One of the most famous St. Patrick's Day parades in the world just made history.

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This was more than 20 years in the making.

One of the most famous St. Patrick's Day parades in the world just made history.

St. Patrick's Day is kind of a big deal in Boston.

It's basically Boston Christmas. Except for Christmas, of course, which is also Boston Christmas. Oh, and Patriot's Day, which is also really popular, 'cause the Sox play at 11 a.m.

The point is, Boston really likes St. Patrick's Day.

For most people, St. Patrick's Day is basically a slightly greener version of the Fourth of July or Thanksgiving — a time to go outside and put on a weird hat and march around in the street. But it turns out, there's actually kindofa sortofa religious component to it.

(Yup. Pretty Catholic.)

And nowhere is this truer than in Boston, with its large Irish Catholic population.

Ever year the Boston St. Patrick's Day Parade is organized by the South Boston Allied War Veterans Council, who see the annual march, in part, as a chance to express their faith. But hey, St. Patrick's Day parades are a really good time, so lots of people wanted to join in the fun, including LGBTQ groups.

But for years, when LGBTQ groups in Boston would come to the veterans council and be like...

The veterans council would be like...

This back and forth went on for a long time.

There was even a Supreme Court case about it in the '90s.

(Yup. Pretty Supreme Court-y.)

And the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the veterans council, saying that since they were a private group, they could discriminate if they wanted. Which was a huge downer.

But times change. Seasons turn. Clocks get set forward an hour. There's a time to plant, a time to reap, and the circles and the ages, etc., etc.

And this year, without a big fuss, without fanfare, without even a long-winded explanation, the veterans council took a look in the mirror and thought...

"In 1995, the Supreme Court upheld a ban on gay and lesbian groups, citing free speech rights. The organisers had argued that it violated their Roman Catholic doctrine.

But the Veterans Council changed its position and its commander, Brian Mahoney, is quoted as saying 'who am I to judge?' when asked about the issue of sexual orientation." — BBC

So last weekend, two LGBT groups — OutVets and Boston Pride — marched in the parade. That's one more than marched in New York this year.

As you can see, it went wicked well. And there were lollipops.

It may not be a huge leap forward just yet, but this is how progress is made. One step at a time.

In a weird hat.

P&G Good Everyday

Let's Do More Together

How do you convince people to vote? A marketing writer shares her attention-getting secrets

Photo by Jennifer Griffin on Unsplash

True

Anne Hebert, a marketing writer living in Austin, TX, jokes that her closest friends think that her hobby is "low-key harassment for social good". She authors a website devoted entirely to People Doing Good Things. She's hosted a yearly canned food drive with up to 150 people stopping by to donate, resulting in hundreds of pounds of donations to take to the food bank for the past decade.

"I try to share info in a positive way that gives people hope and makes them aware of solutions or things they can do to try to make the world a little better," she said.

For now, she's encouraging people through a barrage of persistent, informative, and entertaining emails with one goal in mind: getting people to VOTE. The thing about emailing people and talking about politics, according to Hebert, is to catch their attention—which is how lice got involved.

"When my kids were in elementary school, I was class parent for a year, which meant I had to send the emails to the other parents. As I've learned over the years, a good intro will trick your audience into reading the rest of the email. In fact, another parent told me that my emails always stood out, especially the one that started: 'We need volunteers for the Valentine's Party...oh, and LICE.'"

Hebert isn't working with a specific organization. She is simply trying to motivate others to find ways to plug in to help get out the vote.

Photo by Phillip Goldsberry on Unsplash

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Capital One Impact Initiative

This Harlem chef is cooking up international dishes to strengthen his local community

Courtesy of FIELDTRIP

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The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected diverse communities due largely in part to social factors such as inadequate access to housing, income, dietary options, education and employment — all of which have been shown to affect people's physical health.

Recognizing that inequity, Harlem-based chef JJ Johnson sought out to help his community maximize its health during the pandemic — one grain at a time.

Johnson manages FIELDTRIP, a health-focused restaurant that strives to bring people together through the celebration of rice, a grain found in cuisines of countless cultures.

"It was very important for me to show the world that places like Harlem want access to more health-conscious foods," Johnson said. "The people who live in Harlem should have the option to eat fresh, locally farmed and delicious food that other communities have access to."

Lack of education and access to those healthy food options is a primary driver of why 31% of adults in Harlem are struggling with obesity — the highest rate of any neighborhood in New York City and 7% higher than the average adult obesity rate across the five boroughs.

Obesity increases risk for heart disease or diabetes, which in turn leaves Harlem's residents — who are 76% Black or LatinX — at heightened risk for complications with COVID-19.

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A U.S. Senate candidate asked people to prove her racist assertion wrong. And boy, did they ever.

Lauren Witzke, viet thanh nguyen/Twitter

Sometimes a politician says or does something so brazenly gross that you have to do a double take to make sure it really happened. Take, for instance, this tweet from Lauren Witzke, a GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate from Delaware. Witzke defeated the party's endorsed candidate to win the primary, has been photographed in a QAnon t-shirt, supports the conspiracy theory that 9/11 was a U.S. government inside operation, and has called herself a flat earther.

So that's neat.

Witzke has also proposed a 10-year total halt on immigration to the U.S., which is absurd on its face, but makes sense when you see what she believes about immigrants. In a tweet this week, Witzke wrote, "Most third-world migrants can not assimilate into civil societies. Prove me wrong."

Most third-world migrants can not assimilate into civil societies. Prove me wrong.
— Lauren Witzke (@Lauren Witzke)1602085382.0

First, let's talk about how "civil societies" and developing nations are not different things, and to imply that they are is racist, xenophobic, and wrong. Not to mention, it has never been a thing to refer people using terms like "third-world." That's a somewhat outdated term for developing nations, and it was never an adjective to describe people from those nations even when it was in use.

Next, let's see how Twitter thwapped Lauren Witzke straight into the 21st century by proving her wrong in the most delicious way. Not only did people share how they or their relatives and friends have successfully "assimilated," but many showed that they went way, way beyond that.

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