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Somerville to Herald: We're the funnest city ever

By adamg on Fri, 10/14/2011 - 5:41pm

Jessica Heslam writes Somerville is run by Godless anti-Americans who hate our most cherished historical icons, or words to that effect. Mayor Joe Curtaone blasts back on the city Web site that Heslam wouldn't understand nuance if it walked up to her and bit her, and that Somerville officially has nothing against Halloween.

At issue is a memo from one school principal to his staff asking how they could teach that there's more than one side to Columbus Day - you know, what happened to the natives after Columbus landed and stuff. Curtatone notes Somerville celebrates Independence Day yet allows teacher to talk about slavery and how women didn't win the right to vote until 1920, adds:

In fact, the biggest thing the Herald missed in its column was the headline – "Fun takes a holiday in Somerville." We have more fun with more events and holidays in this city than any other city I've ever seen.

Neighborhoods: 
Somerville
Topics: 
Media
Politics
Free tagging: 
Halloween
Joe Curtatone
Jessica Heslam


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Comments

By Ron Newman on Fri, 10/14/2011 - 5:54pm.

Get Monster-Mashed Up at SomerStreets on Somerville Ave.

Sunday, October 23, the whole street from Porter Square to Union Square will be closed for a Halloween-themed street party and Oktoberfest.

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By anon on Fri, 10/14/2011 - 6:14pm.

That's the Herald's "thing." Find a story, twist it until it illustrates what's wrong with "Massachusetts/"moonbats" and make sure you spice it up to outrage the readership.

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By Anonymous on Fri, 10/14/2011 - 9:05pm.

It's called agitprop, and nobody does it better that the Boston Herald except the New York Post and Fox News Channel. They generate the outrage of the day. The Sommerville superintendent and mayor are pssed about being exploited by the outrage machine, as they should be.

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By Michael on Sat, 10/15/2011 - 12:14am.

...of the same people who freak out because Somerville isn't spending enough time celebrating Halloween and Columbus Day, also get angry that schools waste valuable educational time celebrating things like Kwanzaa or Women's History Month.

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By mediaseth on Sat, 10/15/2011 - 12:02pm.

How much blame do we place on the Herald, and how much blame do we place on those who read it?

A little education will go a long way to fixing this problem. Some form of media literacy, as well as proper civics classes, must be taught in public schools. Where's the MCAS on THAT?

I wish they wouldn't pander to the uneducated, but their money is just as good...

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By Dan Seitz on Sat, 10/15/2011 - 6:03pm.

We are, or at least media savvy has become so pop culturally relevant that this spin machine gets wheezier and wheezier each passing year. Don't forget; the average age of a Fox News viewer is 65 years old...and rising. Even the hardcore right-winger guys I know are scornful of it.

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By mediaseth on Sun, 10/16/2011 - 4:49pm.

..perhaps you're correct as far as Fox News is concerned. But if I ask them what local affiliate they watch most often for news (once I explain what a local affiliate is) it's almost always Fox25 on top, 7 second.. the others don't even rank.

But I see that my students more and more.. well, when they do consume news, grab whatever comes up first on a google search or, believe it or not, Yahoo's main page is pretty big with the kids I teach. That surprises me only because they're not big emailers anymore. They're not going to Yahoo for mail. It's all on facebook, now. And of course, they get their news through shares on FB, too... and we all know there's lots of junks spread that way.

In my urban district (not Boston), where basic literacy is also a challenge, it's often an uphill climb to reach a goal of having my students be able to discern an editorial from a news article, an advertisement from a review.. or even to get them to remember to bring in something to share for a "Friday Article" series on current events in the media.

I won't give up trying, though.

And too many of their parents are kids, whose media habits have not matured, either.

But, collectively, they are people who - to some degree - vote, and we want them to - and who spend money. They will be catered to by the future press.

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By FlyingToaster on Fri, 10/14/2011 - 7:24pm.

... during my 15 years in Somerville, there were more parties and festivals and walks and get-togethers* than anywhere else I've ever lived. And I'm jealous of my friends (and their kids) who still live there.

The Herald and Globe are both going brain-dead. Yeesh.

* Open to the public events, not just friends' having parties on their middle deck.

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By anon on Sat, 10/15/2011 - 10:53pm.

Kids in Somerville actually get to go out and trick-or-treat because there are sidewalks and houses close enough together that nobody gets killed walking around ... and there isn't so much of that oh-so-suburban festering irrational fear of Teh Booogyman, either.

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By coughing on Fri, 10/14/2011 - 8:44pm.

I was hoping it WAS run by godless, anti-Americans who hate our most cherished historical icons, so I could move there.

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By Neal on Fri, 10/14/2011 - 11:51pm.

So that the knuckle-draggers over at the Herald can understand the point he was trying to make. Otherwise, it's a completely lost cause.

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By Kaz on Sat, 10/15/2011 - 12:19am.

Christopher Columbus never came to America.

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By J. Dunne on Sat, 10/15/2011 - 10:10am.

On his thrid voyage, he made landfall on what is modern Venezuela. On his fourth he came to what are now Honduras and Panama, and made what is believed to be the first European contact with the Mayans. He never did come to the portion of the American continent now known as the United States though, if that's what you mean.

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By Kaz on Sat, 10/15/2011 - 8:20pm.

The country, not the continent.

From Wikipedia:

In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily used to refer to the United States of America.

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By anon on Sun, 10/16/2011 - 3:32am.

On his second voyage.
American territory.

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By Sock_Puppet on Sun, 10/16/2011 - 9:31am.

Christopher Columbus went ashore on an island he named San Juan Batista, on November 19, 1493, during his second voyage to the Americas.

The island of San Juan Batista is now known as Puerto Rico. After 400 years as a Spanish colony, it was ceded to the US in the 1898 treaty of Paris, and is now considered an incorporated territory of the United States.

Therefore, the first thing they should teach about Columbus is that he did come to America. He came to Puerto Rico, which is part of America.

This would be a helpful lesson to some, who do not realize that Puerto Ricans are all born United States Citizens, and no Puerto Rican is an immigrant.

By teaching that Columbus never visited America, you would perpetuate this misunderstanding.

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By John-W on Sun, 10/16/2011 - 5:22pm.

Good thing the entry starts with "In English" because in Latin America and starting to take hold in Europe is the expression "Estadounidense" to refer to people or things from the U.S. Basically a "U.S.er" as opposed to "American" precisely because there are a number of people in Latin America who do not feel they need to qualify themselves as being from "Latin" America. It's the Americas to them and they feel they have just as much right to the title of "American."

Now that shit would make Herald readers crap their pants. In Latin America they learn that there is one continent, The Americas, that can be divided into regions: North America (includes Mexico), Central America, Caribbean and South America -- which is not what I learned in elementary school geography. Then again I learned that Chris Columbus was a hell of a guy and the Pilgrims had picnics with happy Indians.

The winners write history (and make up the words), but that doesn't make it so, number one.

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By PeterGriffith5 on Sun, 10/16/2011 - 2:19am.

WINGO

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By anon on Sun, 10/16/2011 - 11:06am.

There is a theory that Columbus was actually a classically educated Greek from a wealthy family.

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