Tag Archives: deaths

InCity Yum Yums

Worcester Mayor Joe Petty Renews Call for Statewide Gun Buyback Day

· Remembering the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

· Collecting real and replica guns, which are also used to commit crimes

For the fifteenth annual Goods For Guns Day, 16 cities and towns in Central Massachusetts have agreed to participate in this year’s program, December 10th from 9 – 3 PM.

Worcester Mayor Joseph M. Petty is once again calling on his fellow mayors to join him to make the anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting the date of a yearly, statewide gun buyback day.

“Today I am again asking my fellow mayors to work within their own cities, and with their District Attorney’s and healthcare providers, to join us and honor the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting by making our cities safer and healthier.” Mayor Petty said, “We remember the victims of the Newtown shooting by dedicating this program every year in their memory.”

“Thirty-three thousand lives were lost to gun violence last year, but the vast majority of those deaths, around twenty-two thousand, are suicides” said Mayor Petty. “This is not just about getting guns off the streets; it’s about making sure that if you have a gun in your home, that it’s secured. It’s about safer streets and healthier homes and making sure the violence we saw in Newtown never happens here.”

Dr. Michael Hirsh is the medical director for Worcester’s Division of Public Health, as well as a pediatric trauma surgeon at the UMass Memorial Children’s Medical Center and longtime gun safety advocate.

“This program is an opportunity, for families with guns in their households, to either dispose of them or to get a trigger lock to secure them,” said Dr. Hirsh. “This will ultimately lower the number of suicides, lethal domestic violence events, accidental shootings, and burglarized firearms that end up in criminal hands.”

The yearly Goods for Guns program in Worcester is sponsored by both UMass Memorial Medical Center and Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early Jr.’s office.

“Our goal is, and always has been, getting unwanted and unsecured guns out of the house,” Mr. Early said. “This has benefits on so many levels. Reducing accidents and tragedies in Worcester County benefits us all.”

“As the Level One Trauma center for central Massachusetts, our caregivers are all too familiar with what can happen when there is an unsecured firearm in the home,” said Eric Dickson, MD, president and CEO, UMass Memorial Health Care and an emergency department physician. “This buyback program has undoubtedly saved lives in our region and is a powerful instrument for educating the community on the importance of responsible gun ownership.”

“Unsecured weapons are a risk both to public health and public safety. Most gun crimes are committed using illegally-obtained firearms, which makes it an urgent priority to get any unsecured guns out of our homes before they fall into the wrong hands,” said City Manager Edward M. Augustus, Jr.” Worcester is proud to lead the way in this effort to make our communities safer.”

This year’s buy back added the cities of Fitchburg, Leominster and Dudley. Fitchburg Mayor Stephen L. DiNatale said, “The City of Fitchburg is proud to be participating in a regional effort to help community members place unwanted firearms in the hands of our local law enforcement. Similar to education, Goods for Guns is an excellent way to reduce the likelihood of theft, misuse, or accidents with improperly stored firearms.”

Police departments in Worcester, Millbury, Grafton, Leicester, Southbridge, Oxford, Northbridge, Webster , Dudley, Charlton, Spencer, Leominster, Barre and Fitchburg, will exchange guns for gift cards of varying amounts on December 10:

$25 rifle or replica guns

$50 pistol

$75 semiautomatic weapon of any kind

Residents are instructed to contact their local police departments for local buyback hours.

Residents of ANY city or town may drop off their weapons anonymously at ANY PARTICIPATING police station, in exchange for gift cards. Gun owners are further welcomed to pick up a trigger lock free of charge from the police stations listed above. This year’s buyback will also be accepting realistic toy guns and replicas.

Since the inception of the Goods for Guns program in 2002, almost 3,000 guns have been returned to law enforcement officials in Central Massachusetts. Last year’s program took 340 weapons off the street and out of the home in just one day.

The full list of cities and towns participating is as follows: Worcester, Westboro, Northborough, Southbridge, Leicester, Leominster, Barre, Fitchburg, Oxford, Dudley, Millbury, Grafton, Charlton, Spencer, Northbridge, and Webster.

Animal Issues

As our nation mourns, remember that love conquers hate

By Mitch Goldsmith

Like the rest of the nation, and as an openly gay man, I am stunned and heartbroken by the carnage in Orlando. While we as a society debate the factors—anti-gay sentiment, misguided fundamentalism, all-too-easy access to assault weapons—that led to the deadliest mass public shooting in American history, as President Obama rightly noted, “We know enough to say this was an act of terror, and an act of hate.”

Members of the LGBTQ community know what it’s like to feel the sting of mindless intolerance and hatred simply because of who we are. And for many of us, this experience of irrational bigotry informs our advocacy—not only for gay and transgender rights but also for the rights of others who are oppressed, including individuals of other species.

While our country mourns and discusses ways to prevent future outbreaks of such violence, if any good can come of this tragedy, I hope that it will engender continued progress against biases that harm so many of us who are perceived as “different,” including animals.

Animals’ lives are as important to them as ours are to us. They experience fear, love, grief, joy and pain just as we all do, though often their feelings are dismissed as unimportant. Billions of animals are slaughtered, experimented on, shot, poisoned, beaten, shackled, drowned and dissected. This happens routinely, despite the availability of kinder options.

If we truly reject violence, as we all say we do, we must reflect on the torment that animals are forced to endure every day, out of sight, just because they are deemed “different” from us and therefore easy to exploit. And then we must also act. By choosing to eat a vegan meal rather than a meat-based one, buying shampoo from a cruelty-free company or going to a concert rather than the circus, we can easily make a difference. These may seem like simple actions, but our day-to-day choices matter. How we go about our daily lives can perpetuate injustice, or help bring about fairness and tolerance.

I’m not the first person to make this connection, of course. Leaders of social justice movements have historically recognized that the liberation of one oppressed group is linked to the liberation of all the others. The best way to end bigotry is for social justice advocates of all stripes to work side by side.

Steven Simmons, a respected PETA staffer and gay rights activist who died of AIDS in the mid-1990s, wrote, “It’s time for us to end this hierarchy of who has the right to live, who deserves not to suffer, who should be respected, [the idea] that there’s a limit to the amount of compassion that we can have for our fellow creatures.”

It was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who stated, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” and it’s worth noting that after his passing, as the concepts of gay rights and animal rights began to spread, his widow, Coretta Scott King, became an outspoken LGBT advocate and a vegan.

Members of the LGBTQ community have fought long and hard to overcome the violence, hatred and prejudice directed at us just because of who we are, and the massacre in Orlando reminds us that there is still much work to be done. But as a society, we must not limit the scope of our concern. Those of us who sincerely want to foster a climate of compassion and peace must have the courage to speak out and stand up against all forms of violence.

Animal Issues

How horse racing rewards drug abusers

By Kathy Guillermo
 
In most sports, medication abuse is taken seriously. Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens have been denied induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame repeatedly. Lance Armstrong was stripped of all seven of his Tour de France victories and has been banned for life from sanctioned cycling events.
 
But in horse racing, the abusers are elected to the Hall of Fame.
 
On the eve of the 2016 Kentucky Derby, Thoroughbred trainer Steve Asmussen was chosen for induction into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame. The racing reporters and writers who voted him in essentially condoned the behavior of a trainer who, in the words of Bernard Goldberg of HBO Real Sports, has “two reputations. I think one reputation is, one of the very, very top trainers of all time. The other reputation is, here’s a guy who’ll cut corners, who’ll give his horses drugs to get ’em out on the track, because they’re not making any money unless they are out on the track.”
 
With this vote, racing writers scoffed at meaningful reform to spare horses from dying on the track and harmed the sport they claim to love. They should be ashamed of themselves.
 
Last November, the New York State Gaming Commission released its report on evidence submitted by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) following our 2013 investigation of Asmussen. The Commission found that he had given horses the hormone thyroxine without medical necessity and fined him $10,000 for administering it to at least 45 horses within 48 hours of a race. More importantly, based on the evidence that PETA submitted showing the near-daily use of sedatives, painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs, the commission introduced, in its own words, “sweeping new regulations.” According to Commission Executive Director Robert Williams, the evidence from Asmussen’s barn “prompted the Commission to put forth substantial changes to further combat the entrenched drug culture in horse racing.”
 
The proposed rules mandate that no drug be given to a horse except as an actual medical therapy, that all metabolism-modifying drugs be tightly controlled, that veterinarians renew prescriptions based only on their medical judgment, that the unnecessary use of any substance that abnormally affects a horse be prohibited, and that trainers keep a log of all dispensed medicines administered by the stable.
 
Unfortunately, this came too late for Finesse. Just days after PETA submitted its complaints to authorities, the Asmussen-trained Thoroughbred collapsed after a race and died of a “cardiac event.” Asmussen later admitted to HBO’s Goldberg that Finesse had been given thyroxine as well as clenbuterol and Lasix.
 
Asmussen is certainly not the only trainer with a history of drug violations. Yet when PETA released a video of the Asmussen investigation in 2014, many in racing wrote movingly of the need to reform medication rules for the benefit of the horses and the survival of racing. The link between overmedication and breakdowns on the track was acknowledged. Many vowed to fight for reform. The Jockey Club promised to introduce medication reform legislation and indeed, in 2015, worked with members of Congress to do so.
 
Yet for many in racing, including the columnists and writers whose job it is to cover the facts, it’s back to the same old deadly business as usual.
 
Asmussen is training one of the Derby favorites this year, Gun Runner, and his win and earnings totals cannot be disputed, but how did he earn this? Being recognized as one of the elite of racing should entail much more than simply racking up a high volume of wins. Achieving meaningful change in horse racing would be easier if the men and women who write about it acknowledged that the overuse of medication leads to breakdown and death and must be stopped.

Fashion

Drug-free always in style! Congressman Jim McGovern Applauds Obama Administration Efforts to Expand Treatment and Education for Opioid Addiction

Congressman Jim McGovern applauded the announcement this week from the White House that it is calling for an expansion of specialized treatment for prescription painkiller and heroin addiction and training of medical school students using the newly released Centers for Disease Control and Prevention prescriber guidelines for opioids.

President Obama spoke at this week’s National RX Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit in Atlanta.

“… President Obama announced new public and private sector actions to strengthen efforts in Massachusetts and across the country to tackle the opioid crisis. Massachusetts families are seeing the devastating impact of the opioid crisis every day, and we need strong national leadership to help our communities recover and come back from the brink,” McGovern said.

He continued:

“Prevention and treatment must be at the heart of our approach. [This week’s] actions are essential steps to do just that by expanding access to treatment, preventing overdose deaths and increasing community prevention strategies. With President Obama’s already announced proposal for $1.1 billion in new funding to ensure that all Americans can get the treatment they need, it’s clear that the White House is ready to rise to the challenge.

“Nearly 30,000 Americans died from opioid overdose last year – more than 1,300 in Massachusetts – and the need for action has never been greater.

“I urge my fellow members of Congress on both sides of the aisle to come together to make the serious investments needed to end the opioid crisis once and for all and ensure that every American can get the help they need to recover.”

******

BACKGROUND ON THE WHITE HOUSE ANNOUNCEMENT:

Increasing access to a key drug for medication-assisted treatment:

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is issuing a proposed rule to increase the current patient limit for qualified physicians who prescribe buprenorphine to treat opioid use disorders from 100 to 200 patients with the goal of expanding access to this evidence-based treatment while preventing diversion.

The proposed rule aims to increase access to medication-assisted treatment and behavioral health supports for tens of thousands of people with opioid use disorders.

Why this matters: Buprenorphine is an FDA-approved drug that, because of its lower potential for abuse, is permitted to be prescribed or dispensed in physician offices, which significantly increases its availability to many patients. When taken as prescribed, buprenorphine is safe and effective. Existing evidence shows that this lifesaving, evidence-based treatment is under-utilized.

Updating the regulations around the prescribing of buprenorphine-containing products, as proposed, would help close this treatment gap. Learn more here.

Preventing opioid overdose deaths:

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is releasing a new $11 million funding opportunity to states to purchase and distribute the opioid overdose reversal drug, naloxone, and to train first responders and others on its use along with other overdose prevention strategies.

SAMHSA is also releasing a new $11 million funding opportunity for up to 11 states to expand their medication-assisted treatment services. SAMHSA is distributing 10,000 pocket guides for clinicians that include a checklist for prescribing medication for opioid use disorder treatment and integrating non-pharmacologic therapies into treatment.

Why this matters: In 2014, nearly 21,000 deaths in the United States involved prescription opioids, and more than 10,500 involved heroin. Naloxone is a prescription drug that can reverse the effects of prescription opioid and heroin overdose, and can be life-saving if administered in time.

Addressing the substance use disorder parity in Medicaid:

HHS is finalizing a rule to strengthen access to mental health and substance use services for people enrolled in Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) plans by requiring that these benefits be offered at parity, meaning that they be comparable to medical and surgical benefits.

Why this matters: These protections are expected to benefit more than 23 million people in Medicaid and CHIP. These actions build on the President’s proposal for $1.1 billion in new funding to help every American with an opioid use disorder who wants treatment get the help they need.

Animal Issues

John parked in AI: ADDICTION – NOT A CHOICE

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Text and photos by John Bean

If you’ve glanced at a paper recently, turned on a radio, or channel surfed at all then you’re probably already aware that we’re in the heat of an opioid overdose epidemic. More specifically, opioid overdose-death epidemic. In Massachusetts alone we are losing at least four residents per day to this – that’s 56 people since the last issue of In City Times just two weeks ago. When you add to it the number of ODs that were able to be revived or simply lucked out, the numbers are even more staggering.

But this isn’t just about numbers this is about real people with real families, real jobs, careers, friends and futures – its about all of us. By definition, this is a Public Heath Crisis.

Public health and the general well-being of our community was always a priority for one Worcester resident, Tim Houston. Weather collecting and preparing food to give to those in need of it here in our city or by providing live background music in support of those doing like-minded works, he was always close to the front and often first to volunteer in addressing any public need, even while he was still just a young teen coming into his own. However, addiction knows no boundaries, isn’t concerned with social standing, or personalities, and no-one is immune. After a relatively brief period of experimentation, followed by a prolonged and difficult struggle with dependency, Tim succumbed to his disease last August. He was 23 years old.

Tim’s mother, Anne told me, “Around the time he was finishing up high school there was a proliferation of pain pills in every kids medicine cabinet they could dip into for fun”. She saw first hand that after his first use, “it was no longer a choice for him”. After a period of abstinence and staying away from the kids he was hanging with, a prescription for his wisdom teeth extraction brought him right back in. By then the availability of prescription drugs had dried up due to new, perhaps overdue prescribing regulations and the shutting down of the so called “pillmills” in Florida. And he, like so many others, found himself turning to the street where heroine is cheaper and readily available to anyone. Only on the street there is no way to know what you are getting from one dose to the next.

It’s well established within the medical community that addiction, (to drugs or alcohol, etc), is a disease, not a choice – at least not at first. The risk for one to become addicted increases with the number of immediate ancestors that are addicted. This is true weather you’ve witnessed their behavior or not. Its genetic. However, people without the genetic history are not necessarily off the hook. In fact anyone can become addicted simply by using or abusing any mood altering substance over a prolonged period of time. This is especially true with certain “feel-good” drugs, such as opiates.

Once addicted it takes a lot more than mere determination to get and stay clean. One major reason for this is how severely sick one can become during withdrawal. This ‘dope-sickness’ has been compared to, “your worst flu ever, times ten, and for twice as long, then you’re drained and left depressed.”

It hits you from both sides: intensely euphoric on one end and deathly sick on the other. It should not be surprising for us to see someone caught up in this seemingly never-ending cycle.
Even so, while so many die from heroine overdose, one cannot die from heroine withdrawal.

That’s not to say that the one going through it wouldn’t welcome death at that moment. Going it alone Cold-Turkey, is a traumatic enough experience that it must be considered thoughtfully as a crucial part of anyone’s recovery process.

Medically there are several options to assist in the physical withdrawal. Perhaps most commonly known is Methadone, a pharmaceutical opiate primarily used as a long-term maintenance tool for chronic addicts where the patient is required to follow fairly strict regulations, submit to random toxicology-screens, and show up to a clinic, usually daily, to receive their dose.

Suboxone, a semi-synthetic opiate relatively new to the US market, (2002), is used in a similar way but is said to have less undesirable effects than Methadone and be less subject to abuse. It is also being studied for its off-label potential as an anti-depressant – depression being a common underlying factor keeping many addicts from long term recovery, and for many the very thing that lead them to drugs in the first place.

Some have even become desperate enough to try a controversial drug therapy treatment said to provide a, “rapid detox without the side-effects”. In the early ’60s a long term heroine user, Howard Lotsof, realized, quite by accident, that several days after taking this halluginegen from West Africa that he was, “not dope-sick and hadn’t even thought of using since last week”. This Ibogaine has been studied on and off for its medicinal uses, most recently at the University of Florida. It is still illegal in the states and one must travel, at considerable expense, to Mexico, Canada, or any of several European countries to find this treatment in a controlled enviroment.

However, there is no magic pill for any of this. The whole person needs to be treated. Of Suboxone, Annie Parkinson, Central and Western Mass Coordinator for MOAR, (Massachusetts Organization for
Addiction Recovery), and former director of a local Suboxone program says, “It’s more than a pill – it’s a program.”

Throughout the community various support groups and programs can be found. From Narcotics Anonymous, made up of addicts in recovery passing on the message to others seeking sobriety to more formally run peer support groups such as Everyday Miracles, operated by Spectrum Health Systems, who additionally offers a variety of treatment options including detox facilities and outpatient clinics.
Everyday Miracles Peer Coordinator, Michael Earielo says, “We’re peer driven/staff run. We are unique in that we accept all pathways to recovery.”. All addictions and schools of thought are welcome to visit the center at 25 Pleasant St, dowtown Worcester.

In classic Worcester tradition the crisis is being met squarely from the bottom up, by diehard and dedicated individuals, non-profits, grassroots groups, and of course addicts who have found recovery.

And in tragic Worcester tradition, City Hall is rushing to catch up. The city has received a grant from the Substance Abuse Services of Mass Department of Public Health. I was unable todetermine from the Board of Health web site how the grant is being used.

Animal Issues

The Iditarod is truly March madness

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Jett is half Siberian Husky and hates the snow! “Mush” is anathema to this little guy!

By Jennifer O’Connor

Running a marathon is a physically grueling feat — one that most of us don’t even attempt. For those who do and finish, it’s considered a remarkable accomplishment.

So try to imagine running four marathons in a single day, and throw in biting winds, treacherous terrain and freezing temperatures.

Then do it all over again for eight more days.

That’s exactly what the dogs used in the Iditarod are forced to do.

Since 1995, the top finishers have covered the approximately 1,000-mile course in nine days or fewer, including one mandatory 24-hour stop.

This means that dogs run more than 100 miles a day while pulling sleds weighing hundreds of pounds through some of the harshest weather conditions on the planet.

Temperatures have plummeted to 60 degrees below zero. Mushers revel in taking the credit for finishing the race, even though they ride, eat and sleep while the dogs burn 12,000 calories a day and do all the work.

Sports writer Jon Saraceno, who coined the term “Ihurtadog,” calls the race “frenzied lunacy.”

Although death records were not kept in the early days, we do know that 26 dogs used in the Iditarod have died just since 2004. Rule 42 of the official Iditarod rules says that some deaths may be considered “unpreventable.”

The animals have been run over by snowmobiles or died of pneumonia after inhaling their own vomit.

Countless dogs suffer from diarrhea, dehydration, intestinal viruses or bleeding stomach ulcers. In referring to the Iditarod, veterinarian Barbara Hodges said, “The race would violate animal cruelty laws … in 38 states and the District of Columbia. Of course, Alaska has no such law.”

Many dogs are routinely given antacids to try to prevent gastric ulcers. A veterinarian who studied the race’s effects on the animals found that exercise-induced stomach disease may affect 50 to 70 percent of the dogs who enter, a number significantly higher than is seen in non-racing dogs.

Dogs with ulcers typically show no symptoms until the condition becomes life-threatening and they start to bleed internally and vomit, which may cause them to choke and die.

Life off the trail is equally grim.

Most kennels keep dozens of dogs, who live on short chains with only overturned barrels or dilapidated doghouses for shelter, their world extending no farther than their 6-foot tether. And slow runners are doomed. As sports columnist Jeff Jacobs wrote, “The cruelty is in the vast distance. The cruelty is in some training techniques that would turn your stomach. This doesn’t begin to address some manuals that recommend killing dogs that don’t cut the mustard. They call it culling. Really, it’s murder.”  There’s no requirement to report how many dogs are “culled,” so the death toll is unknown.

Although organizers attempt to put a historic spin on the race, winning the Iditarod is all about bragging rights and the cash and truck awarded as prizes. Gambling with animals’ lives is ethically indefensible.

From bear-baiting to cockfighting, many activities once considered acceptable have since been condemned as we learn more about the suffering endured by all living beings when exploited for entertainment. Dogs deserve to be part of a family, not treated like snowmobiles with fur.

InCity Voices

Senator Chandler Defends Unsafe, Arrogant Drivers  

By Gordon Davis
 
Harriet Chandler is the Majority Leader in the Massachusetts Senate. She has a lot of power, but seemingly she does not now have common sense. This is a condition that happens to many long-time politicians.

Senator Chandler has proposed an increase in the fines for “jaywalking.” These fines are obviously directed at poor working people and people with handicaps.  Many of us can not afford a car. Some of us cannot drive a car due to a handicap.

The proposal is downright stupid given the fact that in the winter time pedestrians walk in the streets because the sidewalks are not cleared by property owners.

The City of Worcester has never cleared the sidewalk at the corner of Lake Ave. and Sunderland Road, a property which is owned by the City. There is no break down lane there and pedestrians have to enter the travel lane to get to the corner.  Perhaps Senator Chandler can increases the fines for not shoveling sidewalks.

In Worcester there is about one death or hit and run of a pedestrian per week. 

Let me be clear about this: Not one driver was injured. When hit the pedestrian did not run away.

There is a rule that the driver is fully responsible for the control of his vehicle and that the driver is obliged to YIELD to pedestrians.

Senator Chandler’s efforts are misguided. It is not pedestrians who are the major safety issue that needs fixing. It is drivers who do not yield to pedestrians, especially arrogant drivers.

An arrogant driver drives 80 miles an hour down Lake Ave., Mill Street and Chandler Street.

An arrogant driver will turn on red through a pedestrian cross walk signal.

An arrogant driver will exceed the speed limit of 30 miles an hour on congested streets.

An arrogant driver will pass on the right, endangering pedestrians. 

An arrogant driver will text while driving.

Let us look at the death of one of the young soccer players I coached. He was riding his skate board when he was struck and killed by a car.

The driver said that the youngster “came out of nowhere.” She was found not responsible. Yet she should have had full control of the car. There should have been some fine for striking the youngster.

A child chasing a ball into the street is dependent on the driver to control his car. This concept should be driven into the minds of all drivers; the driver should be fully in control of his car at all times.

The driver must yield to pedestrians and non-drivers.

The problem is arrogant drivers. A possible solution is an automatic charge of $200 for every car accident involving a pedestrian regardless of fault.

This will make drivers more aware and cautious of pedestrians. It hopefully would reduce aggressive and unsafe driving practices of arrogant drivers.

From my experience the police always look for a way to blame the most vulnerable, the pedestrians. Senator Chandler has fallen into the same blame-the-victim mentality.

Perhaps her next proposal will be more balanced.

Green Island Grrrl, Rosalie's Blog

Be there! Monday! Memorial candle-light vigil for Worcester’s homeless …

Remember the Homeless Persons Who Have Died at event, Monday, December 21
 
An event to remember those homeless and formerly homeless area residents who died over the last year…
 
Homeless Person’s Memorial Day is an annual event commemorated in more than 150 cities and counties across the United States on the first day of winter.

Building on the theme of “remember, hope, and heal,” the event will feature a ceremony honoring the persons, homeless and formerly homeless, who died in the past year.

The event is open to the public and all are encouraged to attend.
 
WHO: Homeless advocates, service providers, homeless and formerly homeless persons, religious leaders, concerned citizens, city representatives
 
WHAT: Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day candlelight procession and memorial service
 
WHERE: Candlelight Procession begins at Community Health Link’s HOAP, 162 Chandler St., and ends at Mt. Sinai Church, 63 Wellington St.
 
WHEN: Monday, December 21:

Candlelight Procession: 5:45 p.m.

Memorial Service: 6:30 p.m.
 
Advocates, service providers, homeless and formerly homeless people, religious leaders, and concerned citizens will honor the lives and dreams of homeless men and women who died this year in the Worcester area.

More than 35 homeless and formerly homeless persons who lost their lives this year will be remembered. Since 1990, groups such as HOAP’s Consumer Advisory Board have hosted National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day events across the country on the first day of winter to bring attention to the tragedy of homelessness and to remember our homeless citizens who have died. 
 
Amy Grassette, one of the event’s organizers, said: “We use this occasion to call on all our fellow community members and all Americans to recommit ourselves to ending homelessness. While we seek economic solutions for our country, we cannot forget our most vulnerable citizens.”
 

InCity Voices

Worcester gun buy-back December 12 – Mayor Joe Petty Calls for Statewide Gun Buyback Day

For the fourteenth annual Goods For Guns Day, 16 cities and towns in Central Massachusetts have scheduled their gun buyback day for December 12th, in honor of the victims who were lost in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, on December 14th, 2012. 

Worcester Mayor Joseph M. Petty is calling on his fellow mayors to join him to make the anniversary of the massacre the yearly, statewide gun buyback day.  

“Today I’m asking my fellow mayors to work within their own cities, and with their elected officials and community partners, to join us and honor the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting by making our cities safer and healthier,” Mayor Petty said. “The date of this gun buyback effort marks three years since the tragic shooting in Newtown. We remember those victims in a special way, and are dedicating this program in their memory, and to all of those that have been lost in these shocking incidents.

“There have been so many mass shootings:  Aurora, Virginia Tech, Charleston, Umpqua, Littleton, Fort Hood and so many more.  The list just keeps growing.  I can think of no better way to remember this and every other tragedy than by honoring it with a day dedicated to gun safety

“This is not just about getting guns off the streets, it’s about making sure that if you have a gun in your home, that it’s secured.  It’s about safer streets and healthier homes and making sure that the violence we saw in Newtown doesn’t happen here,” Petty said.

Dr. Michael Hirsh is the medical director for Worcester’s Division of Public Health, as well as a pediatric trauma surgeon and longtime gun safety advocate.  “This isn’t just about crime; it’s about health,” said Dr. Hirsh.  “An unsecured weapon in the home is a public health danger that leads to more frequent homicides, burglaries, lethal domestic violence, accidental shootings and suicide in the home.”

“Any additional efforts to remove guns from the streets of our community are a positive step forward,” said Worcester Police Chief Gary Gemme. “This program is a part of the department’s comprehensive, multipronged approach to reduce gun violence.  Anytime you remove unwanted guns from the community, you have the potential to save lives.”      

“Last week officials from the Mayor’s office, the WPD, and the Worcester Division of Public Health attended Mayor Walsh’s Regional Gun Summit in Boston and had many productive discussions about strategies to reduce gun violence in our community,” said Worcester City Manager Edward M. Augustus, Jr. “One of those discussions surrounded the dangers of real-looking replica guns, which as we’ve seen in other cities can lead to needless violence. As a result, we’ll be including replica guns in this year’s buyback program. We will leave no stone unturned in the pursuit of a healthier, safer community.”

The yearly Goods for Guns program in Worcester is sponsored by both UMass Memorial Hospital and Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early Jr.’s office.  “We use funds from civil forfeitures and drug dealer convictions to fund this program,” said DA Early.  “One less unsecured gun in a home benefits us all. It removes the possibility of the theft of that gun and the use of it in a crime or accident in the household.”

“Hospital emergency rooms across this country have seen all too often the damage gun violence can do to individuals, their families, and their communities,” said Eric W. Dickson, MD, president and CEO, UMass Memorial Health Care. “The money and resources spent to support a gun buyback program is much more preferable to the costs of treating theses victims and, most importantly, the cost in human lives lost due to gunshot wounds.  I’m proud UMass Memorial, under the leadership and tireless efforts of Dr. Michael Hirsh, continues to play a major role in this program.”

The Goods for Guns program has been a gun buyback program for the last fourteen years in Worcester, exchanging firearms for gift cards. 

Police departments in Worcester, Millbury, Grafton, Leicester, Southbridge, Oxford, Sturbridge, Northbridge, and Webster will exchange guns for gift cards of varying amounts; ($25 rifle, $50 pistol, $75 semiautomatic weapon of any kind). 

Residents of any city or town may drop off their weapons anonymously, in exchange for gift cards.  Gun owners are further welcomed to pick up a trigger lock free of charge from the police stations listed above. 

The 2014 Good for Guns program produced almost 150 firearms in one day as well as 18 lbs of TNT that was being improperly stored in Leicester.  Since the inception of the Goods for Guns program, over 2500 guns have been returned to law enforcement officials in Central Massachusetts. 

Using FBI data and media reports, Everytown for Gun Safety, an organization dedicated to reducing gun violence in America, developed an analysis of mass shootings that took place between January 2009 and July 2015. The analysis found that there have been at least 133 mass shootings in the nearly seven-year period.

Green Island Grrrl, Rosalie's Blog

Go, Gordon Davis, go!!!

Drivers, Pedestrians and Worcester Politicians
 
By Gordon Davis

One of the issues debated by the mayoral candidates at Mechanics Hall recently was public safety. It came up several times in regards to crime, gangs and panhandling. What never came up for discussion was pedestrian safety. There has been what seems to be an increase in the number of pedestrians hit by cars and killed in Worcester. Just recently a pedestrian was killed on Lincoln Street by a driver charged with DUI.

However, it is not only DUI drivers we pedestrians have to worry about. I am legally blind, and I am dependent on cross walks and signaled pedestrian crossings to get around the city. Not only those with disabilities are dependent on cross walks and pedestrian crossing signals; many able people need them to just walk from place to place.  Just look at the intersection of Foster and Front streets.

Recently, I was assaulted and battered by the occupant of a car that nearly ran me down at the intersection of Lake Ave. and Sunderland Road. I called the driver a “fucking asshole” and I continued to cross the street. A man from the car got out, followed me across the street and hit me with a soda bottle.  There was a witness who called the police. We gave the police the license plate, but so far nothing has happened. I don’t think it is being taken seriously.

Pedestrians have become second-class citizens in Worcester. 
 
According to Massachusetts statutes, drivers are required to YIELD to pedestrians, especially in cross walks and when there is a pedestrian signal activated. 
 
It has been my experience that many drivers making turns on red lights do not even look for pedestrians. This is the case about half of the time at Lake Ave. and Sunderland Road. Even my sighted wife is hesitant to cross that intersection.

Some drivers do not look for pedestrians. Other drivers see pedestrians but refuse to yield. It is clear that city officials do not think this to be a serious issue, despite the numerous pedestrian injuries and deaths in Worcester. It seems that the police will bend over backwards not to charge a driver with pedestrian accidents, instead looking to see whether the pedestrian was at fault.

I found it almost laughable, if it were not so sad, at the mayoral debate that Mayor Petty and Councilor Gaffney defended Worcester’s anti-panhandling ordinance based on the so called safety issue. It’s especially remarkable that Councilor Gaffney had sympathy for the “mother and child” whose car strikes and kills a panhandler as mother and child’s lives would be made miserable. Councilor Gaffney did not have the same sympathy for the panhandler. I am happy that candidate Coleman did not get caught in that trap and spoke of helping homeless people.

There should be new legislation that makes it clearer that turning right on red through an activated pedestrian cross walk signal is prohibited. Violations of this new statute would precipitate automatic tickets and at fault status. The penalties should be high enough to get the driving public to pay attention and yield to pedestrians.
 
To some extent there is a low-income and racial element to pedestrian deaths on Massachusetts and Worcester streets. Low-income people and a large proportion of so called minority people do not have cars and are compelled to take busses and walk. Like with many issues in Worcester, we are not taken seriously. This has to change.