One can try and change hearts and minds through gentle persuasion and civil conversation all they want, but policy is what will actually move the needle. We need politicians and future politicians that want to work towards eliminating racism and not wield it in a personal quest for power.

This is why it is especially important to point out when the political party in power has fused racism and antisemitism into every aspect of its purpose.

Racism is a political policy choice. This is why those here on the North Shore of MA who descended from Irish and Italian immigrants do not find themselves oppressed despite historic discrimination.

www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

In the “debate me, bro” culture, there is no engaging with the “marketplace of ideas” in good faith. It is simply to mock it.

It’s worth a reminder that what bigoted social media influencers and their followers call “debate” is really just a way to create, often highly edited, hate-based content for like-minded viewers. We have had this show up in our history here in Swampscott.

jewishjournal.org/2022/11/23/s...

Always easy to bring out the people who follow your FB page just to be outraged by what you post every once in awhile.

Violent events are always tragic, but maybe our local governments shouldn’t put our flags to half mast for a victim of it who often encouraged violence and had no redeeming qualities.
Cc @massgovernor.bsky.social

Save democracy. Legalize multi-family housing in your neighborhood today.

If you want more people to have full civil rights including things like access to abortion, you need to allow for more people to move to states like Massachusetts.

But let’s not forget that the number of representatives each state has in congress is determined by how many residents each state has. Therefore, if you want your political views to have a bigger representation in Congress than states that vote a different way, you need to grow your population.

Unfortunately, many people, including people who generally vote for Democrats tend to set those issues aside when it comes to housing because they would rather keep their neighborhoods or sometimes parts of town they simply just drive through occasionally the same as when they moved in.
#mapoli

…into neighborhoods that pride themselves on being comprised of almost universally single-family homes including racial justice, climate change, and affordability.

There are many reasons to change zoning laws to make it legal to “change a neighborhood’s character” by allowing such character changing structures as 4-plexes, and 8 unit buildings…

Why is it important to allow for more housing, especially multi-family housing, to be built in your town? Well part of it is to save democracy, and unfortunately that isn’t hyperbole or “partisan” to say right now.

#mapoli
www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty-rese...

We shouldn’t be measuring the value of spaces by how fast we can drive through them, but how safe and enjoyable it is to exist in them. Equity is making sure we are focused on creating safe and enjoyable places throughout our entire municipality and not just making them available to some.

So instead of putting effort into complaining about progress, perhaps some effort could be put into making sure we are making our own community as accessible to the widest variety of people as possible.

Beyond race and income, think about how someone with mobility issues could potentially get around Swampscott, a town that is merely 3 sq miles big without a car by assessing our multi-modal landscape (or lack there of). Hint: it’s rather difficult.

As this article points out, the issue of pedestrian infrastructure and gentrification isn’t that they aren’t helpful for the local population, they certainly are; it’s that cities and towns often neglect other areas that could also use those improvements.
www.melaninbasecamp.com/trip-reports...

Because they are worried they will be mildly inconvenienced in order to make a space safer for people who don’t have cars or don’t choose to use one exist.

But these improvements are always met with resistance from people who drive cars and often who simply drive through the area without ever having a desire to stop. Why?

Those larger pedestrian safety improvements; things like more and better crosswalks, road designs to slow cars down, and protected paths to get to public transport are how car dependent areas become more vibrant, safer, and livable for growing populations.

www.mbta.com/projects/lyn...

The appearance of bike lanes are often part of larger pedestrian safety infrastructure improvement projects. For the uninitiated, pedestrians are the people you see outside your car window trying to get around as you drive by them.

However, prior to the recent internet brain-rot, they were often seen as a symbol of gentrification and to some communities, ones that have much different demographics than Swampscott, they still can be.