Bill Coleman

Do Worcester (and yourself) proud! Please go out and vote!

Thank you!

- R.Tirella

INCITY TIMES ENDORSES THE FOLLOWING CANDIDATES/Please vote for:

Mayor: Konstantina Lukes

City Council District 4: Barbara Haller

City Council District 1: Virginia Ryan

City Council-at-Large:

Konstantina Lukes
Bill (William) Coleman
Mike (Michael) Germain
Joseph O’Brien

Worcester School Committee:

Hilda Ramirez
John Monfredo
Jack Foley

Ballot Question
Vote YES for School District Representation! YES!

By Rosalie Tirella

I called Worcester city council/mayor candidate Bill Coleman last night. He writes for us and is also a friend who has helped me in so many ways, both personally and professionally (i. e. building shelves to hold ICT issues, doing small carpentry/handy man projects around the house; listening to me when I need a sounding board, etc.).

So yesterday I said: “Hey, Bill, I just read Nick K.’s column on you. I thought it sucked. You finished 8′th in the preliminary election (for an at large city council seat – you need to place 6th or better) and he showed you no respect. Minimized your very strong showing by poking fun at you.”

Bill, ever the optimist, didn’t see it that way. “It was OK!”

I guess Bill believes crappy press is better than no press at all.

Wrong.

Nick and the T & G have been making fun of Bill Coleman for years. And in a way, Nick’s latest column on Bill smacked of a more subtle kind of racism. If another of the city council candidates – white and well heeled – had won the spot Bill did this past preliminary election, Nick would have written an entirely different piece. He would have been impressed! He would have written: Look out incumbents! But no. It was just Bill who won. So Nick poked fun and make jokes. In Nick’s column, Bill didn’t get any credit for the job he did so well (8th place!) – only back-handed compliments. Crumby compliments that pissed me off – and lots of Bill’s supporters, of which there are many.

Nick, when was the last time we had an African American city councilor? When was the last time we have had a person of color speak for people of color – or just regular folks – on the Worcester City Council?

Maybe like twice in the City of Worcester’s history.

Bill Coleman has made a name for himself in Worcester doing many good deeds, meeting a ton of people, listening to their concerns, touting the folks and establishments he loves. He is as high energy as they come – certainly more energetic than you, Nick, a fat, gray-haired, old columnist who has overstayed his visit, when it comes to covering politics in this town. You have been around for so long (more than 25 years!!) you can’t even tell that the city you have been writing about so drippily for eons is changing.

WORCESTER NEEDS NEW COLUMNISTS for NEW TIMES!

By William S. Coleman III

It is so good to see the positive, high energy of young adults working throughout the city of Worcester at many summer job locations to making our neighborhoods clean and safe. Thanks to the help and leadership of the city and community leaders we were able to secure $1,723,368 to provide 1,211 summer jobs for our city youth.

It is very important for the city of Worcester to provide summer jobs for city youth, fun activities for families and a place to cool off. The public safety of our community is dependent upon our city being a welcoming place that is safe and secure for all of our residents and visitors.

The city with state aid and the support of the business community and private foundations along with Community Development Block Grant Funding made a positive effort to help our young people develop positive work experiences.

According to Jesse Edwards, City of Worcester, “With state Youth Works funds all the youth are paid $8 per hour. WCAC Coordinates that program and some of the larger employers are the Boys & Girls Club and YouthGrow. UMass’s program Building Brighter Futures with Youth also employs a large number of youth using their own funds all are great programs to highlight.”
As I drove around the city and observed young people doing their summer jobs I had the opportunity to speak with many and they were all grateful to have jobs, make new friends and welcome the opportunity of helping their families with some of their summer earnings. Click to continue »

By William S. Coleman III

The nomination papers for City Council and School Committee are available for any registered voter in the city of Worcester to pick up. All you have to do is go to the second floor of City Hall, go to the Election Commission Office and request nomination papers for City Councilor at Large or District City Councilor in one of five City Council districts.

If you’re not sure of your district, the Director of Elections will help you find your home district. Or you can pick up nomination papers for School Committee. Don’t just stand there and complain to everyone you know about how government doesn’t work. Get involved and help government work better as an elected official. Click to continue »

By William S. Coleman III

Saturday, February 19, a meeting of community leaders and organizers met to reestablish a Worcester Chapter of the NAACP, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The meeting was held at the Martin Luther King Jr. Business Empowerment Center.

At the beginning of the meeting it was announced that 45 people had signed up and paid the required $30 membership fee. In order for a Worcester to get a charter from the National Headquarters, you must have 50 paid members, according to the national guidelines. There is no doubt that with the nearly 60 people in attendance the Worcester Chapter will soon be on its way!

The NAACP has a long history in Worcester dating back to the early days of the organization being established nationally. The NAACP was founded on February 12, 1909, by a diverse group of people: W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells, Archibald Grimké, Henry Moscowitz, Mary White Ovington, Oswald Garrison Villard, William English Walling (the last son of a former slave-holding family), and Florence Kelley, a social reformer and friend of Du Bois. Click to continue »

By William S. Coleman III

He never held a public office, he was never appointed ambassador to the United Nations, and he was not the bishop of his church. The world knew him as a Southern Baptist preacher who was thrust into the national limelight because he saw things that were wrong and he tried to make them right.
The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was an educated man who like his father preached the word of God as an ordained minister. He could have been assigned to a middle class neighborhood where he could have conducted weddings, baptisms, funerals and local fund raisers for its church and its congregations.

He could have lived a simple life, not challenging the local status quo or political leaders. He could have just preached tranquilize to his congregants and gradualism to those wanting to live in a community where people felt they had the right to live free. Dr. King, as he was known after he received his Doctorate of Philosophy degree from Boston University, was very happy enjoying family life with his wife Coretta and their children. Click to continue »

By William S. Coleman, III, Parlee Jones-Thompson and Alicia Graham

On Saturday, August 21, Black Legacy, held Worcester’s first Black Families for Education Conference. Hosted at the Woodland Academy (formerly Woodland St. Elementary School), parents, children, community organizations and education leaders including Dr. Melinda Boone, Dr. Jeffery Mulqueen, and Dr. Johnson the president of Becker College came together to discuss challenges and strategies for improving academic outcomes for Black children, and all children.

“I am because we are”

It seems that the theme of the day was summed up by Joyce McNickles, Ed.D., when she recited the African proverb, ubuntu, which means “I am because we are.” Black Legacy understands that the health and wellbeing of individuals is the result of the commitment by the entire community to health and wellness. It is our responsibility as a caring, forward thinking community to assure that our youth have what they will need to lead themselves, their families, and our community. Click to continue »

By William S. Coleman III

Everybody just stop and take a minute and inventory everything you have. Now I’m talking about shoes, shirts, dresses, coats, plates, your cups, kitchen gadgets, furniture, combs, brushes, TV’s, typewriters, computers, videotapes, CD’s , DVD’s, old LP’s, sneakers, rotted food in your refrigerator, telephones, fax machines, old love letters, underwear, toothbrushes, books, radios, air conditioners that don’t work, tires, stuff in garage or attic, unused medications, old batteries, pens, pencils, kids (just kidding), empty plastic bottles, lawnmowers, newspapers, socks, slippers, canned goods in our cupboards, too many sins on your soul, too many pocketbooks, too many receipts, too many tools, too many bad memories, too many broken hearts, too many thoughts of woulda, coulda, shoulda, too many regrets, too many missed opportunities.

We’ve all got too much stuff!

During this time of year think about lightening your load. Click to continue »

By William S. Coleman III

“How many marbles are in that jar over there, boy? What do you mean you don’t know? Well, boy, you cannot vote in this here election.”

“Good morning, Miss. Who was the first President of the United States? George Washington is correct. Please proceed and cast your ballot in this here election.”

At one time in America, in order to vote in an election, you had to be a white male who owned land. In 1920, women were given the right to vote throughout the country. But it wasn’t until 1964, when the Voting Rights Act was signed into law by President Lyndon Baines Johnson, that voting became a civil right that was guaranteed to every U.S. citizen.

The Voting Rights Act gave every American citizen over the age of 21 the right to vote in local, state and federal elections. Click to continue »

By William S Coleman III

The Worcester Senior Center, which sits atop Vernon Hill at Providence Street and was once the home of the St. Vincent Hospital School of Nursing, is 10 years old. And as amazing as it may seem, this municipal gem of a building, an institution for our city, was the clumination of a hard-fought battle. Many of our outstanding seniors who led the battle for the establishment of a Senior Center in Worcester are no longer with us, and for them and their efforts and the personal contributions they made to this city, their families and the businesses, schools and workplaces, I ask each one reading this article to honor them with a moment of silence … .

I first got involved in the fight for a senior center for Worcester in 1976, while I was working as an aide to former US Senator Edward W. Brooke, R-Massachusetts. Someone had written a letter asking if the Senator could help Worcester join other communities around Massachusetts that had built senor centers for their elderly. At this time the Director of the Council on Aging was Milton Bornstein. The Senator gave a letter to me to research and act on; I immediately began contacting the legislative leaders, including former State Senator Dan Foley, Representative Robert McNeal, Representative Tom White, Congressman Joe Early, City Councilor Tom Early, Joe Tinsley and City Manager McGrath and other political leaders prominent at that time.

Back in 1976, Worcester was an industrial power house. Click to continue »