Brother Jonathan, a 19th Century personification of New England, in striped pants, somber overcoat and Lincolnesque stove-pipe hat, as drawn by Thomas Nast. He is presented as wary and tight-fisted.
Adapted from Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com
“I never said, 'I want to be alone.' I only said 'I want to be let alone!' There is all the difference.’’
-- Greta Garbo (1905-1990), movie star, on her most famous quote, from Grand Hotel (1932)
An article in Commonwealth Magazine reports that new Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is disappointed that virtually no one on her MBTA Orange Line rides talks to her, even just to say hello.
She says:
“But we’ve got to change the culture of riding the T. It is a civic space for community conversations, but everyone’s always really quiet on there. Maybe I’m still a Midwesterner at heart.’’ The mayor was brought up near Chicago
To read the Commonwealth piece, please hit this link.
New Englanders tend to be reserved and guarded with strangers, unlike, say, in the South and West, where people tend to be very friendly to all, if often just superficially, like someone trying to sell you a car.
The unofficial New England flag, with its lonely pine.
It sort of reminds me of how in disasters, such as in tornado-ravaged Kentucky and other poverty-stricken “conservative’’ states, much is made of the good works of friendly churches and others in the private sector as opposed to aid from government (though Kentucky, a very poor state, is grabbing all the federal help it can now).
I’d rather have the much more impressive services provided by government in “socialist’’ New England than depend, say, on local churches (which are themselves subsidized by taxpayers because they’re tax-exempt – even the many ones that operate like political-party adjuncts).
Hit this link about Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican, who voted for the huge Trump tax cuts while saying he’s terrified of the national debt but now wants as much federal aid as possible for his state. (Who wouldn’t?):
Paul has often opposed big federal disaster-relief programs that help states that don’t include Kentucky, including bills passed following hurricanes Sandy, Harvey and Maria.
