November 17, 2017 Vol. 121 No. 46
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VOL. 121 - NO. 46 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, NOVEMBER 17, 2017 $.35 A COPY Veterans Day Parade and Ceremonies in Boston’s North End by NorthEndWaterfront.com The North End Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 144 held a parade in Boston’s North End on Veterans Day, Novem- ber 11th. Ceremonial stops were made at the Iraq/Afghanistan memorial at Old North Church, the VFW plaque on the Prado and during a Mass at St. Ste- phen’s Church. News Briefs by Sal Giarratani Women of Color Big News in November 7 th Election The news spread across the country. In Boston’s recent city council elections, six women of color got themselves elected as either city councilors at large or as district councilors. Just a few years ago, the number was zero. City Councilor Ayanna Presley was the fi rst, but in just the last three elections, fi ve more women of color have joined the 13-member Boston City Council. Remembering 50 Years Ago Boston’s political history just passed the 50th anni- versary of one of the most divisive mayoral elections in the city’s history as Kevin H. White faced off against Louise Day Hicks. Two powerful politicians representing two parts of Boston’s electorate. Liberals pulled out all the stops to get White elected mayor, while the more conservative neighborhoods of the city backed Hicks. She even made the cover of Newsweek as Boston’s version of George C. Wallace. The race was close, but White did win and went on to three more terms before retiring from offi ce in January 1984. It was a great time to be young and political. I was a college student who grew up loving this blood sport. After all, I came from the same Roxbury neighborhood as the legendary James Michael Curley and my boyhood state rep was Charlie Iannello — he didn’t just know nuts and bolts, he made them for use, Partly, I’m quite glad the old days are long gone. To crazy for today. Do miss the rough and tumble, better than TV. Today there are too many phonies out there pretending they know something, when most are dumb as rocks. (Continued on Page 10) (Photos by Michele Morgan) THE POST-GAZETTE SATELLITE OFFICE HAS MOVED TO 343 CHELSEA ST., DAY SQUARE, EAST BOSTON This offi ce is open on Tuesdays from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM and Thursdays from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM, for the convenience of our East Boston and North Shore clients and contributors Call 617-227-8929 for more information PAGE 2 POST-GAZETTE, NOVEMBER 17, 2017 Res Publica by David Trumbull Thanksgiving Day 2017 “Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the DOMITIAN: THE KILLER-DILLER providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefi ts, and humbly to implore his protection and favor was incapable of exertion, but … I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of No- instead was carried in a litter. vember next, to be devoted by the People of these States to the His only interest in arms was service of that great and glorious Being, who is the benefi cent archery. He was an excellent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be … ” marksman and often killed wild beasts with two successive — George Washington, 1789 shots in such a manner that the (from the fi rst arrows gave the effect of horns. National Thanksgiving Day Presidential Proclamation) Domitian was killed by a conspiracy of close friends that The Pilgrims, Puritans, Huguenots, Quakers, also included his wife Domi- Anabaptists, Lutherans, Jews, Catholics, deists, and tia. The murder took place in even atheists who came to America in the his bedroom after a lengthy colonial period found here freedom not struggle. Stephanus, the stew- possible in the lands of the ard of Domitia, concealed a Old World, where an estab- A complete list of Domitian’s them with the utmost rigor dagger in a fake arm bandage. lished church was the norm. condemnations and the man- to force payment. One man He stabbed the emperor in the Their descendants founded ner of his tortures certainly who attempted to conceal his groin while he was reading a the United States on a radi- matches those of Caligula and identity was examined publicly paper. The emperor fought with cal and untried principle — Nero. He even devised a spe- in a crowded courtroom and Stephanus and both fell to the no religious establishment and cial truth extracting technique forced to reveal the fact of his fl oor where they struggled for no government interference for use during inquisitions. circumcision. a long time. Domitian tried to with religion. What a surprise This consisted of inserting fi re Domitian was not to be out- get the dagger away from his then to fi nd that the very fi rst Presidential Proclamation issued was into the privates of the wit- done in his sex life, either. He assailant and even tried to Washington’s Thanksgiving Day call to prayer to an Almighty God. nesses. Financial problems was excessively lustful and was gouge out his eyes with his own Indeed, the only distinctly American holiday is the fourth brought about as a result of constantly engaged in sexual lacerated fi ngers, but eventually Thursday in November, which we set aside to thank God for our his shows and building pro- intercourse, which he called he was slain when Parthenius, blessings. Think about it. Christmas is celebrated worldwide, grams resulted in economic “bed-wrestling,” and referred to a second assassin, stabbed even in lands where Christians are a small minority. Every nation measures — tax assessments, this kind of activity as exercise. the emperor seven times. The celebrates New Year’s Day and the various national holidays and confi scations — that were He even depilated his concu- day of his death is listed as commemorating great leaders, important battles, and the date of also equal to those of Caligula bines with his own hand. It was September 18, 96 A.D., in the national founding. and Nero. The property of the said that he was such a down- fi fteenth year of his reign. His Our distinctly American national holiday is a re-enactment living and the dead were seized to-earth guy that he even swam corpse was carried out on a — and re-interpretation for contemporary multi-ethnic and anywhere, at any time, and in the baths with common pros- common bier by persons who multi-religious American culture — of that fi rst Thanksgiving on any charge that had been titutes. He refused a niece who normally buried the poor. He in Plymouth, Massachusetts, celebrated by survivors of the brought by any accuser. A was offered to him in marriage was cremated on his suburban Mayfl ower passage. And, yet, the story is not narrowly the tale of mere word or action that could when she was a maiden, but estate, which was located on the Pilgrims. Few Americans are literally Mayfl ower descendants. be construed as derogatory later he seduced her after she the Via Latina, and his ashes Most of us do not trace our roots to East Anglia. Most of us do no to the majesty of the emperor became the wife of another. Still were placed in the Flavian fam- follow their reformed Calvinist religion. Nevertheless, their story was all that was needed for later, when she suffered the loss ily temple. The people received is the American story. It is the story of families that left their condemnation. Domitian even of her husband, he loved her the news with indifference, but homeland for a better life in America. confi scated estates of persons ardently and openly, eventually the senators were so overjoyed, Did your people come here on sailing ships in the 17th, 18th, who were in no way connected causing her death by ordering that they immediately removed or 19th century? Or were they part of the big steamship migra- with the emperor. All that was an abortion. his shields and images from tion of the late 19th and early 20th century that fi lled Boston with needed was for one man to come Domitian was quite tall, with the walls of the Senate House Irish and Italians? Or perhaps you are a more recent immigrant. forward to say that he had at large eyes, handsome and and dashed them to the fl oor. Whenever your people came here and by whatever means, they, one time heard the deceased graceful. In his later years, he They also decreed that all of and you, are part of the narrative we re-tell every Thanksgiving say that the emperor was his suffered baldness, a protruding his inscriptions be erased, Day. heir. He levied harsh taxes belly, and was spindle-legged. and all record of him obliter- on the Jews and pursued He exercised very little and ated. Probably the one most signifi cant feature of his reign was the manner in which he had advanced toward absolute NORTH END Boston Harborside Home monarchy. NEXT WEEK: Joseph A. 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