View from the North End

My Favorite Things in the North End (not in any special order)

2005-06-21T20:05:00.000-04:00

Here they are (please leave a comment about your North End favorites)

White Peach Belinis and oysters at Neptunes

Linguine Carbonara at Il Panini

Cannoli Florentine at Mike's

Our doormen Anwar and Joe (recently retired)

Taranta

The Custom House

The Church Bells of St. Stephen

The Steeple of the Old North Church especially at sunset

The Zakim Bridge, also best at sunset

Christina deFalco's Boutique

All of the dogs in our building but especially Rex

The Dogfather dog walkers

Sitting outside at Joe's on a beautiful day sipping champagne

Waving to Allen from the balcony

Anthony's

My bench

The Nasdi

Hanover Street at night in a snowstorm

The Boston skyline at twilight--magical

Her Smile Doesn't Reach her Eyes--The Truth about Hillary Clinton

2005-06-21T10:58:00.000-04:00

Hillary
Ok here I go dipping my toe in dangerous waters. I am a registered independent for good reason. I am probably more conservative than liberal but have some very strong objections to right wing positions on religion and abortion. I am adamantly pro-choice because that is what living in a free society means. I remember the day I suddenly realized I was pro-choice. A young woman came to the door and asked me to sign a pro-life petition. I looked at her and it was one of those light bulb moments. I said, "How could I possibly ever make that decision for anyone but myself?" Only someone with great arrogance could believe it is their right to make such personal choices for another human being. When I say I am pro-choice, it isn't just about abortion but about all issues of personal freedom.

I am also the mother of three daughters so I am a strong supporter of women's rights and am optimistic about the possibility of a woman president leading our country in the near future.

So, I find myself in a true dilemma. I could never support Hillary Clinton and am truly frightened by the prospect of her becoming president. I have given this a great deal of thought and what I have come to understand is, in all the years and in all of the pictures I have ever seen of her, she has never had a sincere and genuine smile on her face. Her smile never reaches her eyes. It's as though there is something missing or something she is holding back. Something she refuses to let us see.

Obviously, my concerns aren't limited to her smile. But, I do think it tells us something important about her. I read an interview this morning by the National Review Online with Edward Klein, the author of the new and very controversial book about Hillary. He quoted Elizabeth Moynihan as saying Hillary is "duplicitous." Synonyms for duplicitous include "double-dealing, deceitful, treacherous, two faced and tricky." This has finally made me understand what it is behind my sense of dread whenever I see her insincere smile. It leaves me cold, uncertain and a bit fearful. These are not the emotions I want to feel about the leader of our country during such dangerous times.

Back in Tucson

2005-06-20T21:08:00.000-04:00

It's a long day traveling from Boston to Tucson. There are no direct flights so I usually connect through Chicago or Dallas. Yesterday, I had a three hour lay-over in Dallas which is exhausting, to say the least. Once we landed in Tucson I felt the baking heat before I left the airplane. There is no more beautiful place than Tucson in the winter especially if you live near the Catalina Mountains. However, in the summer, well let me just say I miss my bench and my beautiful view of Boston Harbor. Since I can no longer see my view from the North End I am having some trouble thinking about where to go with my thoughts and my blog. My daughter just sent me an instant message from Boston and, with a bit of irony, suggested I write about my writers block. But, I can't think of anything to say. More tomorrow, I hope.

2005-06-19T15:03:00.000-04:00

Have a safe trip!

2005-06-19T15:01:00.000-04:00

Start Day

2005-06-19T14:22:00.000-04:00

The twelve Global Challenge Yachts leave Boston Harbor the same day I depart for Tucson.

2005-06-18T21:47:00.000-04:00

View from my bench

Anthony's Cafe on the Waterfront

2005-06-18T19:40:00.000-04:00

If you find yourself in the North End stop by Anthony's for breakfast. The number 2 is my favorite. If you do, say hi to Anthony from Allen.

Leaving The North End

2005-06-18T17:22:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow morning I am leaving Boston for Tucson, Arizona where I will spend the next several months. I am originally from Tucson so in many ways it is home. However, the North End of Boston has become my adoptive home and I am sorry to leave. There are so many things I love about being here and so many things I will miss.

In an earlier post regarding 9/11 I mentioned "my bench." This is a lovely spot on Boston Harbor adjacent to Christopher Columbus Park that has become my sanctuary of sorts. The past month I have faced some difficult issues and this bench is where I have spent some meditative and thoughtful moments. It is a remarkably peaceful place in the middle of a busy, noisy city.

I will continue to blog from Tucson and plan to talk about the things I love about the North End as well as the things I love about Tucson. Tucson and Boston might as well exist on different planets as different as they are. The contrasts are fascinating and I look forward to thinking about them and discussing them here. I will also comment on other issues that interest me.

Global Challenge

2005-06-18T17:02:00.000-04:00

In an earlier post about 9/11, I mentioned the sail boats in Boston Harbor. I compared their precision and grace to the planes that arrive and depart from Logan Airport across the water. Right now there are twelve 72ft sailing yachts resting at Rowes Wharf just down the harbor from "my bench". These yachts are preparing for the second to last leg of the fourth Global Challenge Race. The Global Challenge is a one-design yacht race for amateurs inspired by the sailing career of Chay Blyth who sailed around the world single-handed "the wrong way" against the winds and currents in 1970. He spent 292 days at sea with none of the modern technology and convenience that the twelve Global Challenge yachts boast today. Today's Global Challenge has the reputation of being the "world's toughest yacht race." The crew consists of a professional skipper and 17 amateur "crew volunteers"

Last night my daughter and I met some of the leggers from the Barclays yacht at Joe's. They were friendly and very excited that we knew about the Global Challenge. We had a lively discussion with them and they encouraged my daughter to consider participating in the next Global Challenge . Our new friends and the crews of the eleven other yachts depart Boston Harbor tomorrow for the second to last leg of the race. If you happen to be in the Boston area I encourage you to watch these eleven magnificent vessels depart the harbor at 1:00pm Sunday, June 19. It should be a truly beautiful sight. We wish them all smooth sailing and thank them for sharing some of their experiences with us.

Chay Blyth is passionate about ordinary people participating in situations where they discover extraordinary talents. While the Global Challenge is not in my future I hope to keep Chay Blyth's philosophy in mind. And, who knows, maybe my daughter will be a future legger!

Judith Regan Learns a Thing or Two from the Runaway Bride

2005-06-16T13:45:00.000-04:00

The Washington Post is reporting that Judith Regan of ReganMedia has acquired all media rights to the "life stories" of runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks and her fiance John Mason. Regan is quoted as saying of the two, "Theirs is an unexpected and compelling story of love and forgiveness that has certainly taught me a thing or two." Is this the same Judith Regan whose affair with former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik was one of the factors implicated in the loss of his nomination to the post of Secretary of Homeland Security?

Not that Bernie was the injured party in the affair, he was apparently carrying on two extramarital affairs at the time. One with Regan and one with a city corrections officer he had been seeing for ten years. Regan, the corrections officer and Kerik's wife, with whom he has two children, knew nothing of each other until the information surfaced after Kerik's nomination to the Department of Homeland Security. Now, this would be an unexpected and compelling story of love and forgiveness if Regan ever decided to tell it. In fact, it is a far more interesting story than Jennifer Wilbank's ho hum odyssey off of which she now hopes to make a buck.

If They Build It I Won't Come -- The International Freedom Center and Debra Burlingame's Vision

2005-06-15T16:00:00.000-04:00

I live with a beautiful view of Boston Harbor and of planes taking off and landing at Logan Airport. I have a special bench where I often sit and contemplate those planes as they soar across the harbor. It is a serenely peaceful scene of silent sail boats on the water and giant airplanes landing and lifting in the distance with precision and grace. As incongruous as the sail boats and the planes may seem, they have common ground in that grace and precision of movement. Not a single day goes by that I don’t watch those planes and think of 9/11. No one will ever forget where they were that morning when the news began to trickle in of what had happened in New York. We soon sat glued to the news that not one but two American Airlines flights, originating from Boston’s Logan airport, had slammed into the World Trade Center.

In horror and complete disbelief we watched as the buildings came down and learned that two other aircraft had suffered similar fates that morning. Those of us living in the Boston area slowly began taking stock of the locations of our loved ones and friends. Where were they? Were they traveling today? Were they on business in New York? I was on the playground with my class of preschoolers when the director of the school approached me and calmly asked me where my husband was that day. The question seemed a bit out of place but I told her he was, “In the city.” She said, “What city?” and at that point I realized this was more than a just a casual conversation. When I said, “Boston” she was visibly relieved. Her body sagged a bit as the tension left her shoulders. The director knew that my husband traveled a great deal and always flew on American Airlines. She also knew that he spent a great deal of time in New York.

Although my family was blessed that morning many families we knew were not. A colleague of mine at the preschool lost her sister-in-law in the World Trade Center and spent the next several months in New York with her brother and his three children as they began the long process of grieving and learning to live without their beloved wife and mother. A woman from our community was on one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center. A child was pulled from my daughter’s middle school class to be told that his father was in the World Trade Center when it was hit.

The stories of what happened on September 11, 2001 are the stories of many innocent, brave, frightened, loved human beings who were killed for no other reason than hatred. They were targeted because they could be. The killers didn’t know their victims. The killers weren’t attacking representatives of a government they hated or soldiers of an enemy army. The killers were trained cowards determined to make a huge statement and kill as many innocent people as they could. Terrorists are trained to hit so-called “soft” targets because they can. To kill innocents on airplanes, in office buildings, busses, schools, crowded markets and movie theatres. I often question what they feel they are accomplishing. I understand the argument that terrorists feel they have no other way to fight big governments. But what do they feel they are accomplishing? Is there a terrorist “accountant” keeping track of the “cost-benefit” analysis of all the terrorism over the years. How many school children must die before they feel they have won some kind of battle? Free governments will continue to fight them and will not surrender to their tactics. The terrorists can continue to kill and destroy even their own Muslim brothers as they are now doing in Iraq but they will not win in the end. Do any of them ever stop and look at each other and ask, “Remind me, why are doing this?”

The site of The World Trade Center is not the appropriate place for the International Freedom Center. Not a single thing that happened on September 11, 2001 was about freedom. It was about an attack on freedom by freedom haters. There is only one thing that needs to be memorialized at the World Trade Center. The people on the planes, the people in the buildings, the people who sped to the buildings to save lives and all of the people whose lives have been touched in large and small ways by this horrendous tragedy and brutal attack on our free country. It should be a quiet place of reflection, a solemn place to respect and honor those who perished there and all of those whose lives will never be the same.

If the World Trade Center becomes a political statement on global policy and internationalism I will never visit. If the plan is to force feed us all of history’s examples of man’s inhumanity to man, I won’t go. I won't take my children and grandchildren and my great grandchildren. Instead, I will take them to my bench on Boston Harbor and tell them about what happened that day. I will tell them about the two planes that took off over the water and soared with precision and grace just like the sail boats. I will tell them about the pilots, the passengers, the office workers, the pentagon employees, the firemen, the police, and the doctors. I will even tell them about the rescue dogs. I will tell them about the wives, the husbands, the sons and the daughters who died. I will tell them about children who lost both parents. I will tell them of brave passengers who tried to save their plane. I will tell them of frightened flight attendants calling their loved ones for a final good bye. I will tell them that not a single person in our entire country was left unscathed by this terrible tragedy. We were all hurt and damaged in varying degrees. I will teach them to cherish their lives and their loved ones and to honor those who died that day and to respect and honor those who protect our country. I will teach them to be kind and to strive for peace but that they must never stand by and let injustice, hatred and terror go unchallenged. That is what the World Trade Center should represent, nothing more and nothing less.