Boston

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VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Gwen
Outen.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember. We take you to Boston where the Democratic
National Convention opens today.

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VOICE ONE:

More than four thousand delegates
are in Boston for the Democratic convention. Thousands of other
visitors are there to report on the events or just to watch.

The convention will end Thursday night after Senator John Kerry
of Massachusetts accepts the nomination for president. On Wednesday
night, Senator John Edwards of North Carolina is to accept the
nomination for vice president. Other speakers this week will include
former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter and former vice
president Al Gore.

VOICE TWO:

Boston is under heavy security
against terrorist attacks during the Democratic convention.

Republicans will meet in New York next month. They will
officially nominate President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney
for the general election in November.

The national conventions are held in a different city every four
years. They are a chance for the parties to show support for their
candidates. But political experts say these events are less
important than they once were. Candidates are now chosen through
state nominating elections.

In fact, the major television
broadcasters do not show much of the conventions live anymore. They
leave that to the news networks on cable television.

For Boston, this is the city's first national convention of
either major party.

VOICE ONE:

Boston seems a natural choice for a political convention. The
city played an important part in the birth of the United States. And
politics are an important part of Boston life.

Boston is the state capital of Massachusetts and the largest
city. More than three million people live in the greater Boston
area. About five-hundred-ninety-thousand of them live in the city
itself.

Boston is a center of finance, education and music. And it is a
major seaport. The city and nearby communities form the largest
industrial center in the New England area of the Northeastern United
States. Boston occupies about one-hundred-thirty-five square
kilometers along the Atlantic coast.

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VOICE TWO:

Boston is one of the oldest cities in the United States. There
are still narrow streets laid with red brick. But Boston is also
modern. Major building and improvement projects in the
nineteen-sixties and seventies gave the city some of its more
current look.

Boston has a number of neighborhoods that seem like cities in
themselves. Some are Back Bay, North End, South Boston and Roxbury.

American schoolchildren learn that Boston is the birthplace of
the nation's freedom. This is where the war that separated the
American colonies from Britain began in seventeen-seventy-five.

VOICE ONE:

Today, lots of people put on their best walking shoes and follow
the Freedom Trail in Boston. This trail is almost five kilometers
long. It takes people to sixteen historical places. One of these is
the Old North Church. A sign tells how lights placed at the top of
the church warned American colonists that the British would soon
attack.

Also along the walk is the area where the Boston Massacre took
place. In seventeen-seventy, British soldiers shot into a crowd and
killed five colonists. The anger that followed helped fire the
spirit that produced the American Revolution.

From the Boston Freedom Trail you can also see the first public
school in the United States. Students first attended Boston Latin
School in sixteen-thirty-five.

VOICE TWO:

The Boston area is full of
colleges and universities. Harvard, in nearby Cambridge, became the
nation's first college in sixteen-thirty-six. The Massachusetts
Institute of Technology also is in Cambridge.

The city of Boston is home to many top medical centers along with
Harvard Medical School. The city is also known for its museums and
libraries. The Boston Public Library opened in eighteen-fifty-four
as the first major free library in the country.

Music lovers have the Boston Symphony. There is also the Boston
Pops Orchestra. It performs popular and semi-classical music in the
spring and summer.

VOICE ONE:

Downtown Boston contains a mix of tall modern office buildings,
old factories and historic landmarks. Eighteen hectares of downtown
is the park called Boston Common. Many people like to ride the boats
that look like swans on the lake in the Public Gardens there.

In the sixteen-hundreds, women accused of being witches were
hanged on Boston Common. The same was true for members of the Quaker
religion.

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VOICE TWO:

The first people of Massachusetts were the Native Americans. In
sixteen-thirty, Christians known as Puritans arrived from England to
escape religious oppression. Many Puritans came from the English
city of Boston. So that is what they named their new home. Boston is
also known as "Bean Town." Beans were an important trade crop for
the city in colonial days.

In recent years, the population of Boston has changed. Many
Hispanics and Asians have moved to the city. Boston also has a large
African American population.

Black people began to move there in large numbers from the
Southern states after World War One ended in nineteen-eighteen. Many
African Americans and Hispanics live in Roxbury, in the center of
the city.

Non-Hispanic whites are no longer a majority in Boston. But
leaders of other groups say white Bostonians still control the city.

VOICE ONE:

Many people of Italian ancestry live in North End. This area is
along the waterfront. Ships brought large numbers of immigrants to
Boston from southern and eastern Europe between eighteen-eighty and
nineteen-fourteen. Many Italians arrived to start a new life in
America.

The Irish population in Boston began to grow sharply in about
eighteen-forty-five. Large numbers of people left Ireland when
potato crop failures led to starvation. The traditional center of
the Irish-American community in Boston is South Boston. People call
it "Southie."

The children and grandchildren of the first Irish families in
Boston became political leaders of the city. These included
politicians like John Francis Fitzgerald. He was known as "Honey
Fitz." He served two terms as mayor.

One of his grandsons became a senator from Massachusetts. Then,
in nineteen-sixty, that grandson was elected the thirty-fifth
president of the United States. His name was John Fitzgerald
Kennedy.

VOICE TWO:

Another early Irish-American mayor in Boston served four terms in
office. His name was James Michael Curley. He and Honey Fitz
Fitzgerald strengthened the political power of the Irish.

Today that tradition continues with politicians like Senator
Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts. He, too, is a grandson of Honey
Fitz Fitzgerald, and a brother of President Kennedy.

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VOICE ONE:

The racial and ethnic mixture of people in Boston helps give life
to the city. But it has also caused deep divisions over the years.

In nineteen-seventy-four, a federal judge ruled that Boston
school officials had illegally separated students by race. The judge
ordered the city to transport students to different schools to
create a balance between blacks and whites.

Many white parents protested. Some threw rocks at buses that
carried black students to white schools.

VOICE TWO:

Busing continues as a way to balance school populations around
Boston. But efforts at racial balance failed. Many white families
moved their children to private schools. Or they moved out of the
city. Today only about fifteen percent of the students in the Boston
public schools are white.

A committee has been considering proposals about the future of
busing. These include proposals for the first major changes in
thirty years, to permit more students to attend schools close to
home.

VOICE ONE:

As the capital city in Massachusetts, Boston is at the center of
another civil rights issue these days. In May, Massachusetts became
the first American state to permit same-sex marriage. Some people
compare this to an act of rebellion that is one of the best known
events in Boston history.

In seventeen-seventy-three, colonists dressed as Indians threw
shiploads of British tea into Boston Harbor. They did it to protest
British taxes. American schoolchildren still learn about the event
that will be known forever as the Boston Tea Party.

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VOICE TWO:

Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty
Weaver. This is Steve Ember.

VOICE ONE:

And this is Gwen Outen. Join us again next week for THIS IS
AMERICA in VOA Special English.