School’s Out Forever

By Michael Boyajian

The pariah of school cuts to arts and music has raised its ugly head once again.  Those who use but one side of their brain have decided that only math and science count when it comes to financing our schools.  By corrupting and taking a hard right off Plato’s conjectured road they say to hell with art, music, philosophy and the humanities in general without giving thought for a minute to the simple modern world facts that those with musical skills excel in science and that without the art and literature of science fiction there would be no landing of a man on the moon.

A Brilliant Sunrise

By Michael Boyajian

I started out a recent Friday night drinking an O’Doul’s listening to Who’s Next.  Ahh, the other side of fifty.  Where trying to catch a buzz from a non alcoholic beer is like trying to suck water out of a mouthful of pebbles.

The Sociological Aspects of CB Radio

By Michael Boyajian

I am a real radio freak going back to my childhood when my late father and I would peruse the now non existent Radio Shack catalog.  We would find and purchase radio kits, shortwave radios, marine radios, police scanners and the new at that time FM radios.

Of Snow and Buffalo

By Michael Boyajian

The snows that recently hammered our region seem to be overwhelming with 100,000 losing power in the mid-Hudson Valley while politicians conveniently disappeared and ever frugal Mayor Bloomberg closing New York City’s schools for the seventh time in thirty two years but this is nothing compared to the typical snowy winter in Buffalo, New York.

Nothing to Fear from Labor Union Card Check

By Michael Boyajian

My father was a big labor union man.  The unions put food on our table, gave us healthcare, put us through college and provided my dad with a pension when he retired.  He had one rule for the family.  We could talk about any politics that we wanted to around the kitchen table but we could never bad mouth the unions.

The Invisible Sea of People Without Jobs

By Michael Boyajian

Back in 2008 when I was laid off from my state job as a judge the Poughkeepsie Journal wanted me to do a column that would track my job search.  I considered the idea but then decided against it.  You see, being laid off without cause was a humiliation that I did not want to share at that time.  I was especially unnerved because I had recently adjudicated with great success two of the biggest cases in state history and also because I had never been reversed on appeal as a judge.

Stamp Collecting: A Symbol of a Peaceful Unified World

By Michael Boyajian

When I was a kid I collected stamps from around the world.  It was so remarkable seeing these small colorful works of art from around the globe.  I recently started collecting them again because it is a relatively inexpensive hobby and a good substitute for actually seeing the world an endeavor these tough economic times make hard to justify.

The World’s New Economic Powerhouse

By Michael Boyajian

The United States has done quite well during these Winter Olympics leading the medal count of all nations.  However, if the nations of Europe competed together as one their medal count would surpass our count many times over.

Food Poisoning America

By Michael Boyajian

My digestive track is shot, my feet swell after eating in restaurants and I feel like I am going to collapse at times.  Then I visit Europe for a few days and my health is magically restored.  Mind you I am not staying at spas just doing the normal tourist thing in London, Paris, Florence and Spain for instance.

What if the President were a Buddhist:  A Direction Towards World Unity and Peace

By Michael Boyajian

With the Dalai Lama’s visit to the White House there is speculation that may lead us to wonder what the world would be like if the President were a Buddhist.  He would surely realize that for the world to survive it must become unified so that world peace could therefore exist.  This realization would be an awakening.  When the Buddha was first asked what he was he replied I am awake.

Weight Bias Discrimination

By Michael Boyajian

Discrimination is a varied problem crossing all demographics of the population and most of its forms are protected against by a host of federal and state laws.  However, the Obesity Society reports that 66% of Americans are overweight or obese and Yale University’s Rudd Center goes on in its study to state that 43% of these people have been discriminated against because of their weight.

Saving the Endangered City Worker

By Michael Boyajian

There is an old saying that goes what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.  If you’re the billionaire mayor of New York though, this axiom does not apply.

You see it was alright for the mayor to bend the rules and abolish term limits so he could run for a third term yet if you are a city worker who has left the city bounds you automatically lose your job because  of Mayor Bloomberg’s strict residency rules for city jobs.  You must live in the city to work for the city with few exceptions.

Religious Unity

By Michael Boyajian

To perpetuate my world unity and concurrent peace beliefs I had been searching for common denominators that would unify all the world’s religions.  The nearest I came was to identify that all seemed to espouse doing right.  In some cases I discovered a denominator between a few different religions but no pattern of unity throughout. 

The Long Arm of New York Politics

By Michael Boyajian

Most voters would be surprised to learn that the government of the State of New York is being run out of a small liquor store in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.  The owner of the store is the head of the New York State Conservative Party, Mike Long, and when he is not hawking Thunderbird and Night Train he is pulling the levers of power in Albany.

Historic Housing Discrimination on Long Island

By Michael Boyajian

Thomas J. Sugrue has written a groundbreaking book, Sweet Land of Liberty, which addresses historic housing discrimination in the nation’s suburbs in the 1960s.

At one point Sugrue states that William Levitt, the founder of Levittown, would not sell his homes to black families for fear that whites would not buy his homes knowing that blacks would also be living there.  A high ranking official at the New York State Division of Human Rights states that to this day she often wonders how different her life would be if her father had been allowed to buy a home in Levittown.