jackiedoherty.org

Perhaps I am connected to my immigrant roots more than most Americans. As a girl, I remember listening to my mother’s stories about her early struggles in Boston schools because she didn’t speak English and how her family worked long hours under poor conditions to get ahead. (By the time my mother, who was born here, was in the third grade, she had changed her name from Giovanna to Jennie to be more American.) My mother-in-law was an immigrant. Her family came here eight decades ago from Northern Ireland to make a better life for themselves and their children. As for me, an English-speaking, college-educated, home-owning American who lives in Lowell—a gateway city in a state with a declining population except for immigrants—the rise in anti-immigrant rhetoric seems both economically and socially short sighted. So, I was thrilled to read Jeff Jacoby’s editorial in yesterday’s Boston Globe where he cites statistics from the Public Policy Institute of California study regarding the impact of immigration on crime in that state. Jacoby writes: “Within the age group most often involved in crime (ages 18 to 40), US natives—astonishingly—are 10 times more likely to be in prison or jail than immigrants…Even when the focus is narrowed to inmates who were born in Mexico and are not citizens—the demographic group most likely to include illegal immigrants—the rate of incarceration is only one-eighth that of men born in the United States.” These numbers support what I have always believed about the vast majority of immigrants whether documented or not: Most immigrants, like my family, are here to work hard, get their children educated, and try to grab a piece of the American dream for themselves and their loved ones. 

Since one of the six semi-finalist candidates for the Lowell superintendent position, Dr. Katherine Darlington, has decided to take a job as superintendent of the Burlington Schools, to withdraw her name for personal reasons (this update just received from central office), there is only one remaining interview for the Lowell Superintendent Search Committee to conduct. That is at 5:30 tonight with Dr. Portia Bonner.  The interview is open to the public and will be held at the Little Theatre at Lowell High School. For a broadcast schedule of all the semi-finalist interviews conducted by the search committee, check here.

No matter what happens with Hillary’s campaign, as far as I’m concerned, this is the year of the woman, and yesterday’s annual Women’s Day Breakfast in Lowell brought that message home. I’ve attended this annual breakfast for years, and it’s always a good time—yesterday felt different though. There was a palpable sense of power from the hundreds of women gathered at the tables—women who make a difference every day in our communities—women who are changing our world.  It was nice to see Congresswoman Niki Tsongas, always a regular at the breakfasts, in her new role as the first female representative from the fifth district in decades. It was also an honor to hear First Lady Diane Patrick’s moving story about a “simple act of kindness” that changed lives. She ended by quoting from Maya Angelou’s poem:
Still I Rise
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I rise. more »

Thank God for blogs. That’s what I thought after reading yesterday’s coverage of the recent flap regarding ONE Lowell and two members of the high school subcommittee. Once again, the Sun has not provided readers with an accurate or balanced report, which means those who rely solely on the local paper to get their facts were given an incomplete picture on an important issue. From the start, the article’s first sentence that the agency is “on the verge of being suspended from city schools” is wrong. It’s the agency’s work at the high school that is being questioned by the two school committee members who voted to suspend it from LHS at the televised subcommittee meeting of Feb. 27. (For my thoughts on that meeting, check here.)

Another problem with the article is its glaring lack of balanced coverage—the lead, headline, drop head, and pullout quote all support the accusatory side of the issue, creating a slanted, negative view of ONE Lowell, a well-respected nonprofit agency that works with immigrant families, without fairly presenting the counter argument. (Not what I learned in Journalism 101 about factual, objective reporting.) The article does provide some information that the group is doing important work to combat student truancy when it quotes middle-school principal Liam Skinner, but his favorable comments are buried half way into the article on its second page. Meanwhile, negative quotes from the maker of the motion to suspend the group are highlighted in bold, boxed type, so that a quick reader is left from start to finish with a mistaken notion that unfairly disparages the agency and its work in our schools.

Despite the Sun’s failure to present it well, there are two sides to this issue, and you will be learning more about it here. (As a blog writer, I’m not as concerned with balance as with the truth.) For a good look at what we stand to lose if ONE Lowell is pushed from our schools, see what high school folks had to say about the agency last year in this Boston Globe article from April 2007. 

Update:  Just learned the schedule for broadcasting the superintendent interviews on LET Channel 22.  The first two (Schlictman and Scott) will be shown on Saturday, March 15, 7-10 am and 7-10 pm, the second two (Ortega and Jack) on Sunday, March 16, 7-10 am and 7-10 pm, and the final two (Darlington and Bonner) on Monday, March 17, 7-10 am and 7-10 pm.  

The interviews for the supertintendent position start today, with two candidates being interviewed:  Paul Schlictman (4:30-5:45 pm) and Dr. Chris Augusta Scott (6:15-7:30 pm). There will be two interviews tomorrow (Dr. Janie Ortega, 4:00 pm and Dr. Wendy Jack, 5:30 pm) and the final two on Wednesday (Dr. Katherine Darlington, 5:30 pm and Dr. Portia Bonner, 7:15 pm).  The interviews will be held at the Little Theatre at Lowell High and are open to the public.  They will be taped and broadcast after all are completed. 

The Superintendent Search Committee selected six semi-finalists, including two local candidates, to be interviewed next week in public meetings at the Lowell High School Little Theater. The committee, chaired by Eileen Donoghue, invited eight candidates to be interviewed out of an initial pool of 21 applicants, but two have dropped out and do not wish their names released to the public. For the names of the six semi-finalists, along with the dates and times of their interviews, check: more »

Check out the city council meeting tonight (6:30 pm on Channel 10) to see how our elected officials vote on the residency requirement.  I have an instinctive dislike of such a motion; it seems xenophobic and petty to me, and I have a few questions about it.  First of all, why are we even wasting time on this?  I don’t recall this coming up on any councilor’s campaign platform.  I don’t think it has much to do with economic development, neighborhood improvement plans, or ‘giving back to the city.’  As someone who is very concerned about our public school system, I am glad to know that teachers (and all union employees) are exempt from such a requirement.  It’s my understanding that whatever the council decides tonight will not impact school hiring, even for non-union employees.  I want to know that our schools can hire the best and most qualified candidates for the job, regardless of where they live.  Why shouldn’t that be the most important requirement for any city job?

It’s funny, but there was a motion to have a residency requirement for the superintendent search committee that failed with very little support.  Mayor Caulfield spoke out vehemently against it, asking why we should deny ourselves the services of a CEO of a company who might live in Andover or why we should restrict Chancellor Marty Meehan from choosing the most qualified person from his staff to be on the committee, someone who might not live in Lowell.  The same logic should apply to hiring anyone who works for the city. (To see what Councilor Caulfield had to say on the residency requirement when it was debated back in 1994, see this interesting post by Dick Howe.)

 I’ll certainly be watching to see how the Mayor (and the rest of the council) votes tonight!

As Obama gains momentum and Hillary Clinton’s campaign seems to falter, I am called to action: Pick up the phone, write a check, be part of the movement. And share with you pieces of text from award-winning author Robin Morgan’s essay “Goodbye To All That (#2).” For the complete essay, check here. 

“Goodbye to the double standard . . .  —Hillary is too ballsy but too womanly, a Snow Maiden who’s emotional, and so much a politician as to be unfit for politics.  —She’s “ambitious” but he shows “fire in the belly.” (Ever had labor pains?)—When a sexist idiot screamed “Iron my shirt!” at HRC, it was considered amusing; if a racist idiot shouted “Shine my shoes!” at BO, it would’ve inspired hours of airtime and pages of newsprint analyzing our national dishonor.

—Young political Kennedys—Kathleen, Kerry, and Bobby Jr.—all endorsed Hillary. Senator Ted, age 76, endorsed Obama. If the situation were reversed, pundits would snort “See? Ted and establishment types back her, but the forward-looking generation backs him.” (Personally, I’m unimpressed with Caroline’s longing for the Return of the Fathers. Unlike the rest of the world, Americans have short memories. Me, I still recall Marilyn Monroe’s suicide, and a dead girl named Mary Jo Kopechne in Chappaquiddick.)

Goodbye to the toxic viciousness  . . . Carl Bernstein’s disgust at Hillary’s “thick ankles.” Nixon-trickster Roger Stone’s new Hillary-hating 527 group, “Citizens United Not Timid” (check the capital letters). John McCain answering “How do we beat the bitch?” with “Excellent question!” Would he have dared reply similarly to “How do we beat the black bastard?” For shame.  Goodbye to the HRC nutcracker with metal spikes between splayed thighs. If it was a tap-dancing blackface doll, we would be righteously outraged—and they would not be selling it in airports. Shame.

…Goodbye, goodbye to . . . —blaming anything Bill Clinton does on Hillary (even including his womanizing like the Kennedy guys—though unlike them, he got reported on). Let’s get real. If he hadn’t campaigned strongly for her everyone would cluck over what that meant. Enough of Bill and Teddy Kennedy locking their alpha male horns while Hillary pays for it. 

—an era when parts of the populace feel so disaffected by politics that a comparative lack of knowledge, experience, and skill is actually seen as attractive, when celebrity-culture mania now infects our elections so that it’s “cooler” to glow with marquee charisma than to understand the vast global complexities of power on a nuclear, wounded planet… 

Goodbye to some women letting history pass by while wringing their hands, because Hillary isn’t as “likeable” as they’ve been warned they must be, or because she didn’t leave him, couldn’t “control” him, kept her family together and raised a smart, sane daughter. (Think of the blame if Chelsea had ever acted in the alcoholic, more »

Today’s Globe has an interesting article about the Lowell Foreclosure Prevention Task Force, a group co-chaired by Frank Carvalho of Enterprise Bank and City Councilor Jim Milinazzo. According to the article, “Lowell saw the largest number of foreclosures in 2007” (270 homes lost compared to 89 in 2006), and the task force has been working for more than a year to help homeowners refinance with reputable lenders or find other alternatives. Two groups actively involved in the effort are the Coalition for a Better Acre and Community Teamwork Inc. If you are a Lowell homeowner facing mortgage payment difficulties, call 888-995-HOPE to learn more about the program.

The newspaper got it wrong. The compromise motion by School Committeeman Dave Conway to open the superintendent interviews to the public was not about to fail, as today’s article asserts, but would have passed 4-3 with support from committee members Connie Martin, Dave Conway, Mayor Caulfield and myself. I was in the process of asking to amend the motion to ensure applicant confidentiality until they are interviewed and to have the interviews televised—when information regarding the Open Meeting Law came to light.

Speaking of television, today’s paper also makes no mention of last night’s lengthy discussion regarding broadcasting LHS subcommittee meetings, an issue that speaks to members’ true commitment to transparent government. The motion to broadcast LHS subcommittee meetings ultimately passed on a 4-3 vote with members Dave Conway, Regina Faticanti and Mayor Caulfield voting against. (Based on their comments last night, they apparently felt the cost of about $2,000 a year to televise the meetings was too high a price for transparency.) It was a long meeting and perhaps it’s unfair to expect the newspaper to cover every motion (which is why the superintendent interviews should be televised). Fortunately, with today’s technology and bloggers (LiL also wrote about the meeting), we don’t have to rely on one source for the news. Check LTC’s website for a streaming video of the meeting (not up yet) and see for yourself.