jackiedoherty.org

Not sure what I expected from the Democratic Convention at U Mass Amherst today, but voting on three major resolutions wasn’t it. It was only my second convention as a delegate and my first during a non-election year, so I hadn’t given much thought to what was going to happen exactly. (There were many other newcomers there from Lowell who first became delegates, like me, to support Deval Patrick’s grassroots campaign.) During today’s convention, the Massachusetts Democratic Party voted to send three resolutions to Congress. All three passed, but I personally would have liked more time to research the issues before voting on them. For instance, the first resolution addressed the housing debt crisis. It seemed to be calling for a reorganization of our banking system and a freeze on delinquent mortgage debt. I understand that predatory lenders have caused record numbers of people to lose their homes, but this resolution seems about punishing all lenders. I’m also concerned with accountability on both ends. (Would love to have our Registrar of Deeds, Richard Howe Jr., weigh in on this one–hint hint.) The second resolution was to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney for deceiving the American people and Congress about Iraq’s supposed weapons of mass destruction and relationship with Al Qaeda, and also for openly threatening Iran without them posing a real threat to the U.S. The third resolution called for complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq within three months. I’d love to see us out of Iraq, but I’m concerned about the tight timeframe because I think we have a responsibility to deal with the mess we helped create there. In addition to voting on the resolutions, I heard speeches from Martha Coakley, the state’s first female attorney general, who was surprisingly funny with quips such as more »