Occupy Boston is history in process
DECEMBER 06, 2011
THE BOSTON Globe correctly points out the importance of allowing Occupy Boston to remain while insisting on the need for a cleaned-up site (“ Menino should stick with policy of allowing Occupy Boston ,’’ Editorial, Dec. 3). The city should work with Occupy Boston to make this happen rather than blocking attempts to bring health and safety materials such as warmer tents and a kitchen sink to the site. Occupy Boston comes closer to realizing the original vision of the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway than any of the earlier attempts to create civic venues such as a botanical garden, cultural center, or history museum. It is now one of the most visited sites along the Greenway, drawing workers, neighborhood residents, suburban families, religious groups, and buses of schoolchildren from across the region.
The Freedom Trail celebrates the history of Boston’s early revolutionary era, while Plimoth Plantation enables visitors to see how history was lived in early America. At Occupy Boston, visitors learn about, and participate in, the creation of history as it is being made. It’s Boston’s newest revolutionary destination for visitors.
Mayor Menino is a national leader in dealing with the effects of foreclosures on our neighborhoods and has expressed strong sympathy for Occupy Boston’s message.
But will he work with Occupy Boston? Or will he foreclose on this exercise of political expression just as the banks have foreclosed on millions of homes?
Bruce Ehrlich
Jamaica Plain
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