount hope police department in providence ri
tonea sims pawtucket times
mt. hope murder providence
laura pisaturo
david schiavulli
mt. hope blog providence
proud thin dying bukowski grape supermarket
camp street providence crime
helen walker raleigh
mt. hope neighborhood association providence ri
east side monthly providence letters
beth patrone
mt hope neighborhood providence children under 6 poverty
brave soul nocd
washing park little league providence rhode island
providence rhode island police major tommy
east side of
providence policeman who served time
crime rate in college hill providence ri
providence ri camp street crime
locations of fallout shelters in rhode island
mount hope association blog
ciccline
providence ri mount hope photos
john twomey providence
history of mt hope ri
woodbine street in providence is ghetto
mount hope neighborhood association providence ri
men of shame in rhode island
mt hope providence
bonnard s nudes poem raymond carver
graffiti in providence east side
availability in r.i housing section
mount hope neighborhood association in providence
mt. hope condo association providence ri
salve regina university gay marriage
tyrone way boston
amritanandamayi marlborough 2006 schedule
providence graffiti ordinance
mt hope neighborhood association providence
blog providence mt hope
kathryn laferte
david pontarelli
she mounts her lion among men
raymond watson ri
24 camp street at doyle east providence
ted johnson jackie macmullen i dont want anyone
mt hope methot
gang names and rhode island
john nickelson providence
providence east side south side gangs
midori spa landlord
james lassiter providence ri
mt hope rhode island
Posted at 10:17 PM | Website | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
