Op-ed

Since the 1880s, Labor Day has been celebrated on the first Monday in September. The tradition was established as part of labor’s fight for the 8-hour work day; and has since then offered a chance to reflect on the struggles and victories of working families. This Labor Day, the labor movement is once again committing itself to the fight for all working families across America. We cannot afford four more years of George W. Bush's vision for America.

Humanity is running out of time. That is the stark, bleak message offered by leading Australian reef scientist J.E.N. Veron to a gathering of 50 or so members of the Boston Reef Society this Saturday. By 2030, the oceans as a whole will be too acidic to sustain the coral reefs; well before then, krill populations—which feed everything from mega-mammals to birds and sea creatures much lower on food chain–will have fallen below critical levels.

The crash of two trolleys on the MBTA's "D" line in Newton, MA was tragic (an operator was killed) but I think the system as a whole is fairly safe.

Driving west along Alewife Brook Parkway recently, through an area called The Alewife - a swath of road and shopping centers where Cambridge, Arlington, and Watertown, MA seem to overlap - I was struck by a crazy thought.

There's this bridge, just before the Alewife Train station on the "red line." And on one side of this bridge there are three very large, block rectangular apartment buildings. Many people who depend upon some form of government subsidy live in these buildings.