Second Amendment Tree

On Main Street in Northampton by the old courthouse, I found this image stenciled and painted on the sidewalk.

It isn't hard to figure out that it is a reference to the recently deceased Francis Crowe.

Nearby is this small tree, which commemorates the tragic murder of Sherry Morton and her son Cedric.

The tree is sometimes called "The Second Amendment Tree" because to this day the Northampton community remains haunted by the question, "What if Sherry Morton had a gun?"

Way back in 1995 I interviewed Sherry Morton's mother Yoko Kato for TV40 in what was her first television interview.



It ain't even Thanksgiving, in fact, Mama Iguana still has their Halloween pumpkins out front.

However, that hasn't stopped the city from putting up the Christmas lights.

In Amherst yesterday, I ran into my Springfield homie Kevin Noonan. He is back in the Valley after a few years down South and is running the Amherst homeless shelter.

Here is Kevin in his Springfield days, which you can read about here in a 2009 essay by the late Michaelann Bewsee.

In yet another blast from the past, here's a graphic from the September 1996 issue of The Baystate Objectivist showing an angry mob attacking a castle bearing the seal of the City of Springfield.

Finally....