Gianna:  Peruvian Immigrant American Hero

By Michael Boyajian

When Gianna was teenager twenty two years ago in her native Peru she knew one thing and that was she wanted to go to America to make something of herself.  Knowing no English she paid thousands of dollars to get to the U.S. knowing nothing of the risks involved like violent assault and rape.

Memo to the Governor of Arizona and other faux patriots

Please memorize the following translation for future reference:

Prometo lealtad a la bandera de Estados Unidos de América, y a la república para que se para, una nación bajo Dios, indivisible, con la libertad y la justicia para todo.

Credit Report Abuses Hurting Middle Class Workers

By Michael Boyajian

Credit reporting organizations are trying to expand their businesses by scaring consumers and by expanding into other facets of American business life.  One of particular harm is the use of credit reports in making a hiring decision.  This has a disparate impact on the middle class which is experiencing extreme hardship during the current economic crisis.

Theater:  A Ticket To Peace

By Michael Boyajian

The movies can be quite inspirational but in between great movies you see a lot of B movies that are not bad but just OK.  And when you’re in a movie theater most of the people’s faces are blank and expressionless absorbing the shock which is screaming out at them in the form of hyper violent action movie trailers.

Guns or Butter

By Michael Boyajian

I had an acquaintance when I worked in state service, a fellow judge.   You would come back from your weekend and meet him by the cooler Monday morning and tell him how you had dinner and a movie with the wife over the weekend and he would tell you he had dinner, purchased a gun and went to the shooting range.

Peace Through Music

By Michael Boyajian

My dad gave me one really great gift.  Though he himself was tone deaf he conveyed to me a great appreciation for music by providing me with audio equipment at my earliest of ages.

I remember the first piece of equipment was a portable Hi Fi phonograph that I would play 45s on.  My favorite single was Love Child by the Supremes a choice that probably perplexed my parents.  He then gave me an AM/FM Cassette player that I would take everywhere with me recording my favorite songs directly from the radio station I was listening to or playing the cassettes I had made of those songs.  I once tuned into WNEW and recorded the opening show in D.C. of a Who concert tour sitting in the back of our station wagon as we drove back from my uncle’s house in New Jersey.

Tea Party Rally Signals Shift

By Michael Boyajian

Jeff Green publisher of News That Matters reports that he attended a Tea Party rally this past weekend in Putnam County.  He states that he observed very little racism, xenophobia or homophobia at this rally but for one speaker who was greeted with cheers from the crowd when he called Andrew Breitbart an American hero.

The Morphing of a Democrat

By Michael Boyajian

I had been a Democrat my whole life along with most of my friends and family.  In college I worked with NYPIRG on the No Nukes movement.  While in college I heard Mario Cuomo speak and he convinced me to support whatever it was that he was advocating due to his great oratory.  In 1983 I publically supported John Glenn for president.  But the Democrats chose Walter Mondale and that pissed me off and I jumped to the Republican column seduced by the imperial glamour of the Reagan Administration.

Congressman Hall Says Busing is Back

By Michael Boyajian

The New York Times reports that rail travel is flat but bus ridership is on the rise.  This information would seem to take the wind out of the sails of plans to build a network of super trains around the country though we suspect rail ridership is related to an aging national system and declining service rather than the need for super trains.

The Witch Hunters Among Us

By Michael Boyajian

They were there in the Dark Ages killing women accused of witchcraft.

They were there for the inhumanities of the Spanish Inquisition.

The Mayor and the Mosque

By Michael Boyajian

Mayor Michael Bloomberg displayed true courage in his defense of the proposed lower Manhattan mosque.  He exercised leadership in the face of great opposition but was rewarded for his strength by the continued support of the people.

Congressman John Hall for Veterans and the Environment

By Michael Boyajian

We are often quite aware of our soldiers when they are fighting for us overseas and in harm’s way but we often forget about them when they return home in dire need of medical treatment.  Not Congressman John Hall.  During my recent interview of the congressman he reported that he has been battling on behalf of veterans for many years.

The Tobin Tax:  World Stability, World Peace

By Michael Boyajian

Richard Sarkisian of New York City responding to my recent collapse of the Sunbelt article suggests that all this hardship and upheaval and boom and bust and decline can be avoided with the implementation of a Tobin Tax on securities transactions.

The Death of the American Sunbelt

By Michael Boyajian

For decades we were conditioned to believe that the future of the country rested in the Sunbelt.  The Northeast and Upper Midwest were rusting away as the Sunbelt grew.  The idea peaked with the Los Angeles Olympics in the 1980s where the California dream showed off all it had.  But the idea reached a plateau with that although the region did continue to grow economically and politically with its population growth.

The Making of an American Political Prisoner

By Michael Boyajian

So you leave New York City for the quiet life in Fishkill in the suburbs of Dutchess County only you discover a dark secret.  Developers had wanted to pave over the graves of hundreds of revolutionary war soldiers and most of the site, known as the Fishkill Supply Depot or New York’s Valley Forge, has been developed with unimaginable losses of historic artifacts at the hands of a back hoe.