jackiedoherty.org

I just got back from voting for Eileen Donoghue and heard that turnout is pretty low today. Then I received a timely email reminding me that the right to vote for women was once a hotly-contested issue. This was one of those forwarded emails that I typically don’t bother to open, but it was very well done with photos of suffragettes and a description of how hard they had to fight and the abuse they put up with – being beaten, jailed, vilified and threatened with institutionalization for insanity! The email reminds us that it was only 90 years ago that women finally prevailed and were allowed to vote; it also describes the “night of terror,” November 15, 1917, when 33 women were jailed for picketing Woodrow Wilson’s White House. The warden gave his men permission to teach the women a lesson, resulting in horrendous abuse. The friend who wrote this email mentions a movie starring Hilary Swank, Iron Jawed Angels, which she says is a must-see to give us all some “shock therapy” and a needed reminder of the importance of voting. She adds:

one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.

So, refresh my memory. Some women won’t vote this year because – why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn’t matter? It’s raining?

So, let’s all vote for ourselves, for our daughters and for those women who fought so hard and were so brave. A doctor who was asked to declare one of the leaders insane countered that she wasn’t crazy, but brave, adding, “Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.”

The Lowell School Committee will meet tonight to discuss, among other things, what to do with new $4.8 federal money earmarked for the education of Lowell’s children (Obama’s Education Jobs Funds). The meeting will be televised live at 7 p.m. on cable channel 10 (also available on streaming video through LTC). Today’s Sun has an article highlighting the board’s finance subcommittee meeting on the issue where school administrators recommended saving the $4.8 million because the district will face a $9.5 million hole next spring when it plans its budget for the school year ending in 2012. That prediction is based on fixed cost increases (health insurance, step and lane changes) as well as the loss of one-time funds used to balance the current budget (stimulus money primarily, but also savings due to a lease reduction and contract settlement). The predicted $9.5 million gap in next year’s budget (FY 2012) assumes level funding from the city and state.

Meanwhile, this morning on WCAP Radio, City Manager Bernie Lynch discussed the city’s position regarding its allocation last spring of an additional $1.17 million to the schools. The budget for the current school year (FY 2011) was based on a total cash contribution of $16.6 million from the city that included the additional $1.17 million allocated last spring. According to the city, that $1.17 million was based on pension reform that has not resulted in the expected savings. Lynch’s point on the radio this morning (as I heard it) was that the schools should use the federal money now to let the city off the hook until next spring… (When presumably the city will provide additional funds for education???) This part was never clearly stated.

It’s interesting framing, and you’ve got to hand it to Lynch’s skill as a “spin doctor” that he takes the city’s $266 million operating budget, which included new jobs, raises, and no layoffs on the municipal side, and attributes the additional $1.17 million earmarked for the schools as being under-funded. Last night, CFO Tom Moses told the school board that from the outset, the manager indicated savings from pension reform was how he would fund the education earmark; he also noted that the city has other options to meet the funding requirement, such as raising taxes….

Either way, it’s spinning at the genius level. Despite 17 straight years of under-funding education and only a very recent history of actually making its minimum contribution to its schools (the FY 2011 commitment exceeds state requirements for the first time ever), it appears the city manager would now like to delay that commitment, make it look like taxes are going up because of the schools, or at the very worst, renege on it completely…And on that issue, I’ve got a spin of my own–more on that later.

It looks like a beautiful night for an outdoor concert at Tyler Park, the jewel of the Highlands. Beginning at 6:00 pm with local Funk band, Jochemo, and continuing with the popular acoustic guitar duo, Take Two, from 7:00 – 8:00 pm, the Friends of Tyler Park also provide fun family activities, balloons, popcorn, hotdogs and more. The concerts are FREE and lots of fun for all. Bring a blanket or a chair and enjoy the evening.

I’m not a sports fan, but I have a mild interest in soccer, mostly why it’s such a hit in the rest of the world, but not in the U.S. I happened to have been in Europe four years ago and witnessed firsthand the way entire countries were riveted by the fate of their team, so it did get me wondering why? This year, with the U.S. fielding a team for the first time in decades, there were ripples of interest in the World Cup. On a local level, we have our own World Cup right here in Lowell, sponsored by OneLowell, which might be a good starting place for any newly-minted or would-be soccer fans. This is the fourth annual OneLowell World Cup, and it makes a fun, affordable family outing. The dates are August 1, 7 and 8, from 8 am to 8 pm at Cawley Stadium. .

If you want to get in the mood, or see what all the fuss is about, OneLowell and the Lowell Film Collaborative are sponsoring a great soccer film: “Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos” at the Pollard Memorial Library, TOMORROW, July 16, at 1 p.m. – FREE admission, air conditioned!

A while ago, I wrote about how some of my most beloved and respected family members and friends have wrongheaded political views (those completely opposite from mine). It’s as if we absorb only the information and perspectives that enforce our own beliefs, even going so far as to get different messages from the same speech or news broadcast. (What is it my smart, successful brother-in-law sees in Sarah Palin that makes him admire her when I think she is a divisive, fear monger who speaks, albeit with a pretty smile, in meaningless clichés?) An article in Sunday’s Globe, entitled “How Facts Backfire” confirmed my observations about this perplexing disconnect, noting: “There is a substantial body of psychological research showing that people tend to interpret information with an eye toward reinforcing their preexisting views. If we believe something about the world, we are more likely to passively accept as truth any information that confirms our beliefs, and actively dismiss information that doesn’t.”

Also disturbing, the article referenced last month’s Political Behavior journal which reported on studies attempting to change people’s false thinking by providing them with facts. The result: people held to their original beliefs despite evidence that those beliefs were flawed or incorrect. Rather than adjusting their thinking in light of contrary evidence, the study documents “several instances of a ‘backfire effect’ in which corrections actually increase misperceptions among the group in question.”  Great! Facts will not alter our misguided beliefs; instead we cling to them more strongly. As someone committed to education as the solution to advance causes of social and economic justice, as well as a host of other woes, this is sad news indeed. It may be futile, but I doubt my politically wrongheaded loved ones and I will stop trying to correct each other’s misguided thinking.

Take today, for instance, when my brother sent me an email espousing the evils of gun control with a series of horrific statements about 56 million people being murdered in the 20th century (Russians, Armenians, Jews, Chinese, Mayan Indians, Cambodians…) because gun control left them defenseless. The email raved about Switzerland: “A nation that issues every male over 18 a gun. Switzerland’s government trains every adult they issue a rifle as a member of the militia. Hitler didn’t invade Switzerland because of this. He is supposed to have said, ‘Switzerland doesn’t have an army—Switzerland IS an army.’ Switzerland has the lowest gun-related crime rate of any civilized country in the world! It’s a no brainer! If you value freedom, please send this anti-gun control message to all your friends!” To which, I responded: “Yes, definitely, let’s take away any kind of restriction on who can own guns—mentally ill people, convicts, paroled rapists, drug addicts etc. Let’s also do away with any kind of waiting period, whether it’s three days or a few weeks. Why wait even one minute to own a gun? Better yet, let’s not require any identification. Let anyone of any age buy an uzi, a sawed off shotgun, AK 47, M-16, machine gun….whatever. All you need is money, no questions asked. That would be much better. NOT!” And so it goes…

If it wasn’t such a serious and complex issue, it would be laughable: The idea that I am too pro-union to act in the best interests of our children’s education. That seems to be the general rant in Gerry Nutter’s blog against me, in particular, as well as other members of the Lowell School Committee. I speak for myself here and I’m going to do it carefully because we are under rules to keep details of union negotiations confidential—not my rules, mind you, but state law requires both parties agree to negotiation terms, and our terms are that negotiations are confidential.

Here are some facts I can address: I have voted on two new teacher contracts since joining the school committee in 2004. (We are currently without a new contract.) During my first term, I was the lone vote against the teachers’ contract. (Regina Faticanti, former school committee member, also voted no initially and then changed her vote.) I voted no because I didn’t think we could afford the wage adjustments, and sure enough, during our next budget year, then-City Manager John Cox recommended the council not fund the amount required over the three-year contract despite the fact that his representative and the mayor had voted for it. At that time, I argued successfully to the city council that we would not have had that contract if it had not been for the city’s support, which included votes from then-mayor Armand Mercier and T.J. McCarthy, former assistant city manager. The council ultimately provided the funds.

 During my second round with the teachers’ union, I supported the contract we negotiated after about 18 months of meetings and mediation, including one marathon, eight-hour session that lasted until 3 a.m. I supported the contract along with my colleagues, including then-Mayor Bill Martin, because the wage increases were moderate—the last one percent increase went into effect June 2009—and because we got adjustments in school start/stop times that enabled us to save a quarter of a million dollars on transportation and another parent-teacher meeting, which we desperately needed.

Mr. Nutter and other folks who comment on his blog can’t possibly know about the hours and hours of frustrating negotiation meetings because, as I mentioned earlier, they are not privy to those details. What they should know, however, is that generous benefits were put into the contracts decades ago. To simply demand the committee “stand tough against the union” is simplistic and completely lacks understanding of labor law in this state, the mindset of union leadership, and the impact poor labor relations has on student learning. The union will not give up these benefits easily, and we do not have the resources to take them back.

I do my best to “stand tough” with our unions while looking to find consensus around our shared goals and investment in student achievement. I support our good teachers because they are the backbone of what we do, but my allegiance always is to the students and their parents who elect me to do my best to make sure our children get a good education: That means I work with the unions not for them, and at the end of the day, every vote I take is measured against its impact on our students.

You may have noticed me trucking around Lowell with two bikes strapped to the back of my car, parallel parking downtown, getting gas etc. (Yes, I am that nutcase.) Those bikes have travelled with me for days: to the grocery store, to the Y, and on various errands and family gatherings, including a trip to Haverhill Saturday night to see the fireworks. In the span of a very hot, four-day weekend, we managed to ride the Freeman Bike Trail on three separate occasions. I completely understand how Lt. Governor Murray ended up with heat exhaustion as we paused to watch Chelmsford’s parade Monday morning (Murray was there) before quickly walking our bikes across the street to continue on the trail. Those few minutes of watching the parade as they announced the dignitaries nearly did me in; the sun was so hot on Main Street. But the trail was cool and shaded with trees, and the breeze from biking made the path surprisingly enjoyable despite the steamy weather. As we headed back across Chelmsford Center at noon, two hours later, the parade was still going on and I noted an outdoor thermostat registered the temperature at 96 degrees! It certainly didn’t feel that hot on the path. As a lifelong biker who is afraid of cars, I am thrilled with plans to extend the Freeman Trail all the way to Framingham. In fact, I’d like to see it extend further into downtown Lowell and connect with paths along the river, so that urban biking gets a lift. An article in Today’s Globe notes that Boston will get $3 million in federal funds to expand its bike paths and create a bike-sharing program. (Wouldn’t that be great for Lowell too?) It’s been days since my last ride and even with the threat of rain, I’m loathe to take the bikes off my car in case we get another chance to go out on the trail…

Has June this year been too beautiful? What is, after all, “so rare as a day in June..then, if ever, come perfect days.” These words come to mind when viewing cloudless blue skies, rosebushes in bloom, along with daylilies, peonies, pinks and more. The poet who penned that perfect phrase, followed by “Then heaven tries the earth if it be in tune, and over it softly her warm ear lays” was James Russell Lowell, in case you were wondering. I think I think those words every year, in June, yet never knew who wrote them. Other poets I think of in summer include Virgil: “Steep thyself in a bowl of summertime.”; or the very early English verse, “Summer is Icumen in,” or Marvell who advocated: “Annihilating all that’s made; to a green thought in a green shade”, or the novelist, Henry James, who said, “Summer afternoon–summer afternoon…the two most beautiful words in the English language.” Hope you’re all enjoying your summer!

How could I list fun events on Thursday night without mentioning the first Friends of Tyler Park concert of the summer, also happening tonight, 6-8 pm?? The opening act is an A Capella group, from 6-7, then a Jazz/fusion band will play from 7-8. If the weather holds out, it should be a nice evening. The Tyler Park concerts are wonderful family and community events in a park that has become a jewel of the Highlands, thanks to the efforts of the Friends. They have three free concerts each summer which include hot dogs, crafts for kids, and raffles. If you can’t make tonight’s concert, mark July 15th on your calendar where the main event is the popular guitar duo, Two Mikes, and the opening band is the up-and-coming Funk group, Jochemo (full disclosure: my son is the drummer).

If you happen to be downtown tomorrow night, perhaps visiting the opening reception for the new exhibit at the Brush Art Gallery - Fluidity, through August 6th, featuring new work by the Brush artists, reception from 5-8 p.m., you might also want to stop in at 73 E. Merrimack St for the official opening of the Donoghue for Senate campaign headquarters. I understand that there may be a barbecue going on as the space has a backyard patio, so time your visit accordingly. I also just noticed that Eileen’s campaign has a facebook page where you can see some pictures from the campaign party at Jackie’s house on Monday. (They also have Twitter and a Youtube video of Eileen speaking to the Greater Lowell Area Democrats back in April). You definitely need to be proficient at social media to run a campaign these days!