Superbowls, World Series', Stanley Cups, and snowfall records. We are truly a title city. There will be no parade. #titletown #bosnow
— Mayor Marty Walsh (@marty_walsh) March 16, 2015
One hundred eight point six inches, just over nine feet, almost all of it in just the last six weeks. (Average annual total, from back in the days when that meant something, is “just” 43 inches.) And of course we might yet add a few more inches to this year’s total — although we’re all praying there won’t be another April Fool’s Day Blizzard!
Also, this happened — and it’s almost as surprising, plus a lot easier to live with. Per the Boston Globe:
History marched through South Boston on Sunday as gay organizations took their place for the first time in the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade. Joining them in front of hundreds of thousands of green-clad revelers was Mayor Martin J. Walsh, the first Boston chief executive to walk the route in two decades…
The former mayor, Thomas M. Menino, had consistently boycotted the parade because its organizers from the South Boston Allied War Veterans, backed by a US Supreme Court ruling, refused to allow gay groups to participate. But on Sunday, politicians were a major, can’t-miss part of the festivities.
Governor Charlie Baker and Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito were among them. So were US Senator Edward J. Markey and Representative Stephen F. Lynch, a South Boston native. Much of the City Council was present, as well as state Representative Nick Collins, also of South Boston, and state Senator Linda Dorcena Forry of Dorchester.
Markey, making his first appearance in the parade, grinned broadly as he walked down West Broadway on a route that had been reduced because of the heavy snowfall that crippled the crowded neighborhood and the region this winter…
In addition to the LGBT veterans’ group, parade organizers this year approved a request to march from Boston Pride, a gay rights group that holds its own parade in June.
The Massachusetts State Council of the Knights of Columbus withdrew from the celebration because the event had “become politicized and divisive,” its leaders said. The Immaculate Heart of Mary School in Harvard announced that its band would not march because OUTVETS had been invited.
However, once the parade began moving up West Broadway and into the heart of South Boston, concerns over divisiveness seemed as distant as a day without snowbanks. The gay groups received respectful and sometimes enthusiastic applause, including shout-outs for US Representative Seth Moulton, a Marine veteran of Iraq who marched with OUTVETS.
“Gay rights are the civil rights fight of our generation,” Moulton told the Globe last week…
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We live in hope. Apart from small victories, what’s on the agenda for the start of another week?
Monday Morning Open Thread: A Little Local ParochialismPost + Comments (46)