Every 4th friday of the month we gather at the Community Church of Boston to address issues affecting lifers and others in prison. We work to hear their voices and provide each other support in the work we are doing. This particular evening is focused on addressing sexual and other violence in prisons in Massachusetts and around the country.
In an op-ed piece in Sunday’s Boston Globe, columnist Jeff Jacoby took to task numerous individuals and organizations whom he claimed were exploiting last week’s Virginia Tech massacre for political purposes, including the World Socialist Web Site.
The conceit of Jacoby’s piece is that he is dispatching evenhanded justice, criticizing right and left, the media and politicians alike. He first accuses political forces in favor of stricter gun control of making supposedly illegitimate use of the “terrible news” to press their political agenda. He then turns his attention to the pro-gun lobby. After that, ABC News is chastised for putting an interactive poll on its web site—on the theme of gun control legislation—“within hours of the slaughter.”
The doctrine of answering every defeat in Iraq with a new offensive is a grave mistake, worse than in Vietnam.. The battle between the executive and the legislature has begun.