Comments on: Youth Voices: My Accident http://www.somervillevoices.org/2009/02/27/schools-and-youth/youth-voices-my-accident/ An independent, open forum for reports and opinions about life in our city. Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:37:51 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Jonathan Rich http://www.somervillevoices.org/2009/02/27/schools-and-youth/youth-voices-my-accident/comment-page-1/#comment-9915 Jonathan Rich Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:30:53 +0000 http://www.somervillevoices.org/?p=765#comment-9915 I just sent a link of this piece to a friend of a friend who is thinking of buying a house near Foss Park. Perhaps it shows the area in an unfairly bad light, perhaps not. Anyway, re-reading this post, it really is a terrific piece of writing, I wish SV had more like it. I just sent a link of this piece to a friend of a friend who is thinking of buying a house near Foss Park. Perhaps it shows the area in an unfairly bad light, perhaps not. Anyway, re-reading this post, it really is a terrific piece of writing, I wish SV had more like it.

]]> By: Linda http://www.somervillevoices.org/2009/02/27/schools-and-youth/youth-voices-my-accident/comment-page-1/#comment-7133 Linda Tue, 10 Mar 2009 08:22:50 +0000 http://www.somervillevoices.org/?p=765#comment-7133 Dear pnm, I'm so sorry this happened to you. It sounds like a senseless fight, and you had to be very brave at the hospital where they didn't really take the best of care of you at first. I hope you'll tough it out at school and find your destiny (perhaps being a great writer!) rather than toughing it out at Foss Park. Best wishes. Dear pnm, I’m so sorry this happened to you. It sounds like a senseless fight, and you had to be very brave at the hospital where they didn’t really take the best of care of you at first. I hope you’ll tough it out at school and find your destiny (perhaps being a great writer!) rather than toughing it out at Foss Park. Best wishes.

]]> By: Joe Beckmann http://www.somervillevoices.org/2009/02/27/schools-and-youth/youth-voices-my-accident/comment-page-1/#comment-7027 Joe Beckmann Sat, 28 Feb 2009 21:57:20 +0000 http://www.somervillevoices.org/?p=765#comment-7027 Menenius (the patrician friend of Coriolanus): Alack, You are transported by calamity Thither where more attends you, and you slander The helms 'o the state, who care for you like fathers, When you curse them as enemies. First Citizen (e.g., Capuano): Care for us! True, indeed! They ne'er cared for us yet: suffer us to famish, and their storehouses crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act established against the rich, and provide more piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and there's all the love they bear us. Really, DO go to Coriolanus to see Capuano and PNM embody the rage of Marx in the language of the Bard! So much for those glorious "helms o' the state" on Wall Street; and their paternalism! Menenius (the patrician friend of Coriolanus):

Alack,
You are transported by calamity
Thither where more attends you, and you slander
The helms ‘o the state, who care for you like fathers,
When you curse them as enemies.

First Citizen (e.g., Capuano):
Care for us! True, indeed! They ne’er cared for us yet: suffer us to famish, and their storehouses crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act established against the rich, and provide more piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and there’s all the love they bear us.

Really, DO go to Coriolanus to see Capuano and PNM embody the rage of Marx in the language of the Bard! So much for those glorious “helms o’ the state” on Wall Street; and their paternalism!

]]> By: Barry Rafkind http://www.somervillevoices.org/2009/02/27/schools-and-youth/youth-voices-my-accident/comment-page-1/#comment-7026 Barry Rafkind Sat, 28 Feb 2009 19:14:24 +0000 http://www.somervillevoices.org/?p=765#comment-7026 Riveting post, pnm! I agree with Joe and eila that you should keep writing! I wonder what you meant by this? "This experience showed me that I was lost in my path and that I had picked the wrong one in life." Do you know what you want to do with your life? Were you involved in a gang? What do you think attracts kids to join gangs and what could be done to prevent them from joining? Riveting post, pnm! I agree with Joe and eila that you should keep writing!

I wonder what you meant by this? “This experience showed me that I was lost in my path and that I had picked the wrong one in life.”

Do you know what you want to do with your life?

Were you involved in a gang? What do you think attracts kids to join gangs and what could be done to prevent them from joining?

]]> By: Joe Beckmann http://www.somervillevoices.org/2009/02/27/schools-and-youth/youth-voices-my-accident/comment-page-1/#comment-7025 Joe Beckmann Sat, 28 Feb 2009 19:01:35 +0000 http://www.somervillevoices.org/?p=765#comment-7025 This is the initial Coriolanus dialog, and it even SOUNDS like Capuano against some Patrician Republican! http://books.google.com/books?id=drlitBylY1oC&pg=PP5&lpg=PP5&dq=coriolanus+-+belly+speech&source=bl&ots=U80uaak8Ab&sig=RDKqwJ6hiOU4ThpZ7ksiCyEXf_8&hl=en&ei=L4mpSaT5ONeitgev85jkDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result#PPA3,M1 This is the initial Coriolanus dialog, and it even SOUNDS like Capuano against some Patrician Republican! http://books.google.com/books?id=drlitBylY1oC&pg=PP5&lpg=PP5&dq=coriolanus+-+belly+speech&source=bl&ots=U80uaak8Ab&sig=RDKqwJ6hiOU4ThpZ7ksiCyEXf_8&hl=en&ei=L4mpSaT5ONeitgev85jkDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result#PPA3,M1

]]> By: Joe Beckmann http://www.somervillevoices.org/2009/02/27/schools-and-youth/youth-voices-my-accident/comment-page-1/#comment-7024 Joe Beckmann Sat, 28 Feb 2009 18:57:06 +0000 http://www.somervillevoices.org/?p=765#comment-7024 I just got back from a brilliant rehearsal of Shakespeare's Coriolanus, at the Armory on Highland Ave. It was brilliant - in my eyes and ears at least - because I walked in on a gang fight of the 15th century which felt almost EXACTLY like PNM's. I could feel the threat, the passion and the anger of hungry people angry at whoever crosses their path, while the rich plot how to keep them even more permanently poor. The second insight of the Actors Shakespeare Theater production was to cast Mike Capuano's double as the populist agitator! He sounded so much like our Congressman's rant at the fatcat banks that I could hardly keep my attention to what he was really saying. On Wednesday, that theater company's license comes up at the Board of Aldermen. I really hope PNM has a chance to look for "the belly speech" in Coriolanus, and to attend that hearing, since THIS is the kind of theater that fits Somerville so perfectly, and fits the pain and the growth of kids like him. It's way cool when Shakespeare fits politics that neatly, and we can echo the successful rage of growth across four, now five centuries. I just got back from a brilliant rehearsal of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, at the Armory on Highland Ave. It was brilliant – in my eyes and ears at least – because I walked in on a gang fight of the 15th century which felt almost EXACTLY like PNM’s. I could feel the threat, the passion and the anger of hungry people angry at whoever crosses their path, while the rich plot how to keep them even more permanently poor.

The second insight of the Actors Shakespeare Theater production was to cast Mike Capuano’s double as the populist agitator! He sounded so much like our Congressman’s rant at the fatcat banks that I could hardly keep my attention to what he was really saying.

On Wednesday, that theater company’s license comes up at the Board of Aldermen. I really hope PNM has a chance to look for “the belly speech” in Coriolanus, and to attend that hearing, since THIS is the kind of theater that fits Somerville so perfectly, and fits the pain and the growth of kids like him. It’s way cool when Shakespeare fits politics that neatly, and we can echo the successful rage of growth across four, now five centuries.

]]> By: eila http://www.somervillevoices.org/2009/02/27/schools-and-youth/youth-voices-my-accident/comment-page-1/#comment-7022 eila Sat, 28 Feb 2009 18:47:22 +0000 http://www.somervillevoices.org/?p=765#comment-7022 Dear pnm, Wow. You are an amazing writer. You are an amazing observer of the world and your mind/body experience. i thank the earth, water, fire, air and space elements that you are still alive and can share your experiences and thoughts with the world. Please keep writing. Dear pnm,

Wow. You are an amazing writer. You are an amazing observer of the world and your mind/body experience.

i thank the earth, water, fire, air and space elements that you are still alive and can share your experiences and thoughts with the world. Please keep writing.

]]> By: Joe Beckmann http://www.somervillevoices.org/2009/02/27/schools-and-youth/youth-voices-my-accident/comment-page-1/#comment-7021 Joe Beckmann Sat, 28 Feb 2009 16:04:36 +0000 http://www.somervillevoices.org/?p=765#comment-7021 What a great story, well written, careful and passionate, humane and very, very real. PNM has got voice, and keeping that level of focus on what counts puts all the rest together. Congratulations on survival, and, even more, on the urge to help others survive and thrive as well. We need more stories like these. Would that the Board of Aldermen have this kind of compassion! What a great story, well written, careful and passionate, humane and very, very real. PNM has got voice, and keeping that level of focus on what counts puts all the rest together. Congratulations on survival, and, even more, on the urge to help others survive and thrive as well.

We need more stories like these. Would that the Board of Aldermen have this kind of compassion!

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