News & Views of Phillips Since 1976
Monday January 12th 2026
An Origin Story of the alley
“Let me make the newspaper and I care not who makes the religion and the laws.” . . . Wendell Phillips 1811-1884
the alley’s first issue was January 1976. Forethought and planning spanned years. The “press” “dummy” was cut and pasted on an improvised glass table lit by a lamp below beginning September 1975. One person led production in a living room at 25th St. & 18th Av. with several people and influenced by Phillips’ neighbors. Photographs were developed in a closet-size darkroom.
Why? Conversations between neighbors hoped for a better way to talk with bureaucrats and politicians about changes happening to their Neighborhood; and for a means to talk with each other, 22,000 people of Phillips.
Inner city life became complicated due to Federal urban renewal after the Great Depression and FDR’s New Deal, 1933, following WWII. Maps, charts, graphs, legal language, and Robert’s Rules of Order were a foreign language to many.
People wished for transparency and for talk to be like they talked with each other over backyard fences and in the alleys as they gardened, fixed cars, shot basketballs, and set out garbage. Frequent changes with each Administration and disruption of Interstate Highways added to the housing and downtown renewal upheavals.… Read the rest “An Origin Story of the alley”
Keep citizen journalism alive!
Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood
By MARTI MALTBY
In the 1960s, Bennie Benjamin, Horace Ott and Sol Marcus wrote “Don’t let me Be Misunderstood,” a song with lyrics that are intimate, timeless, and universal all at once.
Sung from the point of view of a flawed human, the song expressed the singer’s desire to be good while also asking:
Baby, you understand me now?
If sometimes you see that I’m mad
Don’tcha know that no one alive can always be an angel?
When everything goes wrong, you see some bad
I’ve always liked the song since I heard Elvis Costello’s version from the mid 1980s, although many other versions exist. I can relate to it so easily, knowing that I want to do what’s right, but that I often hurt the people I care about, or even total strangers, because of my weaknesses and limitations.
In some ways, the song offers a gut check to the listener. While we can probably all relate to the singer, we should also try relating to the listener. When someone disappoints us because they are under stress, or tired, or they say something offhand without thinking, how do we react? How should we react? Do we recognize that the other person is at least trying to be good?… Read the rest “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”