Articles by Steven Gilchrist

2010 marks the 100th anniversary of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation & Recreation’s Charles River Esplanade. I write this article to highlight this great milestone. As a fourth year seasonal Ranger at the Teddy Ebersol’s Red Sox Fields which are located on the Esplanade, I have learned about the park’s unique features. The Esplanade is a well known and popular location that is used for a variety of recreational activities. The Esplanade is a unique place because it has numerous historical attributes portraying the rich history of the city of Boston and the DCR. The term Esplanade - first used in 1910 to describe the parkland, is a French word that means “promenade along a shore.” The Esplanade stretches approximately 3 miles along the Boston side of the Charles River, from the Boston University Bridge to the Museum of Science. The Esplanade contains: 6 miles of walkways & bikeways, 3 boathouses, an athletic field complex, 6 wooden docks, and over 1,900 trees. A sp...

S everal months ago I visited the Bunker Hill Community College Art Gallery in Boston, Massachusetts. The gallery displayed an exhibition called Body & Soul, which featured artwork of primarily African American artists working in the figurative and spiritual forms of artistic expression. During the month of February the gallery had selections from several artists including: Walter Clark, Jeff Chandler, Fern Cunningham, Fritz Ducheine, Karen Eutemey, Keitha L. Hassell, Jennifer Hughes, Lou Jones, Paul Goodnight, Ekua Holmes, L’Merchie Frazier, Lolita Parker Jr., Sabrina Pilet Jones, Hakim Raquib, and photos by Alex Rivest from Blue Kitabu Projects. T he various artists featured at the exhibit incorporated a variety of visual techniques to convey their messages of artistic expression. Jeff Chandler, who is a self-taught sculptor, illustrates themes of relationships between mother & child, man & woman, and man & nature. Keitha L. Hassell, a Boston based photographer, focus...

Five years ago, the city of Boston celebrated the 200th anniversary of William Lloyd Garrison’s birthday. Garrison, who was born in December 1805 in Newburyport, Massachusetts, was a well known northern abolitionist and journalist. Garrison was a man of intense courage and passion. He was considered to be one of the most radical and influential abolitionists of his time. One example of Garrison’s radical nature occurred on Independence Day 1854. On this day, Garrison burned the U.S. Constitution & the Fugitive Slave Act in Framingham, Massachusetts, thus showing his disregard for how the U.S. government was still allowing slavery in the southern part of the country. In 1831, Garrison began publishing The Liberator – a four page weekly Boston newspaper. At the time, Boston was one of the most ardent abolitionist centers in America. The focus of Garrison’s newspaper was to raise awareness about eradicating the institution of slavery. In 1832, Garrison founded the New England Anti-S...

W orldwide approximately 500 million people have hypertension – which is commonly known as high blood pressure. This month, marks National High Blood Pressure Education Month. In the United States the observance of May as National High Blood Pressure month has taken place since 1984. The slogan for the awareness campaign is “Know your numbers.” Earlier this year, a panel of medical experts from the Institute of Medicine (one of the National Academies of Sciences) concluded that high blood pressure is a “neglected disease” in the United States. Despite being a preventable ailment, high blood pressure is the second leading cause of death in the U.S. “Hypertension as a disease is relatively easy to diagnose and it’s inexpensive to treat,” says David Fleming who is the Director of Public Health for Seattle, Washington. One in six deaths in the United States is caused by hypertension resulting in $73 billion dollars in costs for the U.S. healthcare system. Blood pressure is defined as the f...

O n March 2, 2010, about 350 people attended the 3rd annual White Ribbon Day Proclamation Event in Massachusetts. The program was held in Gardner Auditorium at the State House in Boston. Nine speakers including elected officials, a local sportscaster, social workers, and advocates against domestic violence led the program with the theme “Men for Change.” As participants entered into the auditorium they were given White Ribbon Day pledge cards and white ribbon lapel pins. The White Ribbon Day campaign is an awareness program to encourage men of all ages to speak out and to not tolerate or perpetuate domestic violence against women. The White Ribbon Pledge asks that men make both a private and public commitment to advocate for healthy, respectful, and safe relationships and communities. The idea for the White Ribbon Campaign began in 1991 as a way to pay tribute to the 14 women students who were murdered by a lone gunman on December 6, 1989 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. 13 other students ...

B eginning in 1845, a fungus spread across Ireland devastating numerous potato crops. The Irish referred to the famine as “An Gorta Mor” or “The Great Hunger.” Despite the significant losses of potatoes the British government (which ruled Ireland at the time) exported tons of grain from Ireland in order to pay absentee landlords their rents. While the British government was sending food elsewhere, poor Irish families suffered from starvation. One million people died of starvation and/or disease during the five years of the famine. About 500,000 Irish citizens were evicted from their homes for not paying their rent. As a result of the horrific living conditions between one million to 2 million Irish people immigrated to other parts of the world. Many immigrants landed in North America. Several of the immigrants died at sea because of the lackluster conditions on the ships that crossed the Atlantic Ocean. Many of these immigrants settled in Boston, Massachusetts. During the five years of...

F or the past three years I have donated blood with the American Red Cross at least once during each year. The last time that I donated blood was in November 2009. The donation process is relatively simple. Donors must be at least 16 years of age, weigh at least 110 pounds, and be in good overall health. Donating blood with the Red Cross is a way to give back to one’s community. Just one blood donation can save up to three people’s lives. The O-negative blood type is the universal donor, which means this blood type can be given to anyone. Only 7% of the U.S. population has type O-negative blood. Donating blood with the Red Cross is done only on a volunteer basis and donors are not paid. To sign up you can call the American Red Cross or schedule an appointment at http://www.redcrossblood.org/ . In 1940 the American Red Cross blood program was established under the direction of Dr. Charles Drew. Since its creation seventy years ago, the ARC blood program has grown and currently it stores...