Here's my letter in today's Herald. But they left out the first part, so here it is in its entirety:
50's segregation alive alive and well in North Station
I could not believe what I was reading in "Bar Wars!" (June 8, p. 5)
about Hurricane O'Reilly's barring of Canucks fans. Decrepit schools,
high unemployment, corruption at the top in politics, lethal weather
disasters and other pressing concerns facing our city and state aside,
such fanaticm over sports exists in Boston that here we have a barroom
that brings us right back to Jim Crow South.
Is Boston a Third World country where people cannot enjoy a drink? Is
this Syria, Lebanon, the Sudan, Northern Ireland not so long ago, or
other bastions of secterian violence? Are we Shiites versus Sunnis, or
North Americans (which includes Canadians) patronizing establisments
along Causeway Street?
Is the ignorance of the bar owners or the hooliganism of hockey fans
to blame? Isn't it time to re-examine our uber-obsession with sports
in this city when Bruins fans are squirting mustard at C's fans inside
the Garden (another local daily also reports that an Indian-Canadian
woman was repeatedly called a "terrorist" there)?
You can only blame drunken, rowdy, uncivilized elements so far, when
they must be able to somewhat still afford ticket prices in the
thousands. But now we must also blame the greedy owners of
concessions and teams for fermenting every last profitable drop out of
these minions, so cultishly brainwashed that they now lose the
distinction between simple fanhood and brutal, racist and potentially
disastrous behavior.
How does this make our great city of Boston look to the rest of the
country, if not the world?
SUSIE DAVIDSON
Brookline
about Hurricane O'Reilly's barring of Canucks fans. Decrepit schools,
high unemployment, corruption at the top in politics, lethal weather
disasters and other pressing concerns facing our city and state aside,
such fanaticm over sports exists in Boston that here we have a barroom
that brings us right back to Jim Crow South.
Is Boston a Third World country where people cannot enjoy a drink? Is
this Syria, Lebanon, the Sudan, Northern Ireland not so long ago, or
other bastions of secterian violence? Are we Shiites versus Sunnis, or
North Americans (which includes Canadians) patronizing establisments
along Causeway Street?
Is the ignorance of the bar owners or the hooliganism of hockey fans
to blame? Isn't it time to re-examine our uber-obsession with sports
in this city when Bruins fans are squirting mustard at C's fans inside
the Garden (another local daily also reports that an Indian-Canadian
woman was repeatedly called a "terrorist" there)?
You can only blame drunken, rowdy, uncivilized elements so far, when
they must be able to somewhat still afford ticket prices in the
thousands. But now we must also blame the greedy owners of
concessions and teams for fermenting every last profitable drop out of
these minions, so cultishly brainwashed that they now lose the
distinction between simple fanhood and brutal, racist and potentially
disastrous behavior.
How does this make our great city of Boston look to the rest of the
country, if not the world?
SUSIE DAVIDSON
Brookline
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