measi's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- easter thoughts and marathon monday I'm home. I don't even want to deal with the T today. I was up by Newbury and Boylston streets and everything was roped off yesterday. Well prepared, as always. I guess after 105 years of this, they've got the system down pretty well. Organized chaos is a beautiful thing. I'm going to see about going to dontate platlets again today since I'm home. Even though it's Patriot's Day, I'm pretty sure that they're open. I figure that while I have the time off, I might as well go do something productive. =) Then I'll go wander around and see if I can manage to catch some of the events at the finish line. I spent a few hours yesterday taking in Boston on Easter Sunday. Being Pagan, it's not my holiday, but I have to admit that people were a lot friendlier yesterday than normal. I had more than a dozen people wish me peace and a happy Easter. Of course I thanked them and did the same--there's never anything wrong with being polite! But yesterday's trip struck me in a couple ways. My route yesterday was on the #28 bus, which runs between Ruggles Station and Mattapan--through Roxbury and Dorchester. It's an area of the city where the division between haves and have-nots are clearly evident, and the sense of community is very strong because there are so many families who have lived there for generations. For the majority of the bus ride, I was the only "white" person on the bus. Anyone who tells you that Boston is desegregated is full of shit. The shift from "white" to "black" sections of the city is dramatic. The neighborhoods are rougher, the schools aren't kept up as well, and even the public transportation that is provided is of lower quality going to the black neighborhoods. It's sick. Really sick. I honestly keep waiting for the obligatory "Coloreds Only" and "Whites Only" signs to pop up somewhere. But despite all of the blatant brush offs that these neighborhoods get, the folks that I saw on the bus wished me a Happy Easter. That says a lot to me. Because all of the well-wishers yesterday were non-Caucasians, and even though it was definitely evident that I was not in "my neighborhood," these folks were friendly and outgoing enough to wish complete strangers a good day and blessings for a holiday. That kind of behavior never happens up in the neighborhoods in the "good" areas of the city, I've found. Maybe I'm rambling and experiencing the "grass is always greener on the other side of the fence" but it just struck me so dramatically that I needed to include it here. --Mel. 9:20 a.m. - 16 April 2001 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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