You can find this listing of Newton’s 4th of July activities on the city website
Independence Day Festivities | Monday, July 4th
Kids Morning 10am-Noon at Newton Centre “bowl”- off Tyler Terrace adjacent to the playground. No rain date.
* Children’s patriotic costume promenade
* Decorated bicycles/scooters parade
* Grand pet parade
* Music, crafts and FREE ice cream courtesy of Cabot’s Ice Cream
Afternoon and Evening Events 1:00pm – Dark at Albemarle Field/Halloran Field. No Rain Date
* Carnival rides, games, and food
* Live Music at the Gazebo:
1:00pm – Rob’s Guitar School
2:00pm – City Hall Strummers
3:00pm –
4:00pm – Music in the Community (MiC)
5:00pm – Outahit Records
* Open Air Market with Handmade and International Crafts
* East Coast Soul in concert at 6:30pm
* Fireworks Spectacular at 9:00pm
We still need volunteers! Sign up to help out with the day’s festivities!
Thank you to our Sparkler Sponsor, Newton Community Pride!
I’m having a hard time celebrating Fourth of July this year while our rights are under attack internally from these damnable Trump-publican fascists. They have infested our government at every level, and we need to remove them from power. I’m incredibly disappointed in my own party, the Democrats, many of whom appear pathetically weak in the face of this fascist threat to our country. President Biden in particular needs step-up and do more, or the Fourth of July and all that America stands for will become no more than ancient history.
* Comment deleted due to Village 14 guidelines barring personal attacks. *
Mark, agree. Democrats need to meet these attacks on our civil liberties with a lot more than “venting”, our local and federal election platforms need to hit these particular things head on.
It puts a damper on all celebrating today – although today our colony freed itself from the tyranny of England – now it’s time to free all of our people.
The giant wall built between church and state has been nibbled at for decades – its time we build it back better.
Hands off women’s bodies.
Say Gay!
Franks comment doesn’t warrant my response. But I would encourage V-14 moderators to leave it posted, out of respect for the First Amendment on the 4th of July.
@Mike Striar – We would have left the comment had it not contained a name-calling personal attack, which is against our guidelines. I love and respect the First Amendment, but it is specific to government censorship and not applicable to private spaces like V14.
Meant to say Mike. Sorry. Can’t edit anymore.
Every 4th of July, I get together with a dwindling group of veterans from my old naval bombing squadron to bring each other up to date on how we are doing and what we think about national and world developments. We are now on Zoom. We come from different political persuasions. Six of us touched base this morning and all of seemed to share many of Mike Striar’s concerns about where this country is heading on this particular 4th of July. None of them (including me) have any intention of leaving this country, but I do note that I have dual Irish and EU citizenship and could do so if I was so disposed. Ironically, the Economist Magazine (hardly a left wing publication) listed Ireland as the World’s 8th most vibrant democracy in it’s 2021 Democracy Index Report. Canada is in 6th place. Unfortunately, we have slipped to 27th place and show every sign of dropping even more this year. I hardly think it unpatriotic to point this out or to cite other respectable sources that conclude similar results.
I think that both the civility and general community interest in Village14 would be greatly improved by disallowing anonymous commenters and also by limiting the length of comments.
Frank D. is not the worst V14 offender for uncivil speech, but he is an example of how anonymity encourages overly confrontational and overly personal attacks.
@Debra – We have anonymous commenters who are civil and thoughtful and named commenters who can get quite nasty. Requiring names is also pointless unless we have people with the time and interest to check that people are using their real names.
As to length – that uncivil comment was quite short, while we get some very thoughtful and informative longer comments. If a comment is too long to sustain your interest, you don’t have to read it.
Hi Meredith:
While I have not taken data on this, as a reader I would say that V14’s anonymous posters are generally much more overly confrontational and personal than the posters using their names, although exceptions do exist.
There would be no need for V14 to verify poster names. V14 would only need to state the policy that posters should use their own names. Posters violating this policy would then have to lie to do this, and the need to lie would decrease the frequency of overly confrontational and personal posts. It would not eliminate them, but it would decrease their frequency.
Also, my suggestion about comment length was NOT directed at Frank D’s (now deleted) comment. My suggestion about comment length was directed at the Fignewtonville, whose comments frequently hijack entire V14 response threads with thousands of his anonymous and overly personal words. A recent example of this is the 6/8/22 post on “Straight A’s in Newton High Schools.”
The New York Times, the Boston Globe, and the Wall Street Journal all have character limits on comments. In addition, the WSJ used to require the use of real names, although I’m not sure (lapsed subscription) if it still does. NYT is heavily moderated, while the Boston Globe only has reader moderation, resulting in literate and useful NYT comments and hate-filled and often incomprehensible Boston Globe comments. If V14 does not want to moderate comments, I think the use of real names would get rid of the worst V14 postings.
Finally, I’m not saying this to be nasty, but the reality is that some Newton residents refer to Village 14 as a cyberbullying site or even as “Vile 14” or “Sewer 14.” Village 14 would be much more respected and useful to Newton if it got rid of anonymous commenters and also put in comment length limits. The V14 decision makers appear to have a misplaced loyalty towards their small longtime core of anonymous posters at the expense of a wider participation by more Newton residents.
Hi Debra:
Just responding because you referenced my name. There is, of course, a simple solution for you regarding my longer comments. Just don’t read them. I’m not everyone’s cup of tea. I don’t intend or write my posts to be agreeable with everyone. I have opinions, and I like to engage in conversations with folks on the forum on the issues that relate to my opinions. I do not insult people, and I believe I’ve tried to be polite in all my comments. That doesn’t mean I don’t challenge folks, and sometimes that upsets people. As I’ve said before, it isn’t bullying to call someone out on their B.S., but your mileage may vary on that particular concept.
The folks who complain most about the lengths of my posts tend to also be the folks who disagree with my opinions. And I’ll certainly make an effort to be less wordy when the situation fits. And if the forum puts in place a “word” limit, I’ll abide by it.
As for the fact that my posts are too “personal”, what would you like them to be? I write about what I know. Newton Schools. Newtonville. Some development posts. Parks and rec.
In the particular post you reference, I strongly disagreed with the poster and said so, and tried to use data to back up my argument. I make no apologies for that post. And yes it was personal. Again, you don’t want my personal perspective, skip the comment. Or respond, and say it was too personal and a bad thing to read. I’m fine with that too.
Honestly, this feels more like you’d like to eliminate comments/commentators you disagree with or that annoy you (as I clearly do). Is that improving the forum for all, or just improving the forum for you? To me, that feels like a form of soft censorship.
As for the usual discussion point that Village 14 is “Vile 14” or “Sewer 14”, I know that some segment of Newton does refer to the site as that. I’m curious as to what those people feel about any other online forum where dissent is allowed. Facebook is far worse in my view. Boston Globe is far worse. The NYTIMES employs an army of folks to moderate, which no local community has. Listserves are often popular, but in my experience are also incredibly one sided. Echo chambers don’t begin to describe them. What is also ironic is that for all the complaining about Village14, the posters who seem most prone to insults seem to agree mostly with the worldview of the folks who criticize Village14 for being a sewer. Funny that…
Hope the response wasn’t too long. But you did reference me directly, so perhaps we can engage in a conversation on this topic.
ps. As for eliminating anonymous commentators, how does that work for Facebook? That is filled with fake names and fake posters. Folks like me will be honest about it, but the trolls will just post a fake name, and come back with a new persona a few days later. It is happened here before too, ironically again from some of the same folks who call this forum a Sewer (elections/development bring out the worst in folks I find). And if the switch doesn’t eliminate trolls, mostly it is targeted at folks like me, who have posted here for a decade. Not much else will change.
Agree with Deb. Fig’s comments are far too long.
If you don’t like someone’s posts/comments or think they are too long, just don’t read them. No one is forcing you.
If you want to comment on the content of someone’s post, feel free. But cut out this carping about post length, names used or not used, etc. If you don’t like the way Village 14 is run, you can stop reading it and start your own blog.
[Comment represents my own personal opinions.]
Debra’s post was 336 words long, almost as long as Fig’s, but not quite! #irony. Fig’s contributions are some of the best things on V14. I agree with Meredith and Fig. If you don’t like them, don’t read them.
We’ve had the anonymous poster discussion many, many times. You’re entitled to your opinion on this, Debra, but unenforced, unverified identities could just make this worse. Facebook and Next Door all have posts with identities and I find they can get pretty nutty. I’m convinced that most people object to anonymous posts because they have an innate need to know where a person lives, who they know, and all that… sometimes in a creepy sort of way. I prefer to think that contributions should be judged based on their content. V14 admins will do the best we can to follow our stated rules and remove comments with insults or uncivil speech, regardless of identities. As Gail once said, Be nice.
And then there’s the Internet, indexed for eternity. I don’t particularly want someone to Google me and find me quibbling about anonymous posting on V14 for the 100th time, so I don’t use my last name. I wouldn’t be surprised if others do the same.
I’m sorry, but I stand by what I said. V14 has some good qualities, but it would be much more respected and useful in Newton if real names were used and comment lengths were limited. It sounds like V14 is happy with their policies, however.
In case the length topic is ever discussed by V14 management, NYT has a comment length limit of 1500 characters (approx. 300 words) while the Globe has a limit of 500 words. These seem reasonable.
In case the name topic ever comes up, NextDoor has a “compromise” policy whereby posters must supply their real full name to NextDoor, but they are allowed to post under their real name OR their real first name plus the first initial of their real last name. This semi-anonymous system seems to filter out most bullying posters.
I probably should have posted my suggestions under the 6/8/22 thread on “Straight A’s in Newton High Schools.” This was an example of V14 at its worst, as far as discouraging quality guest posts and meaningful dialog, in favor of multiple anonymous attacks. In case the topic of general V14 quality ever comes up, this would be a good thread to look at.
But it sounds like these topics aren’t going to come up anytime soon.
I wrote For Independence Day: What Patriotism Means to Me on my (sadly neglected) blog four years ago. These words are still true.
Those of us who were around during the tumult of the 1960s remember those opposing the protesters accusing them of lacking patriotism, with the cry “My country, love it or leave it.” They said patriotism was agreeing with your country, whether it was right or wrong. But to me that is chauvinism, not true patriotism. I believe true patriotism is wanting our country to be the best it can and working to right what’s wrong, fix what’s broken.
President John F. Kennedy famously said “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” To me, that’s the essence of patriotism. In that spirit, I consider the people I know who are marching and protesting and spreading information to be the epitome of patriotic citizens. We may not love what is happening in the U.S. right now, but we love the ideals we believe it should stand for and the people who need us to make it the place it should be.
Stop with the anti-american bs. Mike talks about fascism and attacks.
Do you know how insulting that is to people actually being attacked by fascists? You think trump is a fascist, i think aoc is a communist. Neither is true, the real enemy is not a democratically elected president you dont like, biden or trump. The real enemy is people who push communist and dictatorial ideology like Putin, Maduro, Kim.
Mike is free to claim attacks and fascism, but the rest of the world thinks he is a moron for why he thinks these things are happening. Actual murder death and carnage vs the overturning of a law that was created by a court, not a democratically elected body. Wow. I am pro choice too, but the court cant create law like they did. Thankfully we live in massachusetts.
Lastly, you want to talk about how jan 6th was horrible which it was, but what about an assasination attempt on kavanaugh? People camping out at acb’s house, etc. when it happened to michelle wu people were up in arms. And didnt pro choice protesters storm the state house in wisconsin or something? Blm Riot in the streets burning property?
Stop the selective bullshit. Blm riots and assasination attempts are despicable and not peaceful. Neither was jan 6th which was a facking coup attempt. Condemn all or shut up.
Sorry, you lost me at Kavanaugh. You, like the WSJ editorial board conveniently forget that a former left leaning judge in Wisconsin was not just threatened but actually murdered early last month. The left has its share of crazies to be sure, but they really do pale in comparison to those on the right.
Having said this, Mr. D is otherwise spot on. If you do not like what is happening in America you vote to change it. Please do not give me the whole “Mrs. Clinton won the popular vote” or the “Senate is biased toward small states” or “Gerrymandering is so, so bad” or “Money in elections is a disaster.” All are absolutely true. None are relevant. The Democrats managed to take back Congress (perhaps with more difficulty than we would have liked) in the face of all of this. Mrs. Clinton would have been President Clinton had just a few more people gotten over their lack of enthusiasm and voted for her in key states. Republicans managed to work within this system to achieve near total victory by being focussed and strategic over the long term. In addition to being vilified, they should be copied.
The system may not be perfect, but it has worked pretty well for quite some time and, more to the point, is not going to be changed any time soon. Democrats are very good at crocheting pink hats and organizing protests. If they want to win, they need to get over their petty intranecine squabbles, get some party discipline, and vote en masse.
Frank D, “stop with the anti-American bullshit.” At some point people like you decided that to be a patriot we must agree with everything you believe but the real patriots love our country with warts and all. Democracy means we get to discuss what is happening in our country freely.
Who are you to tell me what the real enemy is? Trump wants to be a dictator and mingle with his dictator friends and there are those who think that’s a good idea.
I agree with what Republican Liz Cheney said in a speech she made to republicans last Friday.
“[Trump] summoned a mob to Washington, he knew they were armed on January 6, he knew they were angry and he directed the violent mob to march on the Capitol in order to delay or prevent completely the counting of electoral votes.
“He attempted to go there with them and when the violence was underway he refused to take action to tell the rioters to leave.
“Instead, he incited further violence by tweeting the Vice-President, Mike Pence, was a coward.
“He said ‘Mike deserves it’ and he didn’t want to do anything in response to the ‘hang Mike Pence’ chants.”
“Republicans can not both be loyal to Donald Trump and loyal to the Constitution.”
Cheney was then interrupted by thunderous applause and cheers from the audience.P
For the record i voted for Biden. I just find the hypocrisy against conservatives to be appalling. I hate aoc as much as i hate trump but what i hate more if people who decide a democratic nation is bad. I voted for biden because trump was anti-america and the principles for which it stands.
People need to remember this is a government for, of and by the people. If you dont like a law, change it. And not federally (although sometimes sure). We are a republic and if you read the Federalist papers you will see that the power of DC is intentionally to be limited and deliberate where the states are then given more power to govern themselves. I believe in this. I think it is wonderful we have legal abortion, legal marijuana, had romney care before the ACA, etc.
But what I dont want is someone in California or Texas telling me how to live in Massachusetts. States get to make their own decisions. Stop with the roe v wade thing. I vote yes to legal abortion but for god’s sake abortion is not in the constitution. Pass a law like we did with the aca or stop belly aching and be happy we have it at the state level.
People need to retake political science, social Studies and history class lol.
@Frank –
Most reasonable people I know are appalled by violence no matter who it’s directed at.
People can be appalled by Jan. 6 and also someone wanting to assassinate a Supreme Court judge, even one we may strongly dislike. That said, there is a major difference in scale between an attack on the entire Congress by a mob wanting to overturn the results of an election vs. a lone attack on one person. Even more so when they were urged on by the loser of the election.
Similarly, people would not have been up in arms about the camping out at Mayor Wu’s house if those doing it weren’t purposely trying to make life miserable for her neighbors (as they themselves said) nor approaching her children. No one called for banning the protesters, and it’s telling that they lost interest once their hours were slightly curtailed so they couldn’t start until an hour when they wouldn’t be waking people up.
BTW, be sure to fact check before making accusations. There were protesters from both sides outside the WI capitol, no violence reported.
https://www.channel3000.com/pro-choice-pro-life-protesters-rally-at-capitol-following-supreme-courts-overturn-of-roe-v-wade/
What I LOVE about this country is that we can disagree with our leaders and not be thrown in jail. What I love about this country is that I can write letters to support my candidates. I can email our leaders and let them know how I (as a citizen) feel about the situation in my local government, my state government or the Federal government. I am so lucky to live in this country. My grandmother immigrated here from Eastern Europe where our family could not practice our religion. When she turned 18 she could NOT vote. My mother remembers a time when safe abortion wasn’t guaranteed in the United States. I am PROUD to be an AMERICAN and as a WOMAN I can vote and express my views.
Yes, America isn’t what I envisioned for my kids, but I have the power to influence the change. We must remember that we can disagree (politely and respectfully) and our country won’t throw us in jail.
Hope you can continue to enjoy these freedoms, NewtonMom.
Time to move on. Closing this thread.