Shitty day, Still a Shitty Blogger, but nothing's as Shitty as...

HARVARD SQUARE,
home to horribly trendy stores, well dressed entrepenurial homeless, and a living, breathing, example of virtually all of the problems with class and social-economic status, and all the ugly examples of our capitalist economy, and policically controlled democracy. AND YOU'D THINK they could find some way to clean the sidewalks and empty the trash near the Au Bon Pain near Brattle!  It gets real gross around lunch time and festers until you have to walk by it after a long day of crap (My lesson bombed, and my teacher pointed out to me for all of my students to hear).  I guess I can't really bitch, I at least have my music to listen to and my clothes not rifled through.  Unfortunately a girl in my program, can't say these things as she has just had the worst of all things stolen from her, the laptop which went with her like toto did with dorothy all around these brown bricked roads of Cambridge.  It really sucks and puts my idle educational complaints into some perspective.  Bad days come and go, and they are for the most part out of your control, the only thing you can do is make most out of what you got. 

What I currently have is a blog, I am not good at keeping up on it, and, as Christine told me, my comments.  I guess I didn't know I was supposed to respond to those until I looked at her blog.  By the way, I liked her first day of subbing story, much better than how mine went, which was six degrees of chaos packed into a 4 hour day with some 2nd graders.

What might be only 3 degrees of chaos is Harvard Square, the posh, the politics, and the poverty. 

It is weird that the place next to the college is one of the trendiest places in town, probably the trendiest place in Cambridge, and maybe 2 or 3 in the Boston Area.  Things there are obviously not students priced, infact candy at the cornerstore is about as much as a movie theatre, which is still cheaper then the bloated movie theater which charges $9.00 for matinee's!  The people shopping are so...not students or university related it is not even funny.  Maybe this is because it is the summer, but it seems like you get the same crowd who kick it at the mall: tourists, extremely trendy teenagers, and families walking en masse, with an occasional couple engaging in socially acceptable PDA.  They all are mostly window shopping, walking slowly, taking pictures.  They are not three weeks away from the end of their semesters with huge lessons looming, and books to read (or not!). 

It is also weird that the place next to the college is an example of where our society might have its biggest problems.  A) big money, two-party politics.  I just came from Michigan (SWING STATE) where you see virtually no Kerry anything.  Here they stand on the corner in pairs asking for money from everybody.  "Even a dollar can help defeat Bush."  Seems like they should put their money in educating the public instead of collecting money.  I don't know about the whole deal but I do know that the strangle the Democratic National Convention, is probably a good example of what these parties do to the country.  Which is create huge road blocks to doing work that needs to get done, form venues that allow the rich to make their country work for them, and turn the electoral process, and more over our democracy, into a team sport where people are more concerned with winning then how they play the game.  B) Non-Two Party politics, like the socialists, the libertarians, Nader, are in full force.  They're here pushing their pamphlets or newsletters or whatever, attempting to get into these huge, deep conversations with complete strangers so they can round up a couple bucks for their cause...  I guess this is what democracy looks like on its most gritty underground level.  I know its tough for these people and so sometimes I'll hear what they have to say.  It feels bad though when you are late to class and you have to pass these people on the street.  C) I don't know if this is political or not, but Why do the cops hang out and watch TV while they're on duty?  Not even sitting in their car, acting like they are listening to the radio, they are just kicking it on the sidewalk, leaning up against the squad car, watching the Red Sox game that is broadcast on a TV facing the street.  Seems odd.

It also seems odd that the place next to this college is home to more homeless people than I've ever seen on a daily basis.  There are homeless that have the same corner, or t-stop, or stair well and work it daily.  They have some which get a newspaper that they can sell to people.  Other people I think are transient travelers looking to make money.  These people are cool, but it seems strange to give them money, they have pets, families, and lots of supplies.  They have funny signs like 'I just need money for beer' and 'bet you $1 that you'll read this sign,' and they usually are reading, or hanging out with some people they know.  I feel like the Homeless situation is very serious in Boston (I've heard that there is very little available low-cost housing here) but it seems like the college would do something to address this situation other than building large gates at the entrances to the college, which it can close and lock at night.  I remember there being homeless people around Michigan State, though not in this number.  They were allowed free reign around campus.  One imparticular would ride his bike from building to building and pick the empty cans from classrooms, hallways, and trash cans.  He was also able to enter the library in the afternoons and read, newspapers and magazines. 

I imagine my view of Harvard Square is like a dry river bed, perhaps when the students arrive they will cover up the dirt and the grime I see lining Harvard Square. This was ridiculously long, sorry about that, thank you for reading if you did.