Posts Tagged ‘Boston Herald’

Letter in today’s Herald: backyard pools are a safety hazard

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010

In a recent tragedy, twin toddlers drowned in their family’s backyard in-ground pool.

Two articles in a row in the Boston Herald mentioned that the authorities were investigating how the twins drowned despite the fact that the pool had a cover.

There seems to be a widespread misconception, which the Herald articles exacerbate, that pool covers are a safety device. In my letter in today’s Herald, I tried to set the record straight:

Safety hazard

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

A pool cover is not a safety device; it is intended to keep the pool clean, not prevent drownings. In fact, pool covers make pools less safe for children (“Police to study security tape in tots’ drowning,” July 19).

My heart goes out to the parents, but it disturbs me to see officials claiming they did everything right. If that had been the case, then it would have been impossible for the children to access the pool unsupervised. There is a reason why many insurance companies refuse to issue policies to homes with pools.

- Jonathan Kamens, Brighton

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Posted in Boston, Journalism | 3 Comments »

Can you say “pandering to the elderly”? Tim Cahill can.

Sunday, June 27th, 2010

According to Margery Eagan in today’s Herald, both Deval Patrick and Charlie Baker support “some type of road testing for the elderly.”  Independent gubernatorial candidate Tim Cahill?  Not so much:

“I don’t want to take away licenses from able-bodied people or force them to go through a driver’s test,” he said.  What the Legislature did, he said, is “fine.”

Hey Tim… The point of road tests for the elderly people would be to figure out which people are not “able-bodied.”  Anybody who can look at the string of completely avoidable accidents involving elderly drivers and think that this isn’t necessary is a moron.  I don’t vote for morons.

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My letter about gambling in today’s Boston Herald

Thursday, May 20th, 2010

Here’s what they printed:

A loser’s game

The condition of our economy proves the absurdity of John Stossel’s argument that gambling should be legal because, “People are responsible for the consequences of their bad habits” (“Is it your choice to gamble? You betcha!” May 14). We’re digging ourselves out of the worst recession since 1929 because people took out mortgages they couldn’t afford. It’s costing us trillions of dollars to clean up from their “bad habits.”

Whether it’s Keno, a slots hall or a casino, any gambling establishment is a blight on the community, one that hurts those who patronize it and everyone else.

- Jonathan Kamens, Brighton

Here’s what I sent them: (more…)

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Boston Herald as cog in the vast right-wing anti-global-warming conspiracy

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

In a February 10 column printed in the Boston Herald, Jonah Goldberg repeats the anti-global-warming canard that severe snowstorms are evidence against global warming.  In response, I sent the following letter to the editor:

To the editor:

Jonah Goldberg’s recent suggestion that severe winter weather disproves global warning shows an alarming ignorance of basic science. In particular:

  • When the air is warmer, more water evaporates into it.
  • When there is more water in the air, it snows more.
  • Once you get below freezing, colder temperatures actually decrease snowfall.

In short, the simple truth is that global warming causes more snow, not less.

Of course, ideologues like Goldberg rarely let something as inconvenient as the truth stand in the way of their agenda.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Kamens
Brighton

Not only did the Herald not print my letter or any other letter or opinion piece making a similar point, they have run at least two idiotic editorial cartoons mocking the idea that more snow supports global warming theories.  (more…)

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Posted in Boston, Journalism, Politics | 11 Comments »

Boston Herald’s Joe Fitzgerald aspires to be the next George Orwell

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

To: letterstoeditor@bostonherald.com

To the editor:

I enjoyed Joe Fitzgerald’s recent satire of the pro-life movement. I laughed so hard coffee came out my nose when I read that “the only choice [the pro-choice movement] will tolerate is its own.” It was obvious that he was joking, since it’s so patently absurd to suggest that people protecting a woman’s right to choose are trying to deny her a choice.

Wait, what’s that? He was serious? Are you sure? Oh, in that case, never mind.

Fitzgerald is right that pro-choice extremists sometimes say stupid things, but I’ll take them over the extremists on the other side who think it’s God’s work to assassinate doctors performing legal medical procedures.

Jonathan Kamens, Brighton

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What makes a bully? Part 2

Monday, February 8th, 2010

I reworked my recent blog entry a bit and submitted it to the Boston Herald for consideration as a letter to the editor and/or “As You Were Saying…” (which is what the Herald calls guest op-eds) column.  Here’s the letter they published today:

Good citizenship taught

The school my wife and I chose for our children stands out dramatically because the students, faculty and parents are nice to each other and happy to be there. This does not happen by chance; it is the result of a consciously designed, constantly maintained culture which emphasizes respect and empathy as the community’s most precious values.

That culture could not possibly be achieved through punishment and discipline. Rather, good citizenship is an essential component of the curriculum, in every class and every grade.

And therein lies the solution to bullying. Schools cannot merely teach our children not to be bad; we must teach them to be good.

Jonathan Kamens, Brighton

Here’s what I originally sent them: (more…)

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Joe Fitzgerald’s token Christmas-loving Jew

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

To: letterstoeditor@bostonherald.com

To the editor:

On Dec. 10, Joe Fitzgerald wrote about Irina Koltoniuc, his favorite Christmas-loving Jew, for the sixth time (“Jewish immigrant champions Christmas”).  Does he keep writing about the same woman because he’s too lazy to find someone else, or because he can’t find any other Jews willing to talk about how nice it is to have a religion they do not believe in shoved down their throats?

We can talk about the “conspiracy against Christianity” when Fitzgerald can write about a public school system which marks Christian kids with unexcused absences for observing their holidays, which is what the Boston Public Schools did to to a student recently for the Jewish holidays, or a city soccer league which prevents Christian kids from playing by scheduling all of its games on Sunday morning, as opposed to the all-Saturday-morning schedule which kept me out of the league.  And when was the last time Fitzgerald was unable to attend the Herald’s holiday party because he had to go to Mass?  To the detriment of my career, I will (once again) this year be missing my employer’s Friday-night party.

There is no “conspiracy against Christianity” in this country. There is, rather, a long overdue recognition that it’s not nice for the majority religion in this country to impose itself on everyone else.  Unfortunately, there’s a long way to go before non-Christians will truly be treated equally in the public sphere.  Maybe Fitzgerald should write about that.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Kamens

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Posted in Boston, Journalism, Judaism, Religion | 3 Comments »

Better handcuff those weapons so they can’t get away!

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

From today’s Herald:

“Comeaux, 49, took the officers’ weapons and handcuffed them together in the back of the vehicle…”

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Another letter in the Herald

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

Here’s what I wrote:

To the editor:

Donnie Feener’s willingness to take time out of his own life and undergo painful surgery to donate bone marrow to save the life of a stranger is truly admirable.

Unfortunately, many patients who need transplants are unable to obtain them because a matching donor cannot be found.

Finding donors is particularly difficult for patients in certain minority groups, such as African Americans or Hispanics, because those groups are tragically underrepresented in bone-marrow registries.

There are frequent registration drives in the Boston area, and the cost of joining the registry is waived at many drives (to locate a drive near you, visit www.marrow.org and click on “Join the Registry” and then “Join in Person”).

Although some donations require surgery, many are instead accomplished through a virtually painless apheresis procedure that requires little, if any, recovery time.

Many tragic stories published in the Herald have had happy endings because your readers reached out to lend a hand. Surely if Joe Fitzgerald explained how easily your readers could save a life, they would jump at the chance.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Kamens

Here’s what they published:

Donnie Feener’s willingness to undergo painful surgery to donate bone marrow to save a stranger’s life is admirable (“Ex-sailor puts teen stranger’s life first,” May 4).

Unfortunately, many patients who need transplants are unable to obtain them because a matching donor cannot be found. Finding donors is particularly difficult for certain minorities who are underrepresented in bone-marrow registries.

There are frequent registration drives here, and the cost of joining is often waived (www.marrow.org). Although some donations require surgery, many are accomplished through a virtually painless apheresis procedure that requires little, if any, recovery time.

Many tragic stories in the Herald have had happy endings because readers have lent a hand. If readers knew how easily they could save a life, they’d jump at the chance.

- Jonathan Kamens, Brighton

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