HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL AND DON’T LOOK NOW BUT CHRISTMAS IS SNEAKING UP TOO Last week while walking down Main Street I stopped at Zume’s for my usual, a vanilla latte with skim milk and whipped cream. Next I stopped by Bunker Hill Florist already decked out for Christmas both inside and out. It is hard to believe how fast 2016 flew by. Probably, the election made it so. The whole year felt like a reality show called Trump with all of us working as extras. How else should this show have ended with handing him the keys to the White House?
Meanwhile just take a look on how Bunker Hill Florist adds so much Christmas spirit to Main Street, year after year.
I DO UNDERSTAND
I grew up in Orchard Park in Roxbury as a kid. I know first hand what it is like to live in projects. I can remember the name kids outside the project called us. We were the project rats. I never felt like a project rat. My parnts had little choice when I was growing up. It wasn’t easy finding decent apartments. Many of them were to expensive even back those many years ago. However, my father pushed as hard as he could to liberate us from the projects and I can remember when we left the projects forever in 1965 .
I saw B.H.A. rebuild my old project. They even changed its name from Orchard Park to Orchard Gardens. However, every time I drive down Harrison Avenue past it, I still hate looking at the all new project.
Many people need public housing at some point in their lives. However, projects were meant to be way stations and not a final destination. I knew some families who were fifth generation project families. I just couldn’t understand this.
I am not calling projects bad housing but I am calling the attitude of hopelessness in moving beyond projects a sad commentary of where we are as a caring society.
I know many people who have moved beyond public life and feel liberated in their independence. However, I do know many who even after leaving project life still hold on to P.M. or project mentality. It even infected me for a while but I got over it. My hope is that someday projects will no longer be needed. I always thought the word projects itself was a stupid word because it gave the impressive that something wasn›t fully completed.
My hope is that decent and affordable housing can be had for all without the need of living in a government project as if we were all prisoners of the state.
I am sorry to have offended Amy Bucher or anyone else out there who read that commentary of mind, that was not my intent. My hope was to shake up people into becoming more empowered and less dependent on others and more in trusting themselves. The road is never easy and you have to keep fighting everyday to push yourself forward.