civilrectitude's blog

It's 3:03 a.m. and Boston's Finest(Estb. 1854) has just finished doing reconnaissance and dusting my place for finger prints.

After a late night B & E, I placed a call to my local 911. Before long, and after establishing that my event is a non-critical emergency, the 911 operator dispatches Boston's Blue to my address. Within 30 minutes, I receive a call that they are down stairs waiting. An officer responds, followed by a sergeant and a detective.

Every day officers from the Boston Police Department (BPD) make their way to residents and citizens in need of their assistance. And though it is not my wish to ever have to call them for any type of emergency, it is nice to know that they are there and on call 24 hours a day 7 days a week and 365 days out of the year. Wait... lets make that 425 days of the year, if you calculate officers over time, take away from family time and just plain time to contribute to making our lives a little more comfortable.

Have you ever stopped to think what The City would be like without them. How much more insecure would you feel? Think about it. No one to call during the Marathon emergency, no direction during special events, no response to emergencies such as a violent crime, and no one to respond to the smaller emergencies. No one to intervene in domestic violence, in general no one to offer a safer more secure City.

by Scotland Willis

I was speaking with a good friend this morning who is visiting with me from out of town; she has
been prescribed lots of drugs- eight to my knowledge. These drugs ranged from antidepressants (prescribed as a method to help them sleep) to pain pills.

Thoroughly concerned about the use of prescription medicine as a solution with no end; I shifted into my life coach mode and asked her to do me a favor. I simply requested that she take a moment to go up stairs and write a list of ten things that make her happy.

What we should all know

While she was doing this I decided to do some research about the various drugs- most of it was not positive. The risks associated with taking the prescribed drugs ranged from suicide to further depression- be more depressed... so I can sleep? That didn't wash with me, so I furthered my research, all the time knowing and informing her that I am no doctor and am not offering medical advice. I went a step further.

Utility optimization

by Scotland Willis

Like the nature of recycling and the concept of cradle to cradle, collaborative consumption looks at the advent of social sharing networks commonly known as peer-to peer (P2P) networks; people buying, selling, borrowing, and renting from one another thereby avoiding a retailer- optimizing the usefulness of products and services among individuals. From Flicker to Facebook, from AirBnB to hundreds of peer-to-peer products and services; this newly defined (compliments of Ray Algar) phenomenon is growing in numerous directions.

Collaborative consumption represents a new element in the economy producing a new consumer base that would exist on a much smaller scale without internet technology- the true fabric of P2P networking. Communication via the internet allows billions of people across vastly different geographies (individuals and groups), the opportunity to connect around the utility of mutually beneficial goods and services. Put simply you have something with excess surplus and I can utilize that excess surplus which will provide additional (or secondary) benefit to the original owner and primary usefulness to me.

by Scotland Willis

Balance is something we strive for in our life. We see it in how we try to manage work and our

personal life; balance between consumption and preserving the environment; balancing disruptions and getting tasks done; and in our personal health versus stress. The list is extensive. By and large balance is a very difficult goal to achieve; this assertion could be made anywhere in the world.

So here is something to consider about balance you may not have thought of; 1) the most important balance in our body is pH balance; while that may sound simple, achieving it is like trying to balance yourself on a tightrope (ok perhaps not that difficult but it might seem that way) but certainly as challenging to achieve balance in other areas of our life; 2) alkaline and acids make up these two very important chemical that represent this balance, which also influence many other activities that occur in our body.

A bit more understanding migh make you more conscious about your eating decisions and thereby resulting in a happier healthier you.

A recent graduate from a college somewhere in California(Berkley, I think she said) whose behavior indicated that she had a tendency to bloviate ad nauseam, about subjects she had amateurish knowledge about, sat one person over from myself.

Saturday evening I went to the Capital Grille for dinner. They have great bread and a chowder that is pretty robust as well. Unfortunately the company that was at the bar was not the caliber I am use to keeping. But I enjoyed my soda water nonetheless.

by Scotland Willis

Massachusetts legislation House Bill 3515, Senate Bill 1480 for which the session ended July 31 2010(According to legislative sessions and rules ). Further discussion on the matter of bottled water and soft drink deposit requirement(of .05 cents) is essentially moot.

by Scotland Willis

On Tuesday morning, I was informed by members of my community that a developer was requesting a variance from the City of Boston, on a property in our area of Highland Park at 9:30 am- now it's 30 minutes before the hearing was suppose to occur- SHUCKS! So I changed, jumped on my bike, and sped down to City Hall Rm. 801

As they approach the dock I can kind of tell that the captain, or acting captain of the vessel, is not the sharpest sailor on the sea. He misses his approach and is forced to place the vessel in reverse(missing the 30 feet of dock before him). It was not a terribly embarrassing moment- though you would never be able to tell from the apparent"spouse's" reaction towards me. Crewed with three people I thought for sure that they would have someone among them, who could safely and efficiently dock. Nada uno.

Accelerating up the slope of Hawthorne street, I held enough speed to take the corner leading me to Highland; anticipating the momentum I would gain down Highland Street towards Cedar, my adrenaline began to build. Suddenly I was perplexed by the two canoes atop a familiar looking Jeep at the Highland and Fort Ave. intersection- it my attention from the corner of my eye.

by Scotland Willis

Whether you are a believer in climate change or not, the intensity of your belief passes through many filters. This is one of the many things preventing the kind of progress which advocates for climate change would like to see.

Opponents, on the other hand, lack research infrastructure, attempting to manipulate and falsely extrapolate intensely researched data from climate experts- not advocates.

Ringgold Park is located off of Waltham Street in the South End, between Washington and Tremont Street. After initially encroaching upon the Monday evening Salsa lessons held outside the Balckstone Community Center; where I honestly hesitated at the thought of participating in this festival of Summer residents frolicking to Latin rhythms, I continued on to my planned destination.

Never have I felt how compelling my blog name was until this day. In no way would I attempt to compare my title to the suffering of the Martin family right now but a level of frustration continues to mount that supports the grief the family must feel.

We already know much of the details of Jawwon Martin's murder, which is not why I am writing this article; Jaewon's age, school, academic intelligence etc. are all above par for a public school student. No this is a question to the public.

So I was sitting on the Memorial Drive side of river bank on the Charles unable to let go of the apoplectic emotions that stirred inside. I already knew what would follow this event; people would be outraged, the mayor, commissioner, and other public figures would make statements and hold a press conference; for a few weeks Jaewon would be memorialized. In other words nothing would really change. This time, that was not enough, so I began writing feverishly about real solutions to this violent conundrum. I wanted to really understand what was at the heart of the issue- safety! No surprise there.

Recently I had a brief conversation with a young man and woman in a festive setting. Loud urban hip hop music was playing in the background; while clusters of people in their mid to late twenties, occupied a portion of the yard space where I grew up celebrating similar festive events. From birthday parties to cookouts, this place has always been a gathering space where good friends and family come together to enjoy each others company- and learn from one another.

As things were settling down around 11:00on a Thursday night, I made a brief announcement to the women among the some thirty odd people, about a Young Black Women's Society event on Saturday- recommending that they attend. One young man exclaimed, "Can I go?" I replied, absolutely you can go, and you should go, you might learn something about how to truly treat a woman right. While my response was stated somewhat jokingly, there is a little truth in jest. His lady friend chided him implying that he just might learn something, as well. He conceded in his remarks acknowledging what was likely to be partial reality relative to the conversation.