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© 2004 Jim Davis Introduction Essay for Massachusetts 24/7 Past Tense, Future Tense By David Kibbe For a place that loves its history, Massachusetts is always on the move. The nation's oldest subway system, packed with office workers and the largest college population in the country, creaks and groans beneath Boston's frenetic downtown. In the predawn darkness, fishing boats chug out of weather-beaten harbor towns like Gloucester and New Bedford. Pioneer Valley farmers get on the Internet to sell their organic crops. The state where the Puritans gave way to the Universalists and the blue bloods gave way to the Irish continues to evolve. As the photographs in these pages illuminate, Massachusetts is more international and more diverse than it ever was before. In the 2000 U.S. Census, immigrants accounted for all of its population growth. The state ranks second only to New York in the economic impact of immigrant labor. For all its changes, Massachusetts-the birthplace of Thoreau, Emerson, and American Transcendentalism-remains a bastion of liberal education and thought. The state championed the abolition of slavery well before the Civil War, hosted the first national convention for women's suffrage in Worcester in 1850, and stood up for labor rights in the Lawrence textile mill strike of 1912. Now the issues of the day-universal health care, same-sex marriage, and the death penalty-are hotly debated beneath the statehouse's 200-year-old golden dome. In quiet corners of the state, many residents fear that too much is changing, as pastures and ponds give way to development. They worry that its rural character--from its woodlands to its cranberry bogs-is in danger of being lost. Still, in so much of Massachusetts, there is a comforting familiarity. All summer long, the mood rises and falls with the fortunes of the beloved and cursed Boston Red Sox, who play in the oldest and smallest ballpark in the major leagues. In the Berkshires, music and dance festivals enthrall summer crowds who travel from near and far. Elegant swan boats return to Boston's Public Garden every spring, thrilling children on their first trips to the city. Church bells chime across town greens. Lapping waves wash bare feet on a wild Nantucket beach. Forget stereotypes of New England stoicism. In Massachusetts, people complain endlessly about weather, traffic, and taxes. Bay Staters debate sports and politics as if they were life and death. They argue about whether the Big Dig-the most expensive public works project in the history of the United States-is a marvel or another boondoggle. (It's a marvel.) At the north end of the brand-new, three-and-a-half mile highway tunnel beneath Boston, the stunning new bridge at the mouth of the Charles River is dedicated to Leonard P. Zakim, one of the state's most celebrated civil rights leaders. Bathed in blue light and devised to resemble both the Bunker Hill Monument and the sailboats that dance along the coast, the newest addition to the state's skyline remembers the past, in all its sacred glory, while carrying us all toward the future. Boston-born DAVID KIBBE covers the Massachusetts Statehouse for the Cape Cod Times and The Standard-Times of New Bedford. Browse    View All    Past Tense, Future Tense    Hearth & Home    Hard at Work    Massachusetts at Play    Reason to Believe    Our Town Photos: 151 Photographers: 37 Towns: 65

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