I’ve been
asked to write about something that was a part of my life for a long, long
time and I find myself stunned and almost speechless. I can’t believe it’s
been twenty years since the East Boston Community News existed.
The News
started back in 1970 because this community needed a voice. It was
always a very fragile undertaking because any business major could tell you
that the community did not have the buying power to support another paper.
However, there was enough of a call for a paper that had real news and could
be a voice of the community that a bunch of volunteers got together to
figure out how to do it. This group, all home grown by the way, attracted
the interest of some young “outsiders” full of the energy of the 1960s to
help.
Before I go
any further, I want to make clear that not one of the over 580 volunteers --
outsider or resident -- who devoted so many hours to the News, was a
Communist or Socialist. That rumor started with the first issue and
continued for years.
The News
always had money problems. There had been a grant in the beginning but once
the first issue came out and it was obvious this was going to be a
newspaper, the funding was
pulled and it was a wing and a prayer from then on.
What made it
work was the total dedication of the volunteers and staff. Yes, there was
paid staff. Why the editor
earned a whopping $75 per issue -- a whole $150 a month -- when there was
money to pay it.
The News
spoke to us, it was about our community and what was threatening our
community and how we could fight those threats and stop the big guys who
wanted to destroy us. It did
that by teaching us how and letting us do it ourselves. The News never had
an editorial opinion – well, see below. Every article, letter and opinion
was signed by the writer. No “concerned reader” letters were allowed. The
News was controlled by its contributors and volunteers, it never accepted
political ads, and it never allowed the ads to have more space than the
news. That is not to say the News was a neutral observer. We had opinions.
The News became a weapon of the community and its staff was thrown out of
many meetings. A section of the newspaper’s handbook, entitled “The Nature
of Our Beast,” stated:
We are
against evil, money grubbing forces of big business and corporate
power and
the insensitive bureaucracy of government. We are for the interests
of the
people of East Boston and when those two collide we take a side.
Personally, the paper was my way to figure out my next step. I said once
that by 1970, I had spent about six years being pregnant. The News was
looking for columnists and I was looking for something else to do nights. So
I became Ms. Tex and covered Orient Heights. I had opinions. All the local
columnists did. We covered our areas and what was going on, but we did
indeed make our opinion known. My readers knew all about my family and what
I thought about everything.
Sometimes,
the News told us when we were wrong and we didn’t always like that.
There were rocks through windows during the busing phase-in.
Over
eighteen and a half years the News pushed and prodded us to be better,
taught us how to stand up for ourselves and stop what we didn’t like. Never
Again Wood Island was our cry. Imagine pushing baby carriages in front of
construction trucks or marching in front of the tunnel to stop the world.
The East
Boston Community News was Eastie’s voice above the roar. What are we saying
now?
