Tag Archives: elections

Animal Issues

He’s our gonzo City Council candidate!😝💚🇺🇸

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Ron O’Clair – terrific writer💚! Interesting inner-city political candidate.🇺🇸

Why Vote for Me?

By Ron O’Clair

As we head down the road to the preliminary election in September, you have to ask yourself, of all the people running in this election cycle, who am I going to vote for? And why?

A fair question! And one that I hope to give you an answer to here:

I have been working for the last 30 years on behalf of the residents of my beloved City of Worcester, and most never knew what I was doing, nor why I was convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that it needed to be done.

Someone had to make the sacrifices required to see the job through to its completion.

That someone happened to be me.

All these years I have been cataloging abuses made in various guises by those who are being paid a handsome salary on the back of the average working stiff in the form of – trap of – high taxes$$$. We hoi polloi foot the bills that keep them in clover!

I have nothing against paying our Worcester Police Law Enforcement Personnel a living wage, plus benefits, lest they be tempted to work against us – and for the drug cartels. There have already been cases here in Worcester of that happening – Operation Tune-up!

What I do have a problem with is when the people put in positions of trust and authority over “the people” abuse that trust or authority to deprive the least of us of our inalienable rights to be free and unmolested as we go about our legal and lawful business. I am against those who target certain people based on wrong assumptions.

When these abuses and usurpations of power happen, there is a process in place meant to provide relief for those who are unjustly persecuted, and even maliciously prosecuted, for crimes that either never happened or were blown out of proportion into something bigger for more sentence.

When that process itself is corrupted by malfeasance, ineptitude, cronyism, nepotism and outright favoritism, what is a citizen supposed to do?

Pack his toothbrush as he heads off to do time to satisfy the lust of some jerk putting him or her in jail just because they CAN – and not because a crime was in fact committed!

Well, when the victim happens to be a dual citizen / soldier like me – in service to the United States Government on a Federal Level, there is only one thing to do: INVESTIGATE.

I had the Constitutional authority granted to me as a non-commissioned officer in the rank of E/5 to back my play, and the corrupted County of Worcester had not a freaking clue as to the deep pile of doo doo they stepped into when they attempted to, and succeeded in, covering up for a corrupted Court officer who attempted to murder a prisoner – me! – in restraints, and in custody of the Trial Court of the Commonwealth at 50 Harvard Street that 30th day of September, 1986. A fateful day indeed.

I was nearly killed that day. And the Court Officer was in fact 100% disabled by me so that I could have the ability to breathe back when he let go of my throat after I put his lower left leg bones out the back of his leg with my Air Force low quarter dress shoes that I was wearing at the time of the assault on my person there on my charge of “Disturbing the Peace”!

I want to bring honesty and accountability to our City of Worcester Government, and to do that I need a chair on the Worcester City Council Floor.

Vote Ron O’Clair for City Council and “RULE OUT CORRUPTION” in the City of Worcester.

Ronald O’Clair
ronaldoclair@hotmail.com
(774) 242-1468 for donations of volunteer time or money for the Campaign for Worcester City Council. All donations will go for a worthy cause. Guaranteed.

Animal Issues

Going back to Electoral College

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photo submitted

By Gordon Davis

For the second time in 16 years there’s been a US Presidential Election during which the candidate with the most popular votes did not get the most Electoral College votes.

Now there are calls for eradicating the Electoral College. Its abolition is almost impossible, and it will have to wait for a new generation of voters. People working on its abolition are probably wasting their energies.

There is a Gordian Knot entanglement between states and the Electoral
College. The Electoral College was created to protect small states. There is no workable definition of a state, except that a state is what the Congress defines it to be. As a result, we have a hodgepodge of political entities such as Alaska and Rhode Island which are states. Other political entities such as the District of Columbia are not states, despite demands from some folks to grant Washington, D.C., statehood.

At first the Electoral College protected the states with small populations from being dominated by the states with large populations. Of course, this creates inequalities. For example, the smallest state in terms of population is Wyoming with about 550,000 residents. Wyoming has 3 votes (electors) in the Electoral College. Montana also has 3 electors but almost twice the number of residents. This proportional inequality is magnified when Wyoming is compared to larger states like California.

The supporters of the Electoral College will sometimes argue that the Electoral College prevents national voter recounts. The recounts would be limited to individual states. An example of this is the Florida recount of 2000.

Even then in 2000 the Electoral College did not prevent a Constitutional crisis. The Supreme Court ruling has not resolved that issue. For that reason Jill Stein of the Green Party sought recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

An old friend once told me: the real motivation for American politics is race and class. So it is with the Electoral College. Originally, the proposal was for the President of the United States to be elected by Congress. There was no popular election. Many thought that men without means could not elect a qualified president. Those who argued for a popular election by the people had to settle for the election by the states via Electors, who then elected the President in a process described in Article II of the Constitution. Unfairly, women did not get the franchise until the 1920s. Also, no enslaved person could vote. (This disfranchisement of Black people continues today in the form of not giving ex-felons the franchise and by voter suppression.)

All of the antebellum slave states supported the Electoral College, as the enslaved people were not counted as people in the Federal Census. My ancestors were counted as chattel. This meant that all of the slave states had very few residents. Men in the slave-owning plantation class were relatively few in number.

Faced with the loss of political power, all of the slave states took their horrible irrationality and crimes a step further. They argued that enslaved people were not people when in their respective states but should be counted as people in the Federal Census.

Of course, the Free Soil states pushed back and said “No.” From that dispute arose the so called compromise that an enslaved person would be counted as 3/5 of a person in the Federal Census. The abolition of slavery by the 13th Amendment put an end to that particular issue for the Electoral College.

Since the Civil War, the Electoral College has been a refuge for smaller, mostly rural states like Wyoming. The United States, like the rest of the world, is moving to a population shift – 80 percent of the world population will soon be living in cities.

The material conditions are changing such that not only the Electoral College, but its small-state protectors, are becoming obsolete and something of an anachronism. A reasonable person could wonder about the usefulness of the Electoral College and then wonder about the usefulness of small states like Wyoming, Montana, Vermont – and even Massachusetts!

Animal Issues

In A.I: InCity Times book review by Steve Maher

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America, land of the whacky

“Killing Reagan” a controversial look at 40th President

By Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard

Reviewed by Steven R. Maher

Ronald Reagan remains a great hero to many Republicans. One understands, after reading this “killing” book by Fox talk show host Bill O’Reilly, why this account of the 1981 assassination attempt by John W. Hinckley Jr. is so controversial among Reagan admirers.

The Ronald Reagan this books portrays was not the genial “family values” conservative Republicans like to nostalgically recall, but a prolific womanizer before and after his marriage to Nancy Davis. The book also asserts that Reagan spent much of his Presidency in pajamas watching TV reruns, and details concerns among his Presidential staff that Reagan suffered from Alzheimer’s the last several years of his Presidency. After Reagan left the White House, he got $2 million from a Japanese company for giving a lecture, a la the Clintons. No wonder Reagan partisans are angry with this book.

Very readable

The first adjective that comes to mind in describing this text is “readable.” Like O’Reilly’s other books, such as “Killing Lincoln” and “Killing Jesus,” the chapters are short, pithy and written in plain but concise English. While supposedly a look at the 1981 assassination attempt, this is in fact an episodic recounting of Reagan’s life. The tale jumps from one part of Reagan’s life to another, but it all seems to flow comfortably. Footnotes are used frequently but effectively. Liberal or conservative, if you’re a political junkie or history buff, this 289-page book can be absorbed in one weekend day.

As a literary device, “Killing Reagan” jumps back and forth from Reagan to the would-be Presidential assassin. The story tracks both individuals through their lives, up to the point where they disastrously intersect on March 30, 1981, when Hinckley shoots Reagan and wounds several others.

Jodie Foster

Hinckley’s motive for shooting the President sounds bizarre even today – to impress actress Jodie Foster. Hinckley had seen the movie “Taxi Driver,” where Foster played a twelve-year-old prostitute who comes to know deranged taxi driver Travis Bickle, played by Robert DeNiro. Bickle tries to assassinate a Presidential candidate to impress a woman, but is prevented from doing so by the secret service. The movie ends with Bickle rescuing Foster from her pimp, shooting the procurer to death in a dramatic finale.

Hinckley was a loner most of his life. “He has some form of schizophrenia, a mental disorder that causes the mind to distort reality,” says O’Reilly. Hinckley drops out of college, traveling from city to city following Foster, calling her up to ask Foster out on dates, proposing to Foster at one point. Foster rebuffs Hinckley. He then decides to assassinate some political figure to impress her, like the Bickle figure in Taxi Driver.

Carter and Kennedy

Hinckley’s first choice is President Jimmy Carter.

“Losing the election may have saved Carter’s life,” writes O’Reilly. “[Hinckley] will either take the train to New Haven and shoot himself dead in front of Jodie Foster, or he will murder Ted Kennedy, if only to add his name to the notorious list of assassins who have stalked and killed a member of that political dynasty. If that target is not available, he might enter the U.S. Senate chamber and try to kill as many lawmakers as possible. And there is another scenario in Hinckley’s mind: assassinating President Ronald Reagan.”

Hinckley read in the Washington Star that Reagan will be at the Washington Hilton and goes to the hotel. When Reagan emerges, Hinckley is able to pierce the protective cordon around Reagan and wound the President because of two happenstances. First, Reagan would normally be wearing a bullet proof vest, which he was not asked to do on this occasion because his exposure to the public was limited to walking to the Presidential limousine from the hotel exit. It was during this exit that Hinckley put one bullet into Reagan’s torso. Second, two DC policemen acting as Presidential bodyguards were not trained by the secret service to watch the crowds at such events. They were watching Reagan and not the crowd when Hinckley shot Reagan. The point is made that had the two men been trained properly, they would have intercepted Hinckley before he shot Reagan.

Particularly disturbing was O’Reilly’s depiction of Hinckley’s jailhouse communications with serial killer Ted Bundy and Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, who tried to assassinate President Gerald Ford in 1975. Hinckley reportedly tried to get mass murderer Charles Manson’s mailing address from Fromme. This was all kept secret from his jailors, as well as the hidden photographs of Jodie Foster in his cell that Hinckley was ordered by the court not to have.

Aftermath

The aftermath of the assassination has become the focal point of some discussion among Presidential historians and Reagan biographers. Reagan apparently developed a messianic belief that he was saved by God because he had a special destiny as President. O’Reilly writes Reagan went back to his church after recovering, and become reliant on his wife Nancy for political as well as personal advice.

O’Reilly’s book is a good starting point for anyone looking to experience the life and times of America’s 40th President.

InCity Voices

The Supreme Court’s Road to Redemption

By Gordon Davis
 
I have been following my former friend from Holy Cross college (we were undergrads there), Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, since Justice Scalia’s death. Thomas voted on April 4, 2016, with the “liberal” Justices on the Supreme Court without comment. I believe that the individual can be redeemed and that Thomas is on the road to redemption.
 
On April 4, 2016, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that being registered to vote does not make us persons. As you know, the Supreme Court has the legal right under the Constitution to determine who among us are persons. In 1860s it said that freed Black people and their children are persons. Later in the 19th Century it said that corporations are people.

In this most recent case it ruled that people not registered to vote can continue to be persons.

A person is usually a human being. However in the USA it is what the Supreme Court says we are.

The recent case heard by the Supreme Court involved a challenge to the so called One Person One Vote principle found in the 1965 Voting Rights Act.  The number of persons has traditionally been determined by the U.S. Census, which takes place every 10 years. The states usually follow the U.S. Census when determining redistricting of state legislatures.

A right wing group, that some consider racist, in Texas challenged the constitutionality of using the U.S. Census to determine the number of persons and the One Person One Vote Principle. This group wanted a separate census in Texas based on voter registration.

As relatively more persons are registered to vote in the rural areas of the United States than in the urban areas the change sought by the right wing group would make the state legislatures more white and more rural.

However, it had other implications as well. It would mean that children would become non-persons as they could not be registered voters. It would mean permanent residents would be non-persons as they could not register to vote. Anyone who could not meet the difficult voter ID laws would be a non-person, too.

Fortunately for humanity, the Supreme Court without Scalia voted down the right wing challenge and took the road away from perdition.

The Supreme Court in a back-handed manner has affirmed that like corporations, children, immigrants and those of us who do not have a birth certificate or can afford a government ID are still persons.

As persons we (all residents of every American town, city and suburb) are entitled to representation by our state legislatures.

There is a message here for Worcester and Massachusetts which hold that only citizens can vote in an election. We should allow adult residents the right to vote. Adult residents could be able to vote in Worcester School Committee and Worcester City Council elections in Worcester – if there was a home rule petition allowing it.

The voting results of our November 2015 elections for Worcester School Committee suggest a need for residents, not just citizens, to vote in Worcester. The Worcester School Committee is entirely White, while the Worcester School District is majority Latino, Black and Asian.

In 2016 Worcester City Manager Ed Augustus, at the urging of a City Councillor, wrote a Home Rule Petition for the eviction of certain lesees. This petition lacked substance. 

The Manager should now write another petition that allows residents of the City of Worcester to vote in City of Worcester elections. I hope he has the moral character to do so. 

InCity Voices

Iowa!

By Chris Horton  

We all knew better, but still we couldn’t help worrying: Was the media right?  Would Hillary Clinton sweep the Iowa Democratic Presidential Caucuses as they said she would?  Would she show us our campaign was just a hopeless daydream?

We needn’t have feared. In Iowa, just as here, folks who “Feel the Bern” show up, and there are a lot of us, more every day! 

Bernie, who started the campaign in Iowa with just 4% support in public opinion polls, came out of the Iowa Caucuses essentially tied with Hillary.  So close was the outcome that Hillary came out ahead only because she won six out of six tie-breaking coin tosses!  (Odds against: 63 to 1!)  That’s a win!

So what does this mean for us?

First, we can take heart!  We are on a roll! We have a winning candidate, we have a winning message, and we have the momentum!  Folks are starting to pay attention! I was overhearing people talking about him everywhere I went today – busses, waiting rooms, a cafeteria, a shoe shop!  

Second, getting out the vote is critical.  The “usual suspects” voted for Hillary.  Many first-time voters and “Obama voters”, young, working class and minority, the ones who more often stay home in disgust, came out and voted for Bernie!  

Looking at Iowa county outcomes, there were huge differences between similar neighboring counties. The difference had to be the organizing work of local volunteers.  Folks like me – and like you!  But we need to make that happen!  And we have just 28 days left to do it!

But there is something else here. The Republican campaigns are all about fear.  Fear of the dangerous aliens abroad and in our midst who hate us and would destroy us.  Democratic campaigns – Hillary’s campaign – often count on fear too: fear of the Republicans, fear of what will happen if we don’t all get together and stop them by electing her – and fear of what could happen to us if we dared to actually fight back against the Powers that Be!  We’ve been living the politics of fear for a generation or more!  

But now people are rejecting the politics of fear.  More and more are speaking out boldly, speaking our truth and demanding what we need and what we know is our birthright – an America where everyone can live decently, in peace and unafraid, an America where we can dare to dream of creating a better life with our own hard work and creativity.

For a generation now, the Democratic Party has been fighting defense. The right wing has been advancing their corporate agenda: dismantling our unions and our standard of living, dismantling the New Deal, privatizing our public property and our schools, shipping our jobs overseas, waging endless wars of plunder and stripping us of our freedom and our democratic rights.  Democrats have been putting up a show of resisting, but too often in the end make “compromises” that always give away part of what the Republicans were demanding. 

Fact is, when you only fight defense, you can lose fast or lose slow, but you’re losing all the same, and we’ve been losing for a generation. It is very depressing and discouraging.  It’s given politics a bad name!

The Sanders Campaign is fighting to win, to win back what we’ve lost and go beyond it, to win the kind of world that we know is possible.  We’re playing offense now!  We want it all back, and more!  And suddenly our people are coming alive!  

There’s just four weeks left until the Massachusetts Primary.  We’re getting our “ground game” on: people talking to their own neighbors, getting organized, getting ready to  all show up together at the polls on March 1 and elect our champion Bernie Sanders to the White House!   

If you’re feeling the Bern, you want to be a part of it, sign up at call our Central Mass Field Organizer, Nate Flynn, at 774-239-6308 to enlist, or drop in on our Field Office at 256 Park Ave!

Green Island Grrrl, Rosalie's Blog

Tuesday, November 3, Worcester votes!

Our Worcester City Council candidate endorsements:

The Worcester of 2015 is multiracial, multicultural and multi-voiced. It’s a city with a healthy middle and upper-middle class and biz community. But it is also a Gateway City filled with immigrants, second generation Americans … lots of poor families, hungry children … youth violence, racial strife – BIG CITY CHALLENGES!

We need city leaders who can work our problems with: INTELLIGENCE, SENSITIVITY, OPTIMISM.

So, Tuesday, November 3, please vote for:

Mayor – Joseph (Joe) Petty (incumbent)

Great person! Smart, thoughtful on the issues, won’t be swayed by the naysayers or the alarmists. Rebuilt Elm Park, pushed for a recovery high school AND a high school for the gifted, working to upgrade so many of our public schools, working with the police department to keep our schools safe, building playgrounds and safe spaces for our inner-city kids. THIS IS WHAT JOE PETTY IS ABOUT. COMMUNITY. All of us sharing the good things,feeling we have a say … that we ALL matter: black, white, poor, straight, gay, inner city, suburban style …

He’s our QUIET MAN – and we mean the JOHN WAYNE flick! Don’t let his modesty fool ya! Petty’s tough and determined! Go, Joe, go!

RE-ELECT JOSEPH PETTY!

******

Councilors at Large

PLEASE VOTE FOR:

Joseph Petty (see above. You have to vote for Petty in this category too, if you want him to be re-elected mayor).

Morris (Moe) Bergman

A steady voice. A calm, thoughtful, smart guy who LOVES our public schools. He’s had three kids go/going through the system – so he’s not just talk! He knows the school buildings, the teachers, the courses. He is PROUD of what our public schools offer kids and their families. Moe is also for a brighter downtown, economic development … a better Worcester for all.

Juan Gomez

We love Juan! He is so real! Warm, yet tough! Fun and cute but biz savvy. We have been a Juan fan for years, back when he was a Worcester city councilor who was business friendly but never forgot the peeps! He was always honest about the issues, where he stood. Sometimes that cost him a vote or two but, for us, that spells INTEGRITY.

William Coleman

Billy Coleman has been a pal for years. What you don’t see when he’s kinda got the spotlight all to himself is: HE REALLY IS A VERY CARING, LOVING PERSON WHO IS THERE FOR ANYONE. Billy is a GREAT PERSON! Which means he’ll work hard for ALL THE PEOPLE OF WORCESTER – meet you, talk with you, hear your side of the issue. He’s a gentle soul who doesn’t hurt folks, and he is especially sensitive to the poor, the homeless, city kids … the people others sometimes forget.

VOTE WILLIAM COLEMAN!!!

District 2:

Vote for Candace Mero Carlson!

She wants to take Phil Palmieri’s seat – she’d be a great voice and advocate for D 2. Candy holds a special place in my heart because she is a GREAT DOG LOVER! Has had English bull dogs that are just gorgeous! And spoiled, like my Jett and Lilac. Candy is also people focused, has done so much volunteer work, community advocacy ….LOVES WORCESTER! She knows District 2 and would represent it with smarts, grace and intelligence.

VOTE CANDACE MERO CARLSON!

Vote for the Worcester you dream of …

Green Island Grrrl, Rosalie's Blog

Go, Edith, go!

Where were YOU on Worcester preliminary election day?

By Edith Morgan

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DO THE AMERICAN THING AND VOTE TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3! pic:R.T.
 
On Tuesday, September 8, I got up at 5 a.m., an unusually early hour for me, as I am a “night owl” and like to read before going to sleep. But on this particular Tuesday, I was at my assigned post by 6 a.m., ready to begin my fifteen-hour day as Warden of my precinct.

As soon as George, the policeman assigned to my precinct, arrives, a flurry of activity takes place: he has the new voting machine, the ballots, the keys, and the know-how to get it all started – he has been with me at this precinct for more years than I can count.

This year for the first time, I wait anxiously for his arrival, as he is usually here before me. When he arrives, he tells me that this year, instead of making five deliveries to other precincts, he had to make TEN, before doing the opening “ceremonies” at 6 a.m. – a great rush between 5 and 6 a.m.

Our “clerk” is there at 6 a.m. also, and by 6:30 our four inspectors are due: this year unfortunately, one of them is ill, and we call to see if she will be replaced, and when.

Every one of Worcester’s 50 precincts is staffed the same way: a clerk, a warden, six inspectors, a policeman. The inspectors and clerk and warden represent a balance of democrats, republicans, and unenrolled registered voters, even though the primaries are nonpartisan. There is still some confusion on the part of some voters, as many years ago if you were not affiliated with any political party you were an “independent”, but when an Independent Party was formed, that category was called “unenrolled”.
This year, as always, we had to attend a training session, to be reminded of the rules and regulations, informed of changes if there were any, and to ask any questions we might have.

The real excitement this year was the demonstration of our new voting machines – after 25 years of the old ones, some of which were getting rather tired and moody, it was great to see how they worked, and how much easier it would be to get the final tally when the polls closed at 8 p..m. These machines are “smarter” than our old ones: unlike the past ones, which could only recognize the special black pen markings in the tiny oval, now we give each voter a ball-point pen to keep after using it to mark their ballot – and a sticker to wear when they go back home (maybe as a reminder to the many non-voters they should vote also?) . These new machines are smart enough to read pencil marks too!!!

A small screen continuously demonstrates how to feed in your ballot, records the number of votes cast so far, and in a few seconds thanks the voter. If there is an “overvote” (meaning that the voter has marked too many names in any column) the machine refuses the ballot until the voter either decides to re-do the ballot or allows the machine to record only those votes correctly marked. So, if you don’t want t o do the whole ballot over (you’re in a hurry?) it will count only the part of your ballot that was correctly marked.

I went through the rather detailed explanation above to show our readers that much are and thought have gone into making the entire process as accurate, quick, and pleasant as possible.

Our preliminary election was a good time to inaugurate Worcester’s new machines, as primaries are usually light, so there are no long lines and we have time to explain if need be, and to observe if there are any tough spots.

Our ballot was not very long: the left column held the names of the candidates for councilors-at-large, from which the voter was asked to select up to six names. They were free to select any number up to six, but no more.

Some voters chose to “bullet” their ballot, meaning that they would vote for only their very favorite(s). The column on the right was empty in all but District 2 ballots, where there were four names that had to be whittled down to two for November 3rd, to fill the seat to be vacated by Phil Palmieri.

After the votes were counted, twelve candidates will be on next Tuesday’s ballot for the Worcester at-large city council seats: Mayor Joe Petty, Konstantina Lukes, Kathleen Toomey, Michael Gaffney, Morris Bergman, and Matthew Wally were the top six, in that order; rounding out the twelve were Juan Gomez, Robert Sargent, Khrystian King, Christina Zlody, Bill Coleman and Linda Parham. Unfortunately, three candidates did not make the cut: Carmen Carmona, Ronald O’Clair and George Fox III. Phil Palmieri decided to drop out of the at large race (bumping up Linda Parham).

In the District 2 race, Candy Mero-Carlson and Jennithan Cortes will also go on to next Tuesday’s ballot. 

Green Island Grrrl, Rosalie's Blog

For these Worcester times: Re-elect Mayor Joseph Petty!

By Rosalie Tirella

When did Worcester cease being the city of my childhood (rough and tumble working-class town with so many shining stars!) and become the Worcester of 2015? Kids with guns killing kids, home break-ins galore, folks addicted to heroin dying in stairwells, slug-fests at local high schools with teachers taking it (literally) in the chin, poverty so encompassing many of our school children look like they’ve walked out of a Charles Dickens novel?

It is heartbreaking to see what former president George Bush (and before him prez Clinton and vp Gore with NAFTA) have done to this once great country.

Cities and towns all over America suffer because of our warped economy – one that rewards and perpetuates a healthy upper middle class but creates a bigger and bigger under class every day.

The factories are gone, the mines shut down, the farms industrialized … and the good paying American jobs that immigrants and uneducated folks used to catapult themselves and their families into the American middle class are gone with them.

Now it’s service jobs galore and everyone makes $8, $9, $10 and $11 an hour. Everyone lives pretty much on the cusp of homelessness. No wonder we see hunger, violence, drug addiction … despair in cities and towns all over this great land – Worcester, included.

Have you ever seen so many Dollar Stores in Worcester? You used to see them in the poorer parts of the South. Now they are here and all over the country – and doing gangbusters.

Where are the stores for the working middle class in Worcester? The old American Supply on Front Street? The old Sylvia’s Dress Shop on Franklin Street? All gone. Yes, we can blame Wal-Mart, but it’s their cheap prices that drive working families there. Stores built for the $9 an hour paycheck.

Where does the Mayor of Worcester, a supposedly ceremonial job, fit in with all this?

Why should we care so passionately about giving the Worcester MAYOR’s job to incumbent Joe Petty or challenger Mike Gaffney in a few weeks? (We love Bill Coleman but, seriously, he’s gotta get a new hobby!)

Because THESE TWO GUYS HAVE TOTALLY OPPOSITE WORLD VIEWS … DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSED SOLUTIONS TO THE SOCIAL ILLS THAT ARE EATING away at Worcester – and America’s – soul.

It’s more than Democrat (Petty) versus Republican (Gaffney).

It’s more than KEEP GOVERNMENT OUT OF MY POCKET BOOK (Gaffney) versus IT’S NOT THE POCKETBOOK – GOVERNMENT IMPROVES PEOPLE’S LIVES (Petty)…

It’s about TRUST, DECENCY, NO GAMES and FAIRNESS/RESPECT FOR ALL OUR CITIZENS.

That’s what Worcester needs now and Mayor Joe Petty, who is running for re-election, has all of the above!

Today’s Worcester has a huge amount of people who are poor. The Worcester of 2015 has a majority minority school system. Our housing is expensive and our people don’t have the dough to pay for it and all the essentials. THIS IS AMERICA. THIS IS GRINDING POVERTY that never lets up for lots of Worcester families. Plus: So many of our kids and families are folks of color, come from different parts of the world. This adds more layers to our challenges. So many Worcester families are under duress – racism, poverty, domestic abuse, shitty apartments, violence in the streets …

Mayor Petty has worked to RELIEVE THE PAIN AND BUILD BRIGHTER FUTURES FOR ALL WORCESTER FAMILIES.

He gets that we have a diverse population with lots of needs. He believes good government helps meet some of those needs.

Mayor Petty has:

Pushed for the RECOVERY SCHOOL for Worcester kids once addicted to drugs and now ready to learn in a supportive classrooms

Pushed for an ACADEMY FOR THE MOST GIFTED WORCESTER PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENTS. Sorta like a mini Boston Latin housed in Doherty High School

Beautified Elm Park so it is gorgeous and there for all folks to enjoy

Worked effectively and sensitively with Worcester folks of all colors and creeds

Pushed for city programs that support Worcester inner-city youth and families

Pushed for several playgrounds and playscapes to be built at some of Worcester’s neediest inner-city schools in some of Worcester’s poorest neighborhoods

Championed Woo’s inner city neighborhoods and small businesses

Has taken an even-handed approach to the violence that erupted in the city and around our public schools. Petty did NOT bash anyone, was no alarmist … HE JUST WORKED THE PROBLEM and things got better. And he took the heat from morons who had a less nuanced view of the problem.

NUANCED!

That’s the word!

In the Worcester of 2015 we need NUANCE! We don’t need folks screaming:

WE HATE DR. BOONE!

BRING IN THE NATIONAL GUARD!

KILL THE CDCs!

WHITE TEACHERS IN WORCESTER RULE!

MAUREEN BINENDA FOR WPS SUPERINTENDENT – OR ELSE!

CUT OFF THE MOSAIC FOLKS AND STICK BRENDA JENKINS HEAD ON A STICK!

These folks, on a very deep SUBCONSCIOUS level are racist/classist, but will never see it. They are not living in the Worcester of 2015. THE WORCESTER OF TODAY.

Or maybe they feel the societal/economic changes in Worcester and they’ve panicked.

They want to preserve the old Worcester World Order – one where you CALL IN THE COPS, GET THE IRISH TEACHERS WPD BACK-UP, STOP BUILDING AFFORDABLE HOUSING, EXERT SOME TOUGH LOVE.

This is the Old Worcester World Order that Worcester city councilor at large and Worcester mayoral candidate MICHAEL GAFFNEY IS EMBRACING AND ESPOUSING.

It ain’t gonna work, Mike!

GAFFNEY IS SO WRONG FOR THE WORCESTER OF TODAY IT’S NOT EVEN FUNNY.

IT’S DOWNRIGHT SCARY!!!!!!!!!

Like presidential candidate Donald Trump, Worcester mayoral candidate Gaffney reflects the fears and prejudices of people.

Also their rage, disappointments, longing for an America, a Worcester, that simply no longer exists. That is gone FOREVER.

It was always complicated, but the big factories and big employers that gave folks – in America and Worcester – the foundation (filled stomachs, bills paid, a little house maybe) from which to solve problems is GONE. Now we’re in crisis mode. And people are wicked freaked out.

You can vote your fears and prejudices and vote for Gaffney November 3.

As a city councilor Mike Gaffney’s done shit. He’s for cutting everything. Then he demagogues the problems that he helped create with his scorched earth politics.

Sure he’s bright and very articulate and a good writer, but so were the Harvard professors and scientists who years ago published papers on the intellectual superiority of men over women because women’s brains were physically smaller. The brilliant professors papers were elegantly written and people all over the world bowed down to their brilliance. But they were still full of shit. STILL WRONG.

They had used their intellect to SUPPORT PREJUDICE. They had elegantly, scientifically backed into their era’s deepest prejudices.

This is what Mike Gaffney is doing today, in Worcester.

Let’s vote for a guy who is bright, hopeful, open and willing to admit great ideas can come from any one – even a gang banger’s mum, even a former drug addict, even a slip of a black girl running up Harrison Street to get to Union Hill School on a lovely Worcester autumn day.

VOTE JOSEPH PETTY FOR MAYOR OF WORCESTER!

Green Island Grrrl, InCity Feature, InCity Letters, Neighborhood Roundup, Rosalie's Blog

Go, Gordon Davis, go!!!!!!!!

STOP Arresting Kids at School! … and THE REAL RACE DIALOGUES

By Gordon Davis

In September 2015 there were reports of two fights between kids at North High School in Worcester. The details of the fights are sketchy, but it appears that the first fight was between two female students. That fight was broken up and the students taken to the office where while still upset they refused to comply with instructions given to them. Instead of being sent home and having them return with their parents, the two girls were arrested. Something similar happened with two male students.

When I went to high school I got into fights, but the police were never called and the disputes were handled administratively.

In both cases at North High School there were charges that nine staffers were assaulted but not injured or harmed when they tried to break up the respective fights. How the staffers were assaulted was not described in the news story. An assault is defined as a threat or an attempt to injury without actually injury. Battery is the charge for injury or harm intentionally inflicted.

It might have been better for all concerned for the students not to have been arrested at school. Arresting kids in the heat of the moment when there is no immediate clear and present danger will, more likely than not, lead to bad decisions by the staff and the police, as well as be harmful to the kids. The schools know who the kids are and where they live; there is no chance that they will flee the state. There is no need for arrests.

Should there be a need for legal actions then this should be decided after the emotions of the event have passed. The child and parent could be summoned to court. The whole concept of putting children in handcuffs and having them booked  at the police is not good pedagogy.

On September 19, 2015, a new group called Men of Color Think Tank organized what it called “Real Race Dialogues.” The Men of Color Think Tank seems to be an outgrowth of the BlackLives Matter new civil rights movement.  Its membership is multi-racial, but some people are called “white allies” instead of members.

Michael Jerry one of the organizers of the event and apparent spokes person for Men of Color Think Tank gave an inspirational introduction to the Real Race Dialogues.

Although enthusiastic, many of the things he spoke about have a history in Worcester. For example, Mr. Jerry thought the best way to get a person of color elected was to have a slate of candidates. It is generally accepted that bullet voting is the better way to get a candidate elected. It is bullet voting that is thought to allow the top vote getters to get the most votes. Mr. Jerry’s enthusiasm and seeming ability to look at new ideas will go a long way to help the organization and its goals.

At the so called Real Race dialogues there was a table at which the participants discussed education. My impression is that there was honest and creative talk about racial issues in Worcester. Our table included parents, teachers, students, and other people sincere in their desire to end racial disparities in schools.  

Several issues came to be discussed: the development of a school to job pipeline, the coordinating of organizations working with children to ensure that each child at risk has a mentor, alternative curriculum and after school programs, and the ways of reversing the false perception of North High Schools as “bad” kids.

The issue of North High School took up most of the discussion time and some concrete plans were made including changing school policies such that no kids are arrested at school. Although this no arresting kids at school policy makes good pedagogy and common sense,  expelling the  criminal justice system out of the  schools will be a difficult task as many people still fear Black and Latino and poor kids . These misguided people, some of whom are racists, want to use the power of the state to “control” the dark skin people they fear.

InCity Voices

Worcester City Council candidates: Bernie Sanders could be the ticket to your success election day!

By Chris Horton

Voter turnout in the Worcester preliminaries was a disaster, especially east of Park Avenue.  I would maintain that if someone had been running for Worcester City Council as a Bernie Sanders supporter, Bernie as in the presidential candidate, the voter turnout might have been much higher in Worcester.

This may seem like an unbelievable statement, but please  allow me explain:

Despite the appearance of apathy, people, including non-voters, are politically highly charged, but many can’t see how a Worcester City Council vote matters. We campaigners all see many folks who enthusiastically promise to vote but don’t show up. I am convinced that most, consciously or not, are *choosing* to not vote. Some even see it as a boycott, and fantasize that if even more voters would stay home, finally the politicians would get the message and change their ways. One even bragged that his family hadn’t voted in three generations!

Many are clearly paying attention to Worcester issues and politics and may give a well reasoned argument that Worcester City Council voting doesn’t matter, for example because 1) the City doesn’t have power over the things that matter, 2) the Council doesn’t even run the City Government, 3) once we vote them into office they become politicians, get involved with the “money boys” and forget about us, and 4) the whole political system is rigged. Which – let’s admit it – all has some truth to it, although the organized power of the Community Labor Coalition is starting to shift that. (Far more turn out for Federal elections because that’s where the money we need is, even though they may see it as hopeless.)

So far this year, the Worcester City election campaigns have focused heavily on crime and safety. Some candidates have been raising jobs issues, but at best the Worcester City Council has the resources to nibble around the edge of a huge problem.

These are good fights, worth waging, but in a city where more than 1,000 are homeless and tens of thousands are barely surviving on crummy, part-time, temporary and off-the-books jobs or public assistance, these efforts to get 25 construction jobs and 20 jobs making beds here, 50 summer jobs there, can seem too small to matter.

Once you get them started, most regular folks feel very strongly and have a lot to say about jobs and job creation, wages, benefits and work conditions, unfair firings and out-of-control bosses, high rents, foreclosures and evictions, the right to health care, out of control college costs, bringing our jobs back and reopening the old mills. These are all Bernie Sander’s issues.

Regarding the out of control greed-crazed bankers who crashed the system and are about to do it again, most agree with Bernie they need to be prosecuted and jailed and their banks broken up. And most people agree that something radical needs to be done to remove big money from politics.

Quite regularly, when a conversation I’m having with a person goes deep enough, there comes a moment when he or she suddenly gets serious and quiet, looks me in the eyes and says some version of “You know what? We need a revolution!”

Which is what Bernie’s calling for, a “political revolution”!

When I tell people that Bernie Sanders is warning us that this will require organizing a great mass movement of millions to confront the “billionaire class,” when I repeat his warning that it will take a fight, almost everyone nods. 

And then when I look them in the eyes the way Bernie looked into mine and repeat his question to them: “Are you ready for a fight?” responses range from “Hell yes!” to a timid thoughtful little nod, but not one yet has shaken their head or said no.

Some Worcester City Council candidates told me privately they support Bernie, but they all “played it safe” and kept a firewall between their campaigns and his presidential campaign. Some of them are gone now. None placed in the top six.

If any candidate now were to commit to building a Worcester progressive populist movement, openly declared for Bernie Sanders and committed to work to implement his programs in Worcester, they could tap into a huge pool of potential energy and enthusiasm which could carry them to victory and dramatically increase voter turnout across the City on Nov. 3. 

My questions to them all: What do you have to gain by continuing to play it safe?  What do you have to lose by coming out swinging as an unabashed Bernie for President supporter?