VOL. 118 - NO. 7 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, FEBRUARY 14, 2014 $.30 A COPY 2014 Winter Olympics Begin Celebrate by Ivanha Paz President’s Day FEBRUARY 17, 2014 News Briefs Team USA proudly displays the American Flag during the 2014 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony in Sochi, Russia. by Sal Giarratani This year the sporting litical climate and recent cause of all the effort they event that takes place every suicide bombings in the host have invested that none of Richard Bull four years has finally begun country. Some worried that them were deterred. from “Little House on the Prairie” in Sochi, Russia. The start American athletes that had President Vladimir Putin Passes Away of the Winter Olympics has been training their whole has publicly emphasized been surrounded by contro- lives would opt not to partici- Actor Richard Bull who played henpecked hus- (Continued on Page 6) band and shopkeeper, Nels Oleson, on TV’s “Little versy, given the current po- pate, but it is precisely be- House on the Prairie’ has died at age 89. What a great TV series it was. PG-13 all the way. It was a great TV show the whole family could watch together like “The Waltons” which also aired Feeling the Love during the same period of time. Michael Landon by Ally Di Censo Symynkywicz went straight from one TV hit to another with- out missing a beat. “Bonanza” was on the air I know it is February from 1960 to 1972 and then Little House began when, despite the blankets its run in 1973. of crusty snow on the ground You can still catch episodes of “Little House” and bare branches whistling on some channel every day. Forty years later it in the wind, signs of spring is still packed with lessons to be learned. bloom out of seemingly no- Not So Wonderful World where, gracing every angle “In a world where Woody Allen can get a life- like snowdrops. Winter jack- time achievement award at the Golden Globes ets, while still readily on at the same time his adopted daughter accuses hand for these frigid days, get him of sexually abusing her when she was a pushed to the clearance child (Allen has repeatedly denied it), and where racks in department stores, a film “The Wolf of Wall Street” sets a record for making way for jaunty pas- the use of the F-word.” Not a wonderful world, tel-colored skirts and breezy huh? — Cal Thomas windbreakers. The produce Sam Cooke’s Not So Wonderful World aisle of grocery shops and Back in my younger days growing up in farmer’s markets begins to Roxbury, I loved good soul music. Sam Cooke was acquire a greener hue, as one of my favorite recording stars. I could play the citrus fruits of winter his recording of “Knock on Wood” over and over cede their way to the tender again on the record player. Fifty years ago after artichokes and early peas of being denied a hotel room in Louisiana, he sat spring. If you are still having down and wrote “A Change is Gonna Come” just trouble finding any hope of as the walls of segregation began to crumble. spring during this bitterly His song captured both the weariness and hope- cold and stormy winter, I lessness of folks trying to overcome a culprit urge you to look no further named Jim Crow. Sadly, he was killed months than this Friday, which is St. Valentine’s Day. This hol- (Continued on Page 14) from Freeway iday, ostensibly dedicated to and the Post-Gazette (Continued on Page 4) THE POST-GAZETTE SATELLITE OFFICE IS NOW OPEN AT 35 BENNINGTON STREET, EAST BOSTON This office is open on Tuesdays from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM and Thursdays from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PMPM, for the convenience of our East Boston and North Shore clients and contributors Call 617-227-8929 for more information Page 2 POST-GAZETTE, FEBRUARY 14, 2014 Res Publica by David Trumbull Here Let Us Stop “The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations CICERO, Part III is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already had successfully defended a formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good man named Popilius in court faith. Here let us stop.” a few years earlier. It must — George Washington’s Farewell Address, 1796 also be noted that advocates Poor George, both revered and defended their clients gratu- kicked around by us. He was born itously in those days and February 11th but when he was 20 this of course created closer Britain and her colonies finally than normal friendship ties caught up with Catholic Europe by between both parties. Guess switching to the Gregorian Calendar, who was the commanding moving his birthday to the 22nd of solider that volunteered for the month. Then, starting in 1971, the job and who slew Cicero? the Uniform Monday Holiday Act of Right, his name is Popilius. 1968 moved the official celebration A friend in need is a friend of his birth to the third Monday in indeed. February. In popular parlance we The head and hands of slight our first President by neglecting the legal name of Cicero were brought to Rome the holiday, WASHINGTON’S BIRTHDAY and refer to it as a and exposed on the Rostra of generic “Presidents’ Day.” the Forum. Crowds of people We likewise neglect Washington’s sage warning against viewed the remains and entangling foreign alliances. Even in our commercial shed tears for the brutal and relations our leaders, not content merely to trade with the 19th-century illustration, “Murder of Cicero.” unjust manner in which this rest of the world, have entered into binding agreements most eloquent man met his restricting our ability to control our own commerce, to It was at the demand of Cicero refused to allow any death. He is known to have encourage domestic manufacturing, or even to protect our Mark Antony that Cicero’s blood to be shed on his composed at least 107 ora- citizens from unsafe products. Our legal obligations to the name was added to the list account and directed the tions, of which 77 have been World Trade Organization and our bilateral and multilat- of the proscribed. Cicero at- slaves to set the litter down preserved, either partially or eral trade agreements entangle us in a network of supra- tempted to escape from Italy, and then withdraw. His order entirely. He also wrote 864 national laws that can, effectively, overturn the actions of but was twice driven back by was obeyed and he then epistles (long letters). There our elected Congress and President. contrary winds, so he re- stretched out his neck to also were poems, historical The encouraging news is that conservative, libertarian, turned to his country estate await the sword of the com- works and manuscripts. TEA Party and even some liberal activists are waking up to at Formiae to await his fate. manding soldier. Marcus Tullius Cicero, the damage that two decades of failed trade policy has in- It has been reported that he He died in his sixty-third statesman, man of letters, flicted on this nation and they are putting pressure on our said, “I will die in the coun- year, 43 B.C. After the mur- the greatest of all Roman elected officials to do something about it. No, we probably try which I have so often der was accomplished the orators, the greatest master shan’t repeal NAFTA anytime soon. But perhaps we can saved.” He resigned himself soldiers cut off both of his of composition that the world stop the even worse agreement that President Obama is to meet his death, but his hands, as these were the has ever known and the pushing with Communist Vietnam. To stop that free trade faithful slaves forced him instruments which permit- most amiable and upright agreement, called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (“TPP”), into a litter for one more ted him to write his bitter man in all of Roman history. all we need is a majority in one house of Congress. Let’s escape attempt. They were verbal attacks against Mark Who can do justice to the see if our “representatives” in Washington can prove them- overtaken by soldiers before Antony. memory of this intellectual selves friends of workingmen and women. Let’s stop TPP! they left the grounds of the And now we learn of giant in a few hundred estate and the slaves pre- another of those numerous words? I’m sure that I can’t. pared to defend their master. bitter ironies of fate. Cicero NEXT ISSUE: Sallust KARYN POLITO Candidate for Lieutenant Governor “Massachusetts is a great Karyn Polito announced state filled with great people her candidacy for the office of Lieutenant Governor and and I am excited to join Charlie’s campaign to lead officially joined Charlie Massachusetts to a brighter Baker’s campaign as his run- ning mate at an event in future because I know he has the hands on experience to Shrewsbury. get the job done,” said Karyn “Karyn and I both know that under the right leader- Polito. “As a mother, small business owner and public ship, Massachusetts state servant, I know firsthand the government can become as opportunities and challenges thrifty, creative and hard- !" that lie ahead for our state working as the people who and with Charlie’s leader- call the Commonwealth business owner and accom- home,” said Charlie Baker.