Letters to the Editor

126 Brookline Ave.

Boston, MA 02215

I am writing to protest the new regulations for subway musicians in Boston, and to demand that this new set of insulting rules be abolished before it even comes into effect.

The economy is at an all time low this year. The governor just got on the front page of the papers this morning denouncing job losses- what about the hundreds of people who earn part or all of their living doing the harmless and pleasurable task of playing music in the subways? Doesn’t their ability to earn a living deserve to be protected, too? Isn’t the subway musician a quintessential example of American free enterprise?

Do the officials at the MBTA really believe that somehow, after 9/11, we are all going to start hiding bombs in our amplifiers and saxophones? Why not ban brief cases, mink coats, and laptops? Suitcases, hair-pieces, and large handbags? What about shopping bags- how many threatening objects can you hide in one of them? - why stop at musical instruments? Can’t a bomb be hidden anywhere? If one wears a photo ID at all times, does this make them any less likely to be a phantom suicide bomber? Perhaps we should shut down the whole system! After all- it could be dangerous!

Don’t our subway officials have more important work to do? Like improving service to disadvantaged neighborhoods, or fighting actual crime in the subways, or raising funds so that the public has to shoulder less of the financial burdens of the system? As to the allegation that music disrupts service announcements, the completely decrepit loudspeaker system in the subways does a far better job of garbling important announcements than any saxophone player ever could. Why not just fix the loudspeaker system, or have the information available on screens or tables(which would really help out those who are deaf, aging, or hard of hearing)?

This is yet another example of silly, useless rules and regulations made up by bored, over-paid, under-worked officials. They will undoubtedly result in promotions and accolades for the officials who made them. Meanwhile another piece of the shredding fabric of our Community, our sense of identity as a City, is decimated. Another assault on hundreds of low income people is made. Another pleasurable activity is banned in the name of progress and fear. The MBTA is setting an example of eroding civil liberties. In setting this atrocious precedent, the MBTA has once again failed the public it is meant to serve.

With Greater Expectations-

Katt Hernandez