Hunker down, NC folks
On Day One of the new legislative session in North Carolina, it’s clear who will be in charge of the asylum, […]
health care
Wrong again, Mittens
I couldn’t stay away from the Civic Center yesterday. Mitt Romney was coming to speak and I had to be […]
More lies in the mail
My husband is registered to vote, but not in either party (I’m a registered Democrat; you could look it up). […]
Waiting and hoping for a miracle
I have hoped for miracles before. Sometimes I’ve been disappointed, like when I could do nothing for my son as […]
‘I’ll do anything’
I drove some winter tents and heaters from a military tent surplus store near my house to Freedom Plaza in […]
Three years
Today was Sunday and everyone who had come to say goodbye to Mike was leaving. …
I relive those last few days of Mike’s life every year, day-by-day.
Let me introduce myself
I’m Leslie Boyd. As a newspaper reporter for more than a quarter century, I saw and told the stories of real people in real situations who were being held down by systems that worked against them.
In 1983, it was Jeannie Alkema, a woman in Passaic County, NJ, with debilitating multiple sclerosis who was being cared for in her home. Her 12-year-old son suffered nightmares of his mother being put in a nursing home and him being placed in foster care. It was less expensive to care for Jeannie in her home than in a nursing home, but one day she called me in a panic and said the Department of Social Services was going to cut off her home care. Her son’s nightmare was about to become reality.