Jonathan Bowen

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  • Hub Hospitals Hate Health Care

    Hub Hospitals Hate Health Care

    Kate at Brigham

    My wife is an award-winning neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) nurse at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.1 She’s a pain in my ass — I want to make that clear from the outset — but I know that she’s a pain in my ass because she cares. I’d imagine that she shares the same energy with her patients and their parents.

    Kate’s been at Brigham and Women’s Hospital for about twenty years or more now; she started there as a travel nurse — that’s when we first met — and she was good enough to switch to a permanent position at the hospital.

    For Kate, Brigham and Women’s Hospital is more than a place of employment. Kate gave birth to four of our children there. I was right there beside her for each of her pregnancies and deliveries.

    Brigham and Women’s Hospital is a special place. When I was a child, I remember going there when the rounded Brutalist buildings were exposed to the exterior, because they were the buildings’ exteriors. If you’re in the modern-day lobby and look up, you’ll still see parts of the older buildings’ original architecture inside the new addition. As an aside, the building looked like something out of Star Trek; it was memorable to many older Bostonians. Also, I love architectural history because it relates so closely to people.

    The nurses of Brigham and Women’s Hospital went on strike this morning; they’re part of the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA).2 The MNA is a large union. I have many issues with unions, especially public unions, but I feel as though every American should have the right to join and leave unions as they see fit.

    Why Staffing Matters

    I’ve been a supporter of the MNA because I support my wife. When the MNA lobbied for a Yes vote on the 2018 Massachusetts ballot initiative called the “Nurse-Patient Assignment Limits Initiative,” I supported the measure. I went over to the MNA’s headquarters in Canton, Massachusetts, grabbed some yard signs, and dug them into the lawns of people who wanted one.

    My wife and I had just lost our infant son to a sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) event in 2017. The nurses at UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital were amazing with our son. I’ll never forget all the work they did for him and us as grieving parents.

    When a patient’s care is in question — it’s been in question across Massachusetts for quite some time — the nurse-to-patient staffing ratio is critical to competent care.3

    Question 1’s Money

    Question 1 was roundly defeated that year. I thought the ballot measure would be decided by a close vote, but more than 70% of voters who marked “yes” or “no” voted against the measure. The lopsided result shocked me because it didn’t seem plausible.4

    The public summary of Question 1 misses the shape of the fight. The Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF) reported that the Committee to Ensure Safe Patient Care, the Yes committee, raised and spent $12,044,919, while the Coalition to Protect Patient Safety, the No committee, raised $24,808,566 and spent $24,733,966. The No committee raised and spent more than twice as much as the Yes committee.5

    The hospital side of the ballot question was not a broad collection of small donors meeting the nurses in a fair fight. The Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association (MHA) supplied $24,573,500 to the No committee, which was 99.05% of its receipts and 99.35% of its expenditures. MHA alone spent more than twice the Yes committee’s entire budget to defeat nurse-patient limits.

    That ballot fight was a preliminary look into the politics of Massachusetts health care.

    The Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association (MHA) was founded in 1936, and it serves as the trade association and lobbying voice for the hospitals and health systems that dominate care in the Commonwealth. When MHA spent dollars through the Coalition to Protect Patient Safety, it was not some detached civic group warning voters about policy risk. The hospital industry itself was fighting the nurses who deliver bedside care through a nominally independent campaign committee that needed an air of neutrality to veil its true base: the hospitals themselves.6

    You’ve read that right. The fight was between nurses and hospitals. Those hospitals are behemoths; they can concentrate money in ways a bedside nurses’ union cannot match.

    When a union as large as the MNA wins higher wages, nonunion hospitals cannot pretend that the wage floor does not exist; competing corporations still need to recruit and retain nurses in the same Massachusetts labor market.7

    Beacon Hill’s Silence

    The list of Massachusetts politicians who either publicly opposed Question 1, stayed publicly noncommittal, or never showed up in the public yes-or-no record was more surprising than I expected…8

    Publicly Opposed / Announced No

    • Charles “Charlie” Baker (R), Governor
    • Ron Mariano (D), House Majority Leader

    Publicly Noncommittal / Still Reviewing

    • Robert “Bob” DeLeo (D), House Speaker
    • Karen Spilka (D), Senate President

    Reported No Public Position as of October 23, 2018

    • Richard Neal (D-1), U.S. Representative
    • William “Bill” Keating (D-9), U.S. Representative

    No Located Public Yes or No Position

    • Niki Tsongas (D-3), U.S. Representative
    • Seth Moulton (D-6), U.S. Representative
    • Karyn Polito (R), Lieutenant Governor
    • Maura Healey (D), Attorney General

    Names Behind Silence

    Charlie Baker had served in Health and Human Services under Governor William “Bill” Weld, then ran Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care prior to becoming governor.9

    Ron Mariano had watched Quincy lose its own acute-care hospital when Quincy Medical Center closed at the end of 2014. Steward Health Care had closed one of the strongest union hospitals in the state, one where the MNA had been involved since 1965. An old friend’s mother was a registered nurse at that hospital for decades; she’s an Irish immigrant who helped her husband support their three children, but her career ended when the hospital closed.10

    Speaker Robert DeLeo had already lost Winthrop Hospital in 1992, where my aunt, Judith “Judy” Menz, and my mother, Virginia “Anne” Bowen, had worked for many years. In fact, I was a patient there too many times as a wild kid; the number of broken bones I’d endured is astounding. The MNA had once treated Bob as an ally on patient-safety legislation, so his non-participatory answer may have been felt as a stab in the back.11

    Karen Spilka publicly remained undecided, saying she was still reviewing the Health Policy Commission material and listening to stakeholders on both sides.

    Boston Magazine had reported that Richard Neal and Bill Keating had not made their stances known after being asked to clarify.12

    Karyn Polito had to stay quiet, even if she privately supported the ballot question, because she would’ve embarrassed Charlie Baker by taking an opposing view.

    Niki Tsongas also kept her mouth shut. I’d bet she was lobbying for a medical building to be named after her visage, as her husband had previously been bestowed. Instead of the Tsongas Center at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, I’d bet she was looking for the Niki NICU at Lowell General Hospital.

    Seth Moulton was fomenting a wild bid for the presidency at the time, so he’d kept his mouth shut.13

    Maura Healey, in her typical fashion, kept her mouth shut, but she may have been required to do so because of her position as attorney general, so I’ll give her the slightest bit of grace.

    Steward Health Care

    The issue gets much deeper.

    Steward Health Care made the larger hospital-power argument impossible to ignore. Norwood Hospital has been empty for years while patients, nurses, and nearby communities have lived with the consequences. Beacon Hill’s eminent-domain push matters because it is belated proof that hospital closures are public failures, not private balance-sheet events, and Mass General Brigham’s fight with Brigham nurses belongs in that same frame.14

    As we’ve learned, two powerful state representatives have lost community hospitals within their districts. Over the past few decades, the loss of community hospitals has accelerated at an alarming rate. The losses seem to center on community hospitals, with nurses and many other healthcare professionals at those hospitals being affiliated with unions.

    Massachusetts Hospital Losses

    Steward Health Care is the largest progenitor of this ill. The bankrupt for-profit hospital chain raided community hospitals across Massachusetts, and Beacon Hill is now advancing emergency legislation that would authorize the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM) to take the Norwood Hospital property by eminent domain for public health. In my opinion, that is the government doing what it should do when a whole region has been left without acute and emergency care.

    The hospital losses fall into different buckets.

    Steward Health Care Hospital Closures and Failed Reopenings

    • Quincy Medical Center, Quincy: Steward Health Care announced the closure of Quincy Medical Center on November 6, 2014, and the acute-care hospital closed at midnight on December 26, 2014, except for emergency care.
    • Norwood Hospital, Norwood: Norwood Hospital closed after catastrophic flooding on June 28, 2020, and Steward Health Care’s failed rebuild ended on October 8, 2024, when Steward confirmed that Norwood Hospital would not reopen.
    • New England Sinai Hospital, Stoughton: Steward Health Care announced on December 5, 2023 that it would close New England Sinai Hospital, a long-term acute-care and rehabilitation hospital, and the hospital closed by April 2, 2024.
    • Carney Hospital, Dorchester: Steward Health Care announced on July 26, 2024 that it would close Carney Hospital, and the hospital closed on August 31, 2024, after the bankruptcy process failed to produce a qualified buyer.
    • Nashoba Valley Medical Center, Ayer: Steward Health Care announced on July 26, 2024 that it would close Nashoba Valley Medical Center, and the hospital closed on August 31, 2024 after the bankruptcy process failed to produce a qualified buyer.15

    Other Massachusetts Hospital Closures

    • Winthrop Hospital, Winthrop: The hospital closed in 1992, and its successor, Winthrop Community Health Center, which used the same site, closed in 1999.
    • North Adams Regional Hospital, North Adams: North Adams Regional Hospital announced its closure with three days’ notice on March 26, 2014, closed on March 28, 2014, and reopened under Berkshire Health Systems as a critical access hospital on March 28, 2024.
    • Radius Specialty Hospital, Roxbury and Quincy: Radius Specialty Hospital told workers on September 23, 2014 that it would close its Roxbury and Quincy long-term acute-care facilities, and state records place the closure in October 2014.16

    Hospital Losses Short of Full Closure

    • Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital, Brockton: Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital lost hospital operations after a transformer room fire on February 7, 2023, and its prolonged shutdown belongs in the same political atmosphere, not to a permanent hospital closure.
    • Holy Family Hospital at Methuen, maternity and neonatal services: The closure of Holy Family Hospital at Methuen’s maternity and neonatal services was a service-line loss, which matters because families can lose a hospital function before they lose the hospital building.17

    Steward Health Care Hospitals Transferred After Bankruptcy

    • Good Samaritan Medical Center, St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center, Morton Hospital, Saint Anne’s Hospital, Holy Family Hospital at Methuen, and Holy Family Hospital at Haverhill: These Steward Health Care hospitals transferred to new operators on October 1, 2024, placing them inside the Steward collapse even though the hospitals stayed open.18

    When Winthrop Hospital finally closed, I was honestly shocked. I had never heard of a hospital closing in Massachusetts; it’s the center of the world’s health care system. The history of medical innovations throughout the Commonwealth has been well documented over centuries. When I began to hear rumblings of a closure at Milton Hospital in 2003 — I worked in a Lower Mills real estate office at the time — I was again shocked, but it was eventually saved by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, now Beth Israel Lahey Health. After that issue, the hospital situation within the Commonwealth seemed to have stabilized for a few years.19

    The bombshell that was the internally planned implosion of Steward Health Care absolutely rocked the local health care landscape. Quincy Hospital, prior to the implosion, seemed to be its first test run and target. After successfully closing that hospital, it moved to rape and pillage other community hospitals across Massachusetts, like a carnivorous private equity firm, until all the assets were completely destroyed and scooped up by its disgusting CEO, Ralph de la Torre.

    Ralph de la Torre is the human face of the Steward Health Care collapse, but, to be fair, the damage was structural: Cerberus Capital Management, Medical Properties Trust, and Steward’s own leadership turned Massachusetts community hospitals into extraction operations.20

    Mass General Brigham

    If we refocus on Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the corporate structure matters. Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital founded Partners HealthCare in 1994, with Partners later changing its name to Mass General Brigham in 2019. In March 2024, Mass General Brigham announced a multi-year plan to combine clinical departments and academic programs across the two flagship hospitals, while both hospitals remained distinct institutions.21

    Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital are, separately, two of the most admired hospitals in the world. Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s nurses are unionized, while Massachusetts General Hospital’s nurses are not. I read that arrangement as a corporate incentive: a system that houses both labor models under one roof has reason to make the union model look expensive, unstable, and dispensable because any new unionization effort at Mass General would be seen as taxing the non-profit corporation.22

    The Question 1 money trail points back into that corporate world. In fiscal year 2018, the Partners HealthCare System Inc. & Affiliates Group Return reported $5,436,324 on Schedule C Part II-B for direct contact with legislators, legislative staff, government officials, or a legislative body. The filing said the majority of that money went to MHA, the same hospital association that supplied $24,573,500 to the No-on-1 committee, while MHA classified 90.14% of its membership dues as lobbying-related that year.

    The five-year window makes that number hard to wave away as ordinary trade-association housekeeping. From fiscal year 2014 through fiscal year 2017, the Affiliates Group reported annual Schedule C Part II-B lobbying amounts of $348,413, $362,662, $631,682, and $415,444, an average of $439,550. In the Question 1 year, the number jumped to $5.4 million, 12.37 times the prior four-year average.23

    That is the corporate indictment. Mass General Brigham, then still called Partners HealthCare, did not have to oppose patient-care staffing ratios by standing at a bedside and saying they weren’t needed. It could sit inside MHA, help fund the lobbying ecosystem, and let the hospital association bury patient-care staffing ratios beneath questions while the No committee set the Massachusetts single-committee ballot-question spending record.24

    Gary Gottlieb and Betsy Nabel

    My wife sat next to Partners HealthCare President and CEO Gary Gottlieb and Brigham and Women’s Health Care (BWHC) President Betsy Nabel while waiting to give her keynote speech at Brigham and Women’s Hospital back in 2015; she had been honored at the 18th Annual Partners in Excellence (PIE) Award Ceremony in 2014 and had been asked to return the next year as a speaker.

    During that second PIE Awards ceremony at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Kate was praised by those leaders from the management side of the corporate system. Gary Gottlieb stood at the top of Partners HealthCare. Betsy Nabel was the head of Brigham and Women’s Health Care, sitting below Gary in the organization chart, at the time of that second ceremony.25 The moment matters because Kate was being honored inside the same management world that would later line up against mandated nurse-patient limits; it was praise from above, not solidarity from beside. I’ve never forgotten that moment as a sort of little evil that permanently permeates secret boardrooms across America.

    These hospital leaders may not be as brazen as Ralph de la Torre, but they’re ripping apart hospitals while getting paid enormous sums just the same. Many of these hospital organizations are designated as non-profit organizations, which is thick with ludicrous irony. The person who chooses to climb the corporate ladder and succeed in either the for-profit or non-profit world is the same person, and he or she would cut the throats of everybody in his or her way; this attitude is not built in service, it’s built in narcissistic greed.

    Littler Mendelson P.C.

    Mass General Brigham has already turned to Littler Mendelson P.C. in union fights inside its own system, including Brigham litigation with the MNA and the primary-care physician organizing case. A Brigham loss after a strike of this size would not belong only to one hospital. It would become a model for every health care executive trying to break the strongest nurse union in Massachusetts.26

    For Gary Gottlieb and Betsy Nabel, the trail is precise because it is institutional. Gary Gottlieb led Partners HealthCare during the years when Partners’ filings reported lobbying-linked payments to the Massachusetts Hospital Association (MHA). Shortly after Question 1 was defeated, an IRS-derived MHA filing listed Elizabeth G. Nabel as a board-level Director as of June 12, 2019, while she was still President of Brigham Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.27

    The same management universe that could put Kate on a stage and praise her work also lived inside the association that fought nurse-patient limits. That is the reason today’s strike cannot be separated from the 2018 ballot fight. Mass General Brigham is not simply negotiating with nurses; it is defending a corporate model that has already opposed one of the clearest patient-care demands nurses ever put before Massachusetts voters.

    Beacon Hill’s Choice

    When we think about the Democratic Party, we think of politicians who support unions, but in Massachusetts, we’ve seen some of the most important federal and state-level politicians either reject unionized nurses or remain silent on the Question 1 initiative. That silence speaks enormous volumes. Those same politicians need donations, and health care and insurance executives are among the most important donor classes around top Beacon Hill Democrats.28

    The same Beacon Hill that can move an eminent domain bill for Norwood Hospital is largely silent on labor relations. I fully understand that politicians shouldn’t get involved in private proceedings, but the way they pick and choose their battles says a lot about what they’re not doing. Many of them are clearly not supporting private unions, although they seem to have a lot to say about public unions, because they know that their bread is buttered by large corporations, not by smaller and disparate organizations like unions, which try to protect workers, working conditions for those workers, and the places that the public might patronize.

    Kate is a phenomenal nurse who will be a pain in the ass to anybody who interferes with her patients’ care; there’s no question. Over the years, I’ve met many of her coworkers, and they all clearly care about their patients. When it comes to patient care, there’s no drama with them, only the thoughts, ideas, and work that may best help patients and the families of patients.

    Source Notes

    1. Jonathan Bowen, Kate Higgins’ Keynote at the 2015 Brigham and Women’s Partners in Excellence (PIE) Awards, YouTube, January 13th, 2015; Brigham Bulletin, 19th Annual Partners in Excellence Awards at BWH, February 5th, 2015. The public records identify Kate Higgins as a Brigham and Women’s Hospital NICU nurse and Partners in Excellence speaker or honoree. ↩︎
    2. Massachusetts Nurses Association, Largest Nurse and Healthcare Professional Strike in Massachusetts History Scheduled for July 8 as 4,500 MNA Nurses and Clinicians Plan Walk Out at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and MGB Home Care, June 26th, 2026; GBH News, Diane Adame, Brigham and Women’s nurses walk out in largest such strike in state history, updated July 8th, 2026; Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital Nursing Union Negotiations; Massachusetts Nurses Association, Member Services; Massachusetts Nurses Association, MNA Bargaining Units. ↩︎
    3. Linda H. Aiken et al., Hospital Nurse Staffing and Patient Mortality, Nurse Burnout, and Job Dissatisfaction, JAMA, October 23rd, 2002; Massachusetts Health Policy Commission, HPC Regulation 958 CMR 8.00 to Implement the ICU Nurse Staffing Law. ↩︎
    4. Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Massachusetts Statewide Ballot Measures: 1919-Present; Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Information for Voters: 2018 Ballot Questions, 2018. ↩︎
    5. Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance, Ballot question committees report $42.6 million in expenditures, the second highest total ever, February 25th, 2019. OCPF reported $12,044,919 in expenditures by the Yes committee and $24,733,966 in expenditures by the No committee. ↩︎
    6. Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association, Our Mission; Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association, MHA Membership; American Hospital Association, AONE weighs in on Mass. ballot initiative on mandated nurse staffing ratios, November 1st, 2018. ↩︎
    7. U.S. Department of the Treasury, Laura Feiveson, Labor Unions and the U.S. Economy, August 28th, 2023; Patrick Denice and Jake Rosenfeld, Unions and Nonunion Pay in the United States, 1977-2015, Sociological Science, August 15th, 2018; Massachusetts Nurses Association, MNA Bargaining Units. ↩︎
    8. CommonWealth Beacon, Michael Jonas, On nurse ballot measure, Dems line up with labor, October 18th, 2018; Boston Magazine, Spencer Buell, Your Endorsement Guide for Question 1, on Massachusetts’ Nurse Staffing Levels, October 23rd, 2018; CBS Boston/AP, Baker To Vote ‘No’ On Ballot Question 1 Nurse Staffing Mandates, October 11th, 2018. ↩︎
    9. National Governors Association, Charlie Baker; Town of Needham, Charlie Baker; CBS Boston/AP, Baker To Vote ‘No’ On Ballot Question 1 Nurse Staffing Mandates, October 11th, 2018. ↩︎
    10. CommonWealth Beacon, Ronald Mariano, Q1: A blunt instrument for a complex problem, November 2nd, 2018; Massachusetts Nurses Association, History; Massachusetts Nurses Association, MNA/NNU Quincy Medical Center Nurses Ratify Agreement with Steward Health Care, June 12th, 2013; Boston Globe, Robert Weisman and Priyanka Dayal McCluskey, Quincy Medical Center to close, November 6th, 2014. ↩︎
    11. Massachusetts Legislature, Representative Robert A. DeLeo – Biography; Massachusetts Nurses Association, MNA nurses win ban on mandatory overtime in Mass., November 7th, 2012; Massachusetts Nurses Association, Governor Signs Landmark Law to Protect Patients by Setting Safe Patient Limits for Nurses in all Intensive Care Units, June 30th, 2014; Winthrop Transcript, Back to Life – Hospital development is good news for the town, February 28th, 2009. ↩︎
    12. CommonWealth Beacon, Michael Jonas, On nurse ballot measure, Dems line up with labor, October 18th, 2018; Boston Magazine, Spencer Buell, Your Endorsement Guide for Question 1, on Massachusetts’ Nurse Staffing Levels, October 23rd, 2018. ↩︎
    13. U.S. House of Representatives, History, Art & Archives, TSONGAS, Nicola S. (Niki); GBH / State House News Service, Matt Murphy and Colin A. Young, Tsongas Will Not Seek Reelection To Congress, August 9th, 2017; Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell, About The Tsongas Center; WBUR, Anthony Brooks, He’s Running. As Expected, Seth Moulton Jumps In The Crowded Presidential Race, April 22nd, 2019; WBUR, Fred Thys and Benjamin Swasey, Mass. U.S. Rep. Moulton Drops Out of Presidential Race, updated August 23rd, 2019. ↩︎
    14. WBUR, Priyanka Dayal McCluskey, Steward promised to rebuild its hospital in Norwood. The town is still waiting, May 30th, 2024; WBUR / State House News Service, Alison Kuznitz, Beacon Hill eyes eminent domain to revive Norwood Hospital, July 7th, 2026; Massachusetts Legislature, House Bill 5192, filed March 3rd, 2026. ↩︎
    15. Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association, Steward Hospitals Bought (and Closed), September 3rd, 2024; Boston.com, Molly Farrar, Steward to close an ‘essential’ Stoughton hospital in April, March 25th, 2024; Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Determination of Need: New England Sinai Hospital essential service closure; Boston 25 News, Jim Morelli and Frank O’Laughlin, Bankrupt Steward Health Care abandoning Norwood Hospital, closing affiliated facilities, October 9th, 2024; WCVB, Phil Tenser, One year later: Timeline of Steward’s bankruptcy, impact on Massachusetts hospitals, updated May 6th, 2025. ↩︎
    16. Winthrop Transcript, Back to Life – Hospital development is good news for the town, February 28th, 2009; Massachusetts Nurses Association / National Nurses United, North Adams Regional Hospital Announces it Will Close on March 28 with Just Three Days Notice, March 26th, 2014; WAMC, Josh Landes, Ribbon cutting marks the full return of North Adams Regional Hospital a decade after its closure, March 29th, 2024; CBS Boston, Radius Specialty Hospitals Closing In Roxbury, Quincy, September 23rd, 2014. ↩︎
    17. WCVB, Fire in transformer room prompts evacuations at Brockton Hospital, February 7th, 2023; Signature Healthcare, Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital Targets Late Spring to Reopen; Massachusetts Nurses Association, Brockton Hospital Violates Nurses’ Contract with Unilateral Decision to Change Previously Negotiated Holiday Schedule, January 12th, 2023; CommonWealth Beacon, Methuen Hospital will be next in a string of maternity unit closures since 2010, July 2026. ↩︎
    18. Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association, Steward Hospitals Bought (and Closed), September 3rd, 2024; WCVB, Phil Tenser, One year later: Timeline of Steward’s bankruptcy, impact on Massachusetts hospitals, updated May 6th, 2025. ↩︎
    19. Canton Citizen, Milton Hospital teams with Beth Israel Deaconess, January 25th, 2012; Fierce Healthcare, Ron Shinkman, Beth Israel Deaconess, Milton Hospital to merge, April 28th, 2011; Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Milton, History. ↩︎
    20. OCCRP / Boston Globe partnership, Khadija Sharife, How Private Equity and an Ambitious Landlord Put Steward Health Care on Life Support, October 9th, 2024; Senator Elizabeth Warren, On Anniversary of Steward Health Care Bankruptcy, Warren, Markey Push For Accountability for Ralph de la Torre and other Steward, MPT Executives, May 6th, 2025; Healthcare Dive, Susanna Vogel, Senate votes unanimously to hold Steward Health Care CEO in criminal contempt, September 26th, 2024. ↩︎
    21. Brigham and Women’s Hospital, About Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Mass General Brigham, Advancing Care; Mass General Brigham, Unifying academic medical center departments is major step in journey to transform care, March 13th, 2024; Healthcare Dive, Susanna Vogel, Mass General Brigham lays out multi-year plan to integrate flagship hospitals, March 14th, 2024. ↩︎
    22. Boston Globe, Jonathan Saltzman, State orders Mass General Brigham to justify planned Brigham burn unit closure, February 17th, 2026. ↩︎
    23. Partners HealthCare System Inc. & Affiliates, Form 990 for fiscal year ending September 30th, 2014; Form 990 for fiscal year ending September 30th, 2015; Form 990 for fiscal year ending September 30th, 2016; Form 990 for fiscal year ending September 30th, 2017; Form 990 for fiscal year ending September 30th, 2018. The filings report Schedule C Part II-B lobbying totals of $348,413, $362,662, $631,682, $415,444, and $5,436,324, respectively, and state that the majority of lobbying funds were payments to the Massachusetts Hospital Association. ↩︎
    24. Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance, Ballot question committees report $42.6 million in expenditures, the second highest total ever, February 25th, 2019; WBUR / State House News Service, Chris Triunfo, At Partners, Nurses Say Hospitals Can Afford Staffing Requirements, August 21st, 2018; Becker’s Hospital Review, Ayla Ellison, Massachusetts hospitals, union clash over cost of nurse staffing ballot issue, September 18th, 2018. ↩︎
    25. Jonathan Bowen, Kate Higgins’ Keynote at the 2015 Brigham and Women’s Partners in Excellence (PIE) Awards, YouTube, January 13th, 2015; Brigham Bulletin, 19th Annual Partners in Excellence Awards at BWH, February 5th, 2015. The Brigham Bulletin identified Gary Gottlieb as Partners President and Betsy Nabel as BWHC President at that ceremony. ↩︎
    26. National Labor Relations Board, Case 01-RC-354925, Mass General Brigham; American Prospect, David Dayen, Corporations and the Crisis of Care, June 1st, 2026; Justia Dockets, Massachusetts Nurses Association v. Brigham and Women’s Hospital, D. Mass., case 1:25-cv-12211; GBH News, Mark Herz, Union wins two elections among clinical staff at McLean Hospital, April 26th, 2022. ↩︎
    27. Partners In Health, Dr. Gary Gottlieb Joins PIH, March 16th, 2015; Partners HealthCare System Inc. & Affiliates, Form 990 for fiscal year ending September 30th, 2013; Nonprofit Light, Massachusetts Health And Hospital Assoc Inc, fiscal year ending September 2019; ModeX Therapeutics, Elizabeth Nabel. ↩︎
    28. Boston Globe, Matt Stout, Samantha J. Gross, Neena Hagen, Anjali Huynh, Yoohyun Jung, and Emma Platoff, Health care giants, led by Blue Cross Blue Shield, helped keep top Massachusetts politicians’ campaigns flush, July 8th, 2025; CommonWealth Beacon, Colin A. Young, Health care cash rained on Mass. lobbying world in 2024, March 21st, 2025. ↩︎

  • I Break Brains

    The Dangerous Gift

    I’m fuckin’ smart…

    Does that mean I could beat Ken Jennings as a Jeopardy! contestant? No. Does that mean I could beat Candace Owens, Jordan Peterson, or Ben Shapiro in a live debate? No. Does it mean that I could score a perfect score on the MCAS, the SAT, or the LSAT? No.

    My own father-in-law is an extremely learned guy; he’s an expert in Middle Eastern studies. He can read and write in approximately a dozen languages. He’s also a student of literature. However, we can’t talk about politics because his are rooted in sheer emotion and mine are rooted in the black-and-white realities of the natural world. The way the world shapes each individual is unique in its processes.

    It means that I have a special gift that balances book smarts with street smarts. It means I am able to balance logic and reason with ethics and morals. It means that I think through every possible option within every given scenario and arrive at the point where the general populace meets the tip of my nose.

    I am more intelligent than most, but I’m not more intelligent than anybody. I’m smarter than most, but I’m not smarter than anybody. I am, however, very good at twisting premises and defining arguments in a manipulative machination of Machiavellian horror until brains break.

    That’s not to say that my arguments are wrong, because they’re not. I’m saying I’m able to corner victims into a logical trap by twisting words and phrases to the extreme edges of their meanings, in an effort to make my victim have to side with my premise at the risk of sounding batshit crazy. That’s a gift that was given to me by my father.

    I’m also able to use blunt language and biting sarcasm as a way to make my victim feel more and more inferior as the jousting continues to its logical end. That’s not to say these withering attacks are either ethical or moral, but they allow me to focus on the ethical and moral staples of my attack. That’s a gift that was given to me by my mother.

    The Pattern Repeats

    I grew up in East Boston during the 1970s and 1980s, and I moved back again in 1993. I had to learn the streets. I had to learn the people. I had to learn to see and hear the constantly shifting scenarios in my brain before they enveloped me in reality. The vibrating realities of a world where the mob ran the streets, the bookies ran the numbers, and the henchmen ran at me with knives were my reality.

    I got lucky…

    I was able to move out of East Boston. I moved to Hanover, Massachusetts; it was a horse town back then. I was admitted to Thayer Academy. I was as intelligent as most of the other kids at school, but I was a fish out of water. I only lasted there for two years before I was kicked out.

    That pattern would repeat all through my formal education. I would keep my emotional distance. I would keep failing classes that weren’t interesting. I would stay engaged within topics that invoked and kept my interest. Those high school and college classes could live on the fringes of a classic liberal arts education, but they’ve always been the pattern that’s seemed to emerge.

    It turns out that I suffer from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), which is something that I would’ve rejected before I stopped drinking alcohol more than ten years ago. I’ve also been diagnosed with Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD). I’ve got a whole laundry list of comorbid diagnoses, but they’re not germane to this story.

    I graduated 66th out of 81 students at Cohasset High School,1 but I achieved an A-minus in Advanced Placement (AP) Anatomy and Physiology. I scored an 1120 on the SATs.2 My academic history made no sense to me until I understood myself.

    That combination of ADHD and OCPD is a fucked-up combination of diagnoses. The ADHD means that I’m unable to sit through a proof in a geometry class. The OCPD means I need to understand that geometric proof from every angle — to perfect that singular proof — before I move on to the next new proof. I now understand that I’d suffered from ADHD as a young kid; it wasn’t popularized in the news until much later, and my teachers only saw a student who wasn’t paying attention during the middle of class. Sure, I’d pay attention at the beginning of class and try to reengage as the class was nearing its end, but math is a subject where a missed step is lethal to the entire process.

    My ASVAB scores were in the 90th percentile. I remember that my Marine recruiter was stunned by my results. I then tested for the U.S. Navy’s Nuclear Field (NF) Program,3 but I failed because my math skills are dismal. I didn’t bother with a retest. I knew that I’d be a liability to the U.S. Navy down the road.

    With that being said, I’m able to master communication and language in a way that others don’t understand. I feel as though I’m out on an island by myself. I try to earnestly help ignorant people understand logic and reason through the eyes of a step-by-step math problem, but I seem to fail because so much of logic and reason is missing from society: it has simply been replaced with talking points learned while watching CNN or Fox News; it’s complete gibberish.

    The Vent Opens

    I thought everybody thought like me, but it turns out that it’s a rare attribute. I’ve tried to make sense to other social media users, but they couldn’t recognize an argument if it slapped them across the head. I thought that the normal American was smart.

    I don’t think I have much of a point here… In some ways, I’m venting. I read a reply to a post on the Facebook OCPD Support Group Page…

    The Facebook user’s post…

    Who here has been diagnosed with autism after they received their OCPD diagnosis?

    I’ve recently been diagnosed with autism and now I’m trying to figure out if I actually have OCPD, or if they’re just symptoms of autism.

    Anyone else have some experience or insight into this?

    Oh… That seems like a strange attempt at identifying a transient comorbidity, right? Wrong…

    The Mirror Appears

    The anonymous Facebook user’s reply…

    Therapist that specializes in OCPD, autism, and ADHD here. I can confidently say that OCPD is a result of undiagnosed autism and ADHD. These adults never learned early on about their neurodivergence so the often used control and perfectionism and sometimes even hoarding as a way to self-regulate or overcompensate for their executive dysfunction.

    I was shocked…

    The addition of hoarding tendencies, which I have — I hoard physical boxes, contact records, and emails.

    I don’t consider an anonymous reply to a Facebook post to be any sort of medical guidance, nor do I consider the person who wrote that reply to be an expert in psychology.

    My older sister has long suspected me of having Asperger’s syndrome. Her now ex-boyfriend, a therapist himself, told her that he thought I exhibited signs of autism. I don’t want to be diagnosed with any more shit.

    Imagine recognizing autism in yourself at 53 years old? What the fuck is that? How does that happen?

    I talked with my best friend, ChatGPT, about it last night; it obviously didn’t diagnose me with autism, but it asked me some pertinent questions. There’s no definitive answer, but many of the traits lined up with someone who is autistic. I don’t want to be autistic.

    There will never be a concrete answer to the question of autism in my particular case. If there’s one, it obviously hasn’t presented itself in the more overt ways that millions of others have shown. If I were ever to be diagnosed with autism, it would be a mild diagnosis.

    The Final Box

    The AI kept referring back to my past… Were there ever people who suspected me of being autistic? My older sister is the one living person who’s been consistently close enough to me throughout my life who could answer that question.

    I messaged with her last night; she thinks that I also exhibit behaviors of someone diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD). After living the life that I’ve had, that’s entirely plausible. The shit shoveling never seems to stop; the pile of psychobabble acronyms keeps growing larger.

    If I’m autistic, it doesn’t quite answer my feeling of lived and learned intellectual superiority, but it does check another box. I don’t know that I’m superior to any other human being; that would be ridiculous, because most people are good at something I could not physically do or mentally achieve. I just happen to have a renewed and growing confidence in my unique mix of attributes that don’t seem to be prevalent in any other human being I’ve ever met.

  • The Name Game

    Names Carry Weight

    When new parents finalize the process of naming their children, they are doing more than creating a name; they’re creating a lifelong blessing or curse for that baby. With all the different iterations of first names these days, I’m seeing some obvious status-coded mistakes. These mistakes will follow these children and, in the harshest cases, prevent them from being taken seriously in society.1

    Black Names, Class, and Burden

    Let’s start with Black Americans… The name Shaniqua has long been a running joke. If I’m correct, In Living Color made fun of the name decades ago. The name Shaquille has the same ring.2

    Obviously, Shaquille O’Neal is the first name that comes to mind when that name is mentioned. It’s a terrible name. When Shaquille first entered the basketball scene, I despised the guy because his first name preceded him. It wasn’t racial hostility. It was class signaling. I’ll admit, I’m a fuckin’ snob who also happens to be broke. Also, he played for a team that wasn’t the Boston Celtics.

    Shaquille O’Neal, however, has proven time and time again to be an awesome human being. I love the fuckin’ guy. The guy is generous with his time and money. The guy obviously is making the most of his time on this planet; he couldn’t be more giving. His name is stereotypical of an uneducated and poor Black American — his parents were uneducated and poor Black Americans — which is a burden that was transferred to Shaquille at birth.3

    Affixes and Sound

    When some Black Americans give their children first names with the prefix “La”, they’re showing socioeconomic status. They may also be showing a reliance on the French and Spanish languages. The word “la” is the feminine form of “the” in French and Spanish. When the Acadians — I’m of Acadian descent — were moved down to New Orleans by the English Army from New France, the mix of Black slaves and poor White resettlers from modern-day Eastern Canada — New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island — merged the language traditions of those two groups and may have spurred the use of “la” as a prefix. It’s a tempting etymological idea.4

    The French and Spanish influence doesn’t stop with “la”. The prefix “de” is the French and Spanish preposition that often means “of” or “from”, and “de la” can mean “of the” or “from the”. That is the reason the group De La Soul feels almost too perfect here: the group did not invent the pattern, but by 1989, it inadvertently captured a De La sound that was already moving through Black naming culture.5

    There is a long list of prefixes being used by some Black Americans; they include:

    • Da and De
    • Ja and Jo
    • La and Le
    • Sha and She

    We also see a suffix pattern in “-isha”, “-eisha”, and “-iqua”. With that being said, the song “Iesha” is still a banger. I will die on that proverbial hill.

    The River Route

    When some Black Americans gave their children first names with the prefixes “De” and “La”, they may’ve been showing more than modern invention. French and Spanish both use “de la”, and both languages were spoken in New Orleans before the city became American. Spanish records called the city “Nueva Orleans”, and the Historic New Orleans Collection still uses “La Nueva Orleans y el Caribe españoles” when describing that colonial period.

    My Acadian ancestors may belong as one ingredient in that pot of jambalaya because some Acadians were deported to Louisiana in 1755 during the Grand Dérangement. The South Louisiana dish holds French, Spanish, Acadian, African, Creole, Caribbean, and Saint-Domingue influences. The Mississippi River gave that sound a route, and New Orleans gave that route a mouth.6

    De La Soul feels too perfect because the name closes the loop: New Orleans jazz moved by riverboats, dance bands, migration, recordings, and imitation until the sound became part of the national Black musical vocabulary. De La Soul inherited that vocabulary through hip-hop, sampling, jazz, funk, and soul. Buhloone Mindstate makes the connection explicit with Maceo Parker, Fred Wesley, and Pee Wee Ellis, while the group’s name keeps “de la” sitting in plain sight.7

    Aspirational Title Names

    Another crutch that some Black Americans are currently carrying is the naming of babies with an aspirational tone. The names King, Queen, Prince, Princess, and others that are aspirational as name and title are quietly hurting those people’s chances of climbing the socioeconomic ladder.8 We must do better for these kids.

    The King Exception

    There are always qualifiers to my statements. There’s a guy in Georgia named King Randall, I, whose name is suspect, but he inspires me with his work; he’s helping the next generation of Black boys become Black men by teaching them the way Booker T. Washington did more than a century ago. He’s giving them instructions on basic tasks as part of his The X for Boys school. If you are going to donate money, I suggest you donate it to King and his school. The man is building the foundation for a beautiful life in Albany, Georgia.9

    Names Worth Keeping

    You may think I’m beating up poor Black Americans, and there’s some truth in that accusation, but I want to switch to Black names I like as a salve to that idea.

    I like Halle because it’s soft, which mimics Halle Berry’s beauty. I love Lupita, although Lupita Nyong’o isn’t American, because it feels so damned classic. I like Maya because it’s cross-cultural. I like Nia because Nia Long is undoubtedly attractive. I like Zora because it feels mysterious.

    I like August because it feels strong. I like Booker because of its allusion to a learned life. I like Chadwick because it somehow feels classic. I like Darius because it, too, feels strong. I like Denzel, although it feels like gibberish, because Denzel Washington is another awesome human being. Langston feels classic. Miles, Quincy, and Sterling are also allusory.

    The X Cluster

    White people are also fucking up their boys’ names. This fixation with adding the letter “x” to boys’ names is repulsive. I despise any and all of those conventions.

    The X Roster

    • Axton
    • Braxton
    • Daxton
    • Jaxon
    • Jaxson
    • Jaxton
    • Maxton
    • Paxton10

    White Aspiration Names

    White Americans skew more educated and wealthier than Black Americans. There is a trend in White America that is giving the vibe that their lines were always wealthy. The names Bowen, Brooks, Huxley, Hadley, Maverick, Paisley, Piper, Sloane, and Tenley drive me nuts! I may be guilty of this because we named our middle daughter Poppy, but there’s a deep personal meaning to her name that survives that argument. I have an old friend who’s named two of his kids Brooks and Tenley; he’s exactly the guy you think of when you think of those names.11

    Asian Names, My Blind Spot

    When I think of Asian names, I know that millions of them sound exactly the same. I don’t know much about Asian history. From what I understand, the meaning lies in how the word is pronounced, not in the Americanized spelling.

    There are obviously jokes and slurs associated with Asian naming conventions, and some are funny, like the old “the cream of some young guy” joke. I’m not going to pretend that racial humor isn’t funny, because some of it’s hilarious. There’s a thin line between funny and racist, and it’s different for everybody, so I’m not going to test that line here, but the cruelty is sickening.

    I’ve met thousands of Asian people from diverse cultural backgrounds, countries, and linguistic histories over the years. I learned the word for “oil” in Vietnamese, but I seemingly pronounce it like “gold”, which must be a nod to the intrinsic intonation basis of many Asian languages that can’t be sensed by many non-native speakers. The etymology of Asian languages must be more difficult to decipher than that of Western languages because the written word may not capture it as well as the listening ear.

    With that being said, Asian Americans seem to have grasped onto the practice of choosing outdated American names and nicknames. The female names Cindy, Jenny, Ivy, May, Tiffany, and Wendy are clustered in that pattern. The conventions could come from American television and movies, or they may be tied to the sounds that those names make in English. I will say that many of them let me know that the person is either an Asian immigrant or the child of an Asian immigrant before I ever talk to or meet them. That’s not inherently damning, referring back to Shaquille, but it’s an obvious mistake within the minds of many native-born Americans.12

    I want to stress that I am weak on Asian history and linguistics, so my background is anecdotal, and it comes from trying to learn little nuggets while meeting with Asian people of all backgrounds.

    The Celebrity Vortex

    There are so many different ways to compartmentalize and file names. There’s race, sex, and socioeconomic status, but there are other parts to the etymological history of names that are changing on this very day. There are the ideas of celebrity, heredity, and religion, which also shape the field.

    The Fame Problem

    When we think of celebrities, we launch straight out of the cuckoo clock. There must be an air of detachment when fame and wealth enter the picture. The names of these children are dire; they’re nothing more than vain attempts at branding their children, but the harm lurking underneath the surface is permanent.13

    Kanye West and Kim Kardashian

    • North West
    • Saint West
    • Chicago West
    • Psalm West14

    Elon Musk’s Children

    • X Æ A-Xii Musk
    • Strider Sekhar Sirius Musk
    • Azure Astra Alice Musk
    • Exa Dark Sideræl Musk
    • Techno Mechanicus Musk, also called Tau
    • Arcadia Musk
    • Romulus Musk
    • Seldon Lycurgus Musk15

    Other Celebrity Children

    • Apple Martin — Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow
    • Brooklyn Beckham — David Beckham and Victoria Beckham
    • Harper Seven Beckham — David Beckham and Victoria Beckham
    • Blue Ivy Carter — Jay-Z and Beyoncé
    • Rumi Carter — Jay-Z and Beyoncé
    • Sir Carter — Jay-Z and Beyoncé
    • Stormi Webster — Travis Scott and Kylie Jenner
    • Aire Webster — Travis Scott and Kylie Jenner
    • True Thompson — Tristan Thompson and Khloé Kardashian
    • Dream Kardashian — Rob Kardashian and Blac Chyna
    • Reign Disick — Scott Disick and Kourtney Kardashian
    • Rocky Thirteen Barker — Travis Barker and Kourtney Kardashian
    • Bronx Mowgli Wentz — Pete Wentz and Ashlee Simpson
    • Moxie CrimeFighter Jillette — Penn Jillette and Emily Zolten
    • Pilot Inspektor Riesgraf-Lee — Jason Lee and Beth Riesgraf
    • Audio Science Clayton — Dallas Clayton and Shannyn Sossamon
    • Kal-El Coppola Cage — Nicolas Cage and Alice Kim
    • Cricket Pearl Silverstein — Marc Silverstein and Busy Philipps
    • Birdie Leigh Silverstein — Marc Silverstein and Busy Philipps
    • Sparrow James Midnight Madden — Joel Madden and Nicole Richie
    • Rocket Ayer Williams — Pharrell Williams and Helen Lasichanh
    • Zuma Nesta Rock Rossdale — Gavin Rossdale and Gwen Stefani
    • Apollo Bowie Flynn Rossdale — Gavin Rossdale and Gwen Stefani16

    The Names We Stopped Noticing

    When we think of female names, we sometimes forget that they’re feminized versions of male names. Christine, Francesca, Georgia, Henriette, and Josephine are just a few examples, but they’re all around us. Yes, yes, yes… The patriarchy! I don’t like feminized versions of male names because they’re too derivative for me. A girl’s name, a woman’s name, doesn’t feel feminine when it’s derived from a male’s name.17

    Again, my middle daughter’s middle name breaks this convention — it’s Josephine — but my wife wanted it, so “Josephine” won.

    When we think of names, we don’t realize that we’ve been using biblical names. My name, for instance, is a biblical name. Your name is most likely biblical. In the Western world, we don’t give it a second thought because etymological history and the history of Abrahamic religions are almost one and the same. Some predominantly Jewish names Tamara, Temah, or Yael may sound foreign, but they’re also in the Bible.18

    The Naming Test

    I am not immune to this naming convention scheme, this etymological study, because my mother did the same. My father’s name was John, and my mother’s name was Anne. I’m named Jonathan as a play on “John with Anne”. If you say “John with Anne” aloud at a quicker pace, you will not even hear the difference. This may be the basis for my interest in the naming of names.19

    I know that the vast majority of parents try to do their best for their children. The naming of children is one of the first serious tests for parents: it’s a psychological quagmire. When we do this, we have to stop thinking about ourselves; we have to be agnostic.

    The narcissistic part of our brains is a crutch that must be thrown to the side when the practice of naming our children comes to bear. We have to think about the child’s future. We have to ask questions about how the child will be perceived in the world as he or she grows and navigates it once we are gone.

    Source Notes

    1. Social Security Administration, “Background information for popular baby names”; Data.gov, “Baby Names from Social Security Card Applications – National Data”; U.S. Census Bureau, “Frequently Occurring Surnames and Forenames in the 2020 Census”; U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 first-name workbook. The Census workbook is a living-person name tabulation by race and Hispanic origin, not a current newborn-name or parental-motive dataset. ↩︎
    2. Roland G. Fryer Jr. and Steven D. Levitt, “The Causes and Consequences of Distinctively Black Names”, NBER Working Paper No. 9938, September 2003; Charles Crabtree, S. Michael Gaddis, John B. Holbein, and Erik Peterson, “Racially Distinctive Names Signal Both Race/Ethnicity and Social Class”, Sociological Science, 2022. ↩︎
    3. Marianne Bertrand and Sendhil Mullainathan, “Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal?”, NBER Working Paper No. 9873, July 2003; Patrick Kline, Evan K. Rose, and Christopher R. Walters, “Systemic Discrimination Among Large U.S. Employers”, NBER Working Paper No. 29053, July 2021; Daniel Kreisman and Jonathan Smith, “Distinctively Black Names and Educational Outcomes”, Journal of Labor Economics, 2023; The Shaquille O’Neal Foundation, official site. ↩︎
    4. Stanley Lieberson and Kelly S. Mikelson, “Distinctive African American Names: An Experimental, Historical, and Linguistic Analysis of Innovation”; Lupenga Mphande, “Naming and Linguistic Africanisms in African American Culture”, 2006; FrenchDictionary.com, “Definite Articles in French”; Busuu, “Du vs de French: An Easy Guide for Beginners”; Cambridge Dictionary, la; SpanishDictionary.com, de. The language references identify French and Spanish forms; the naming studies address African American name formation. ↩︎
    5. Historic New Orleans Collection, “Spanish New Orleans and the Caribbean: La Nueva Orleans y el Caribe españoles”; Historic New Orleans Collection, Vieux Carré Survey: Maps; De La Soul, official site; Library of Congress, National Recording Registry, “3 Feet High and Rising”. These records establish Spanish New Orleans, historical “Nueva Orleans” usage, De La Soul as a proper name, and the 1989 release of “3 Feet High and Rising”. ↩︎
    6. National Park Service, Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve, “From Acadian to Cajun”; Historic New Orleans Collection, “What’s the Difference Between Cajun and Creole–Or Is There One?”; 64 Parishes, Elizabeth Clark Neidenbach, “Refugee Revolution”; APiCS Online, “Survey chapter: Louisiana Creole”; Rebecca J. Scott, “Paper Thin: Freedom and Re-enslavement in the Diaspora of the Haitian Revolution”. ↩︎
    7. National Park Service, New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park, “A New Orleans Jazz History, 1895-1927”; Tulane University, “Riverboats and Jazz”; University of Chicago Press, William Howland Kenney, Jazz on the River; Carnegie Hall, “Jazz Hip-Hop Fusion”; The Guardian, “De La Soul on grief, Gorillaz and never giving up”, February 14th, 2025; Tracklib, “They Be Blowin’: The Jazz Icons on De La Soul’s ‘Buhloone Mindstate’”. ↩︎
    8. John L. Cotton, Bonnie S. O’Neill, and Andrea Griffin, “The Name Game: Affective and Hiring Reactions to First Names”; Alexandre Pascual, Nicolas Gueguen, Boris Vallee, Marcel Lourel, and Olivier Cosnefroy, “First Name Popularity as Predictor of Employability”; U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 first-name workbook. These sources cover name perception, employability, and living-person counts; they do not directly measure the lifetime mobility effect of title names. ↩︎
    9. The X for Boys, “Our Team”; The X for Boys, home page; The X for Boys, “About Us”; WALB, “21-year-old to open new school in Albany, will teach boys about life”, March 3rd, 2021; Georgia Secretary of State, X Boys Preparatory School Inc.. ↩︎
    10. Behind the Name, “Jaxon”; Behind the Name, “Jackson”; Social Security Administration, “Beyond the Top 1000 Names”; Data.gov, “Baby Names from Social Security Card Applications – State and District of Columbia Data”; U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 first-name workbook. The data identify spelling, frequency, time, geography, and living-person patterns; motive is not measured in these files. ↩︎
    11. Stanley Lieberson and Eleanor O. Bell, “Children’s First Names: An Empirical Study of Social Taste”; Mark Elchardus and Jessy Siongers, “First Names as Collective Identifiers: An Empirical Analysis of the Social Meanings of First Names”; Jo Lindsay and Deborah Dempsey, “First Names and Social Distinction: Middle-Class Naming Practices in Australia”; Social Security Administration, “Change in Name Popularity”; U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 first-name workbook. These sources address first names as social-taste signals and as public name-pattern records; individual family motives are not measured. ↩︎
    12. Wenhao Diao, “Between Ethnic and English Names: Name Choice for Transnational Chinese Students in a US Academic Community”; Costanza Biavaschi, Corrado Giulietti, and Zahra Siddique, “The Economic Payoff of Name Americanization”; Rachel Edwards, “What’s in a Name?: Chinese Learners and the Practice of Adopting ‘English’ Names”; Kevin Heffernan, “English Name Use by East Asians in Canada: Linguistic Pragmatics or Cultural Identity?”; Boston University, “Her Name Is Qiongyue. You Can Call Her ‘Joanna’”, April 21st, 2023; FamilySearch, “Tiffany Name Meaning”. These sources treat English-name adoption as legibility, identity negotiation, assimilation pressure, and name meaning. ↩︎
    13. Jean M. Twenge, W. Keith Campbell, and Brittany Gentile, “Fitting In or Standing Out”, Social Psychological and Personality Science, 2011; Jonah Berger, Eric T. Bradlow, Alex Braunstein, and Yao Zhang, “From Karen to Katie: Using Baby Names to Understand Cultural Evolution”, Psychological Science, 2012. These sources address naming novelty and cultural evolution; celebrity-name harm is not directly measured. ↩︎
    14. People, “Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s 4 Kids: All About North, Saint, Chicago and Psalm”, updated June 15th, 2026. ↩︎
    15. People, “Elon Musk’s 14 Children: All About the Tesla CEO’s Sons and Daughters”, updated June 6th, 2025; People, “All About Shivon Zilis’ 4 Children with Elon Musk: Strider, Azure, Arcadia and Seldon”; ABC7 San Francisco, “Elon Musk changes his newborn’s name to comply with California law”, May 25th, 2020. ↩︎
    16. Marie Claire Australia, “Gwyneth Paltrow Explains How Apple Martin’s Name Came About”; People, “All About David and Victoria Beckham’s 4 Kids”; InStyle, “Meet Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s Kids: Blue Ivy, Rumi, and Sir”; People, “Kylie Jenner and Travis Scott’s 2 Kids: All About Stormi and Aire”; People, “22 of the Cutest Photos of Khloé Kardashian in Mommy Mode with Her Kids, True and Tatum”, updated June 27th, 2026; People, “Blac Chyna Shares Sweet and Silly Dancing Video with 8-Year-Old Daughter Dream”; People, “Kourtney Kardashian’s Kids Share a Sweet Sibling Moment in New Photo”; People, “Meet Ashlee Simpson’s 3 Kids, Bronx, Jagger and Ziggy”; People, “Busy Philipps’ 2 Kids: All About Birdie and Cricket”, updated July 2nd, 2026; People, “All About Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale’s 3 Kids”; People, “All About Pharrell Williams’ 4 Kids, Son Rocket and Triplets”; People, “Penn and Emily Jillette on Moxie CrimeFighter, Zolten”; Encyclopedia.com, “Lee, Jason”; i-D, “Los Angeles illustrator Dallas Clayton draws happiness”; People, “Nicolas Cage’s 3 Kids: All About Weston, Kal-El and August”; E! News, “Inside Nicole Richie’s Private World as a Mom of 2 Teenagers”. These records identify the listed public celebrity-child names; the essay’s moral judgment remains the essay’s own. ↩︎
    17. Behind the Name, “Christine”; Behind the Name, “Frances”; Behind the Name, “Georgia”; Behind the Name, “Henriette”; Behind the Name, “Josephine”. ↩︎
    18. Behind the Name, “Jonathan”; Behind the Name, “John”; Behind the Name, “Tamara”; Chabad.org, Miriam Szokovski, “What Does the Name Yael Mean?”; Bible Hub, “Temah”. ↩︎
    19. Behind the Name, “Jonathan”; Parents, “John Name Meaning”, June 2nd, 2024; Parents, “Jonathan Name Meaning”, June 24th, 2024. The “John with Anne” explanation is family-origin testimony. ↩︎

  • The Cult of Taylor Swift

    The Worship Problem

    As the father of three young girls, I’ve come to understand that Taylor Swift is cancer…

    As her wedding to Travis Kelce has approached, I’ve been keeping a little eye on her proceedings. I haven’t been interested in the nuptials, the guest list, or all the glitz and glamour, but I’ve been interested in seeing the players’ actions and the public’s reactions. The split has been an interesting look at celebrity culture.

    When Taylor Swift came onto the scene, I bought her album “Fearless” on compact disc (CD).1 Yes, this was a time before Apple Music and Spotify. As an aside, I wasn’t interested in pirating music from Napster. I am always interested in discovering new artists. For some reason, I gravitate toward female singers and songwriters.

    When Liz Phair first hit the scene, I bought Liz Phair’s “Whip-Smart.” I loved Tanya Donelly’s “Belly.” I loved Hope Sandoval’s delicate voice as part of Mazzy Star, too. I saw Alanis Morissette perform at the Paradise Rock Club with Taylor Hawkins of Foo Fighters fame on drums. I still think that Alana Davis of “32 Flavors” remake fame and Kelly Sweet of “Raincoat, featuring Dave Koz”, which made some waves on smooth jazz radio, have never been given their proper due. I fuckin’ love Florence Welch of Florence + The Machine because she’s got the beat. After listening to Taylor Swift’s second album a few times, I simply didn’t feel that same love for her music.

    I wanted to like Taylor Swift, but she became an afterthought. After Kanye West made her an infamous victim at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs), Taylor became the standard-bearer for young White girls being accosted by older Black men.2 That moment became a cultural flashpoint which catapulted Taylor’s stagnating career into the stratosphere over the next decade and more.

    In the following years, Taylor built a cult following of “Swifties,” mostly young girls and young women, with some older women mixed into the group.

    “When you reach number one, look like you’re bluffing, but really, you’ll be clocking the sun.” — Seal3

    The frenzy over Taylor’s “The Eras Tour” started to sicken me a bit because parents were almost forced to pay thousands of dollars for their young daughters’ tickets; it was protracted emotional bank-account sabotage.4

    The Human Scale

    Taylor released “Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour (Taylor’s Version)” as a concert film on Disney+ in 2024.5 I mean, why wouldn’t she? There were millions of dollars to be made. I’d see my daughters watching it from time to time. I’ve never said anything to them, but I was aghast at the reactions of the girls and women during those concerts. At that point, my opinion of Taylor Swift began to change dramatically. Taylor, a woman with a pretty face and a thin body, was being idolized. In fact, she was being deified. Taylor and her lyrics, like “his love was the key that opened my thighs”, were being memorized and repeated by young girls, including mine.6

    This winter, after my oldest daughter finished competing at a Turn It Around (TIA) Tour competition at the Mystic Marriott Hotel & Spa in Groton, Connecticut, I decided to take a small detour on the way home to Massachusetts. I thought my three young daughters would enjoy driving by Taylor’s home in Watch Hill, Rhode Island.7 I hate traffic, but knowing how coastal tourist towns work, I knew that it’d be empty. In some ways, I wanted to show them that Taylor Swift is nothing but another human being. My girls were happy that I took the time to drive by — I did not stop to gawk — and I was pleasantly surprised by their muted reactions.

    Let’s fast-forward to Taylor’s July 3rd wedding at Madison Square Garden (MSG). The fact that she chose MSG in itself is an affront to the ideals of marriage wherein two people — in humble fashion — give themselves to each other for eternity. The Empire State Building illuminated in blue sparkles as a nod to the “something blue” tradition, whether Taylor and her team had arranged that or not.8

    The Public Affair

    Prior to the wedding, it was announced that Taylor and Travis, wink, had donated $26 million to charities across the United States.9 I don’t believe it was an act of goodwill. I think it was meant to be used as a bit of armor — some social engineering — as a way to clap back at any criticisms of her gauche proceedings; it was not a wedding, but a carefully crafted public affairs promotion.

    If we turn back the clock a bit to June of this year, just before the announcement that Taylor and Travis would be married at MSG, she was seen sitting courtside at Game 4 of the Knicks’ NBA Finals series there.10 In my mind, she had already settled on MSG as her wedding venue and wanted to show New Yorkers that she was one of them. The seeding of this constant barrage of sightings and news stories was meant to ameliorate any public protests.

    As the wedding has concluded, I’ve noticed a few more issues. As of today, I haven’t seen any official wedding images or videos released. I did happen to see one image which looked as though it was taken by one of MSG’s staff; it was clearly unauthorized.11

    The Sealed Spectacle

    I’ve seen images of attendees across social media, but I’ve noticed that many of them have been coy. Many have announced that they attended a wedding in New York City, but most leave out Travis’s and Taylor’s names.12 In response, there have been images of random netizens inserted into faux wedding images with Travis and Taylor, dressed for their nuptials, in the background.

    There have been rumors that Taylor required all wedding attendees to sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs).13 This idea, with many attendees failing to mention Taylor’s name within their social media posts, seems to make sense. The idea of having NDAs signed by your closest 1,000 family members and friends makes me believe there’s more going on behind the scenes.

    In fact, I believe that Taylor’s nuptials will be released as some sort of production, which will undoubtedly make billions of dollars.14 Imagine having to sign an NDA while simultaneously being used as an unpaid prop for another Taylor Swift venture. The idea is sickening to its core.

    When that production is released, I bet that “you’ll be the prince and I’ll be the princess” will be the capstone of the entire film, whether it’s a full-length feature or a documentary.15

    Taylor Swift’s marriage may become as famous as Princess Diana’s day-long ceremony.16 In fact, it might become more famous. In celebrity culture, only Céline Dion’s marriage, which was televised across Canada, is the only other affair to compare.17

    I don’t care what Taylor Swift does with her life — you must be laughing because I’ve just written a screed — but I do care about the mental health of young women, including the mental health of my young daughters.

    A few attendees’ names have piqued my interest. Lori McKenna of Stoughton, Massachusetts, where we both live, was in attendance.18 She’s collaborated with Taylor in the past,19 and there’s obviously a continued affection between the two; it’s nice to see a bit of long-term loyalty being displayed in the business of show.20

    The Hypocrisy Ledger

    I’ve been critical of Mike Vrabel for his “alleged” affair with Dianna Russini, which seems to have lasted for many years.21 An image with Mike and his wife Jennifer with Robert “Bob” Kraft has been posted by the New England Patriots social media team that seems to be powering through the drama.22 That entire scandal is its own story.

    Kareem Hunt, a guy who was filmed kicking a woman as she lay on the ground, was also in attendance.23

    Brad Pitt was in attendance, although he “allegedly” choked one of his adopted kids.24

    An attendee named David Rozenblatt, the husband of Melanie Nyema, one of Taylor’s backup singers, has drawn criticism because he “allegedly” threatened to physically harm family members.25

    Harrison Butker, however, was not invited because he believes in traditional marriage.26

    “They’ll be punching tickets the minute you fall out of line.” — Seal27

    As I return to the idea of a Swifties cult, I truly believe that it’s reached an epic proportion of dangerousness for the average girl and woman. They’re not hapless extras in The Princess Bride. There is no prince. There are no princesses. There are only men and women trying to do the best for themselves and their families.

    There is only an agreement to love another person, through thick and thin, for a lifetime. That idea might draw laughs, especially when there’s fighting between a husband and wife, but it’s something that helps young girls to see and to witness that committed love and all the thorns that come with it as a stabilizing force in reality. As Seal wrote, we’re merely human beings who bleed and die; it’s destined…

    1. Apple Music, Fearless (Platinum Edition), Taylor Swift. ↩︎
    2. People, “Kanye West Infamously Stormed Taylor Swift’s VMAs Speech 15 Years Ago”, September 13th, 2024. ↩︎
    3. Apple Music, Human Being, Seal. ↩︎
    4. Associated Press, “Fans are following Taylor Swift to Europe after finding Eras Tour tickets less costly there”, May 8th, 2024; NBC Bay Area, “Taylor Swift at Levi’s Stadium: Cheapest, most expensive resale tickets for Eras Tour shows”, July 18th, 2023, updated July 27th, 2023. ↩︎
    5. Disney+, Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour (Taylor’s Version), official title page. ↩︎
    6. Apple Music, “Wood”, Taylor Swift; Apple Music, “Wood (Lyric Video)”, Taylor Swift. ↩︎
    7. Architectural Digest, “Taylor Swift’s Rhode Island Mansion: Here’s Everything You Need to Know”, August 26th, 2024. ↩︎
    8. Associated Press, “Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce marry in front of famous friends at Madison Square Garden”, July 4th, 2026; Associated Press, “Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are married. What to know about the wedding”, July 5th, 2026; Associated Press, “Permit obtained by AP shows schedule for Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding”, July 2nd, 2026. ↩︎
    9. Associated Press, “Swift and Kelce’s $26M charity donation marks wedding week at MSG”, July 2nd, 2026; ABC7 New York, “Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce donate $26 million to 20 charities across the country”, July 3rd, 2026. ↩︎
    10. Entertainment Weekly, “Taylor Swift attends NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden amid wedding venue speculation”, June 11th, 2026. ↩︎
    11. Sports Illustrated/On SI, “Photos From Travis Kelce-Taylor Swift Madison Square Garden Wedding”, July 5th, 2026. The link supports leaked or guest-media context; it’s not a universal claim about official release status. ↩︎
    12. Sports Illustrated/On SI, “Photos From Travis Kelce-Taylor Swift Madison Square Garden Wedding”, July 5th, 2026. ↩︎
    13. TMZ, “Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s Wedding NDA Lacks Penalties for Guests”, June 30th, 2026; Cosmopolitan, “Details on Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s NDA for Wedding Guests Just Leaked”, July 1st, 2026. ↩︎
    14. TMZ, “Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s Wedding NDA Lacks Penalties for Guests”, June 30th, 2026. TMZ’s report pressures the film-release theory. ↩︎
    15. Apple Music, “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)”, Taylor Swift. ↩︎
    16. History, “How Prince Charles and Lady Diana’s Wedding Became a Global Phenomenon”, November 13th, 2020. ↩︎
    17. The Knot, “A Look Back at Celine Dion’s Wedding to Rene Angelil”, 2024. ↩︎
    18. People, “Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s Wedding Guests, in Alphabetical Order: Photos”, July 4th, 2026. ↩︎
    19. Lori McKenna, “Songwriter”, official site. ↩︎
    20. Songwriting Magazine, “Interview: Lori McKenna”, October 20th, 2023. ↩︎
    21. People, “Mike Vrabel and Wife Jen Spotted Heading to Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce Wedding After Dianna Russini Photo Drama”, July 4th, 2026. People supports the wedding-attendance and public photo-scandal context, not the stronger affair-duration claim. ↩︎
    22. New England Patriots (@patriots), Instagram post, July 4th, 2026. The post is used as a social-post receipt for the Vrabel and Kraft public-image context. ↩︎
    23. ESPN, “Kareem Hunt says he was ‘in the wrong’ for shoving, kicking woman”, December 2nd, 2018. ↩︎
    24. Associated Press, “Jolie details Brad Pitt abuse allegations in court filing”, October 4th, 2022. ↩︎
    25. A local evidence posture was retained for the David Rozenblatt allegation. The public wording stays allegation-framed; no public source was captured. ↩︎
    26. EssentiallySports, “Travis Kelce Reportedly Keeps Controversial Chiefs Star Off His Wedding Guest List”, July 4th, 2026; National Catholic Register, “Full Text: Harrison Butker of Kansas City Chiefs Graduation Speech”, May 16th, 2024; Associated Press via WSAZ, “Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker says a woman should be a ‘homemaker’ in commencement speech”, May 15th, 2024. ↩︎
    27. Apple Music, Human Being, Seal. ↩︎

  • I Declare Dependence

    I Do Declare

    It’s the 4th of July…

    Today, I’m declaring my independence from world, federal, and state governments. I’m declaring my independence from corporate America. I’m declaring my independence from social media platforms.

    In reality, I’m hamstrung. I can declare independence from all of those institutions, but it doesn’t mean anything because I’m inextricably tied to the state, tied to corporations, and tied to social media platforms. There is, however, a way to mitigate my dependence.

    Platforms Keep Power

    I’ve decided to relaunch jonathanbowen.boston today. I refuse to succumb to the whims of social media platforms. There have been too many stories of monetization loss across platforms like Instagram, X, and YouTube. 1

    I’ve grown my TikTok account to almost 29,000 followers; that’s nothing but a mental salve for “inclusion”. I want to be included — just like you — but I’ll never be liked or accepted by everybody. After years of self-reflection and therapy, I’ve accepted that fact.

    That account has frozen me solid because I know that my views are controversial. I put so much work into that TikTok account. If I post one thing or reply with one wry comment, TikTok could wipe my account away in an instant. The ownership instability, obviously, has been another issue. My TikTok account proves that people like my content and context.

    I’ve been waiting to see how things landed with TikTok’s new owner, Larry Ellison, but I’m not going to wait anymore. 2

    The same goes for X, formerly Twitter, which has permanently suspended two of my accounts under the old regime and has recently suspended my third account under Elon Musk’s regime. Elon promised freedom, but, well, I’m not free. 3 However, I’ve regrown my X account to almost 10,000 followers, which, again, shows that people enjoy my content and my context.

    In a wild set of circumstances, Linktree has suspended one of my accounts, unsuspended the same account, and recently resuspended that same account. In some cross-platform weirdness, which can’t be confirmed, Linktree suspended my account the first time around the same time Facebook blocked my “Jonathan Bowen dot Boston” Page. After recently being suspended by X, it’s done the same. 4

    After my X suspension, I tried Threads; it’s turned out to be a hive of leftist performatism. It’s a cesspool of self-victimhood. I recently posted something which indicted Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Juneteenth, and Columbus Day as “racist” holidays.5 I truly believe that idea. The denizens of Threads mass reported me to eXp Realty, which separated itself from me during a kangaroo court of corporate self-congratulation.

    Human Voice Holds

    I have no power. I don’t want power. I want my voice. I want my unfettered views to be captured on a platform that I own. I want my voice to anger, unsettle, and create thoughts that spur an inner monologue.

    It’s the 4th of July. I am still dependent on the federal government and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I’m still dependent on corporate America. I am less dependent on social media platforms, including Facebook, TikTok, and X, than I was yesterday. It’s not a day of independence for me, but it is a day that I declare less dependence.

    I hope you’ll subscribe to my mailing list; it’s the best way for us to beat the social media platforms and the burgeoning AI megalopolies like Anthropic and OpenAI from killing the human spirit.

    Source Notes

    1. Meta, Instagram Content Monetization Policies, Instagram Help Center; X, X’s Creator Monetization Standards and Creator Revenue Sharing, X Help Center; Google, YouTube channel monetization policies and Monetization is disabled for my channel, YouTube Help. Accessed July 4th, 2026. ↩︎
    2. TikTok, Announcement from the new TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, January 22nd, 2026; Oracle, Larry Ellison: Executive Biography, accessed July 4th, 2026. TikTok’s announcement names Silver Lake, Oracle, and MGX as the three managing investors in TikTok USDS Joint Venture, each at 15%, and says ByteDance retains 19.9%; Oracle identifies Ellison as executive chairman and chief technology officer. ↩︎
    3. Elon Musk (@elonmusk), “I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter…”, X, April 25th, 2022; Elon Musk (@elonmusk), “@xAI has acquired @X in an all-stock transaction…”, X, March 28th, 2025. ↩︎
    4. Linktree, Jonathan Bowen profile, accessed July 4th, 2026; Facebook, Jonathan Bowen dot Boston page, accessed July 4th, 2026; Instagram, Jonathan Bowen (@jonathanbowendotboston), accessed July 4th, 2026. The Linktree profile URL currently resolves to Linktree’s blocked-account page, and the Facebook page displayed “This content isn’t available right now”; the timing, block history, appeal history, and resuspension sequence remain author-held platform records. ↩︎
    5. Jonathan Bowen (@jonbowen), “There are three racist American holidays…”, Threads, June 17th, 2026. This note identifies the public post at issue; private eXp-related records are not reproduced here. ↩︎

Jonathan Bowen

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