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If you’re like me, you probably threw the envelope in a pile with junk mail to deal with another day. Well, that day is coming soon: Mail your completed form before April 19 or a census worker will have to come to your door to collect the information, and you know the state can’t afford that expense. We also can’t afford NOT to count every resident. That gives us all about 10 days to mail the information, so do it today! Keep in mind, census data is used to qualify for billions in federal aid for schools, hospitals and transportation needs—about $2,000 in federal aid per resident. Census data also determines how many representatives Massachusetts sends to Congress, meaning we need every resident to be counted so we can keep our 10 congressional seats! If you have questions or need to see a form, check MassVote here.

On a local note, Secretary of State William Galvin visited the Daley Middle School in Lowell a few weeks back to pitch the importance of the census to sixth grade students. (It was part of a statewide education effort conducted in several schools.) After his presentation, the questions from our students shed some light on their unique perspective of all things census, such as: If you’re pregnant do you count as one or two people? If you struggle with reading or don’t speak English well, will someone help you? And if you are homeless or in the hospital, how will your information be included? (Out of the mouths of babes, we learn the reality of our community.) Since most of us don’t have those challenges, we should just complete the form and get it in the mail asap!

At the back of the library copy of Olive Kitttredge by Elizabeth Strout, there is an interview with the author at which Olive is present and, in truth, Olive is so real to me that I can very easily imagine the scene, especially where she tells Strout that something is “none of your damned business.” That’s Olive for you. (I’m a little afraid she might call me up if I say too much about her, except I don’t think she reads blogs). The imagined encounter is also a good illustration of the humor that can be found lurking throughout the book, even in some of the more difficult situations (I’m thinking of the hostage situation where Olive starts in about her religious mother-in-law for one). Another sly undercurrent occurs when Olive says to her husband Henry about the Kennisons, a retired couple from Massachusetts, that “she must spend her life making up for his boorishness.” You immediately think that the same could probably be said of Henry about Olive! For the truth is she is rather difficult.

The book is made up of thirteen stories, all set in a coastal town in Maine (Brunswick?) and all either revolving around or somehow alluding to Olive. While Olive is not quite the center of the book, somehow the web of stories brings her to the foreground, probably in a way that would seem odd to her, since she has trouble, in the beginning at least, of seeing herself through the eyes of others. The setting, if you’ve ever spent any time in Maine, is as real as Olive- with lobstermen, donut shops, church suppers, the wry humor of the people and the skeptical attitude displayed towards out-of-staters, those “from away.” On the other hand, as a friend pointed out, the human drama could be situated anywhere – the problems of marriage, children, aging, the dangerous reefs that must be avoided in any long-held relationship, the problem as well as the need of other people. Strout doesn’t say too much, but her methods bring a world to life and with it a connection to our own worlds – our own hopes and fears. Get to know Olive; she’s worth it.

Despite local media reports about alleged, overwhelming anger directed at Congresswoman Niki Tsongas at yesterday’s senior women’s breakfast in Chelmsford (Seniors take Tsongas to Task), the other perspective on the story is that the anger was media hype combined with a dash of mistaken identity. Apparently, it was not female senior citizens who had the most strongly worded comments for Tsongas and who took up most of the time allotted for questions, but instead, a group of vocal Tea Party crashers, most of whom were not women. (See this video of the event.) That’s not to say you can’t have concerns about the sweeping legislation or that there aren’t folks out there with them, but the most important aspect of all this is to get the facts. Tsongas explains here in today’s Sun how health care reform will reduce the deficit, cut waste in medicare, and end taxpayer subsidies for private insurers’ overpayment and inefficiency. Another Sun article explains the medicare costs in detail, quoted in part, below (my bold):

“Nearly $500 billion in cuts under the health-reform package include no direct reductions to traditional Medicare benefits, Tsongas said. Instead, the cuts will come largely from limits to growth in future Medicare spending over the next 10 years and lower government funding of private Medicare Advantage plans. About 25 percent of all Medicare recipients get health care through these plans, including 7,400 in the 5th Congressional District, that generally reduce what people have to pay from their own pockets for medical services.

‘The small premiums are from the government paying out about 14 percent more for Advantage than it costs to cover seniors in traditional Medicare,’ Tsongas said. ‘You have to say what’s fair and what’s wasteful,’ Tsongas said. ‘Paying more for a select group is not fair to the majority receiving traditional Medicare and it’s misspending taxpayers dollars.’

While premiums for Advantage plans are likely to rise next year, ‘insurers cannot offer fewer benefits than the original Medicare plan, whether you’re on traditional Medicare or Medicare Advantage,’ Tsongas added. AARP Massachusetts, and other advocates for seniors, support health-care reform and insist the landmark bill will strengthen the overall Medicare program and benefit seniors.”

We’d like to introduce a new contributor to our blog. Mark is a friend and middle school math teacher who doesn’t live in the area, but whose varied interests in history, education, politics and economics (and baseball) always spark lively conversations. He’s agreed to post periodically, and we hope you’ll enjoy his insights as we do. Welcome, Mark!

The Tea Party movement has filled the political frame for parts of the last year. They’ve worked hard to scare Americans into thinking that socialism, fascism, or communism is around the corner. In doing so they almost derailed Obama’s health care bill. Many Democrats worry that the Tea Party folks are going to inspire a right-wing return to power – first in the mid-term elections this fall and then in 2012 when Obama runs for reelection. I think these fears are overblown.

For one, the Tea Party philosophy is so incoherent as to be hard to even discern. They are against growth in government and at the same time they want the government to create jobs. They are against “socialized” medicine but they defend (and use!) Medicare. Watch a series of interviews with folks at a Tea Party protest and it appears that a fair portion of them are literally unable to answer the simple question: “What is your program?” A crowd of angry people with neither focus nor leadership is quite capable of riling things up for a while but they rarely get anything accomplished over time.

Will they develop a clear focus that might allow them to carry out a plan? I doubt it. They want to take over the Republican Party but they actually oppose many of the ideals of the Republicans. The GOP has for decades been the party of Wall Street and corporate America while the Tea Party crowd maintain that they hate the power and influence of bankers and financiers. If they take over the GOP, they will disable it for a few years much the way the Goldwater “success” crippled the GOP in 1964. More likely, the Republicans will absorb and co-opt them and they will disappear the way so many movements have over the years.

It’s not that I think the Tea Party movement is going to simply disappear. More likely it will fade away slowly without accomplishing much. How could it accomplish much? The movement is mostly an angry reaction to the way American society is changing. And the Tea Partiers are powerless to change those trends.

Today’s breaking news in the Boston Globe reports that Massachusetts was not named as one of the recipients for the first round of federal education money under Race To-The Top (RTTT) funding. Many folks were surprised to discover that Massachusetts, considered to have the best public schools in the nation based on national test scores, was not included in this first round of awards. The Commonwealth had been selected as one of 16 finalists among 40 state applications; yet, according to the Globe report, only Delaware ($100 million) and Tennessee ($500 million) won in the first round, with another $3.4 billion remaining to be awarded in June.

With the Massachusetts legislature indicating cuts in state aid for schools, the federal money is highly coveted. Lowell has been told it could see a four percent reduction in chapter 70 funds, state aid for education, which means the district will face an additional $7.5 million shortfall for next year. This on the heels of more than $8 million in cuts last year as well as eight years of consistently reducing positions (about 400 less positions) as revenue has not kept pace with costs.

I never go to the movies, hate animation, and wasn’t interested in a 3-D movie at all; however, I did finally go out to see Avatar. I’m glad I did. The 3-D wasn’t just for over-the-top action and violent special effects, it added so much to the beauty of the planet and the believability of a wholly-created world. I heard that Cameron held off from making this movie until he thought the technology could do it justice, and he was right. (Watching an older sci-fi movie, “Stargate”, recently, the whole concept nearly fell apart with the appearance of a goofy looking alien animal).

Probably at this point, anyone who was going to see the movie already has done so; however, I’m thinking of people like me who might shy away from going because it’s in 3-D. It’s also long – I went in thinking that 2 hours and 40 minutes was going to feel endless. Wrong. It is tightly plotted, and it doesn’t assault you every minute with action sequences so the length wasn’t an issue for me. Sure, it’s somewhat predictable, but it is also a very beautiful and powerful movie in a lot of ways, and it’s not too late. Avatar is still showing in Arlington, Boston and elsewhere around the hub.

I just got off the phone with Jen Myers, reporter for the Lowell Sun, who is trolling to find out who may run for the open seat left by State Senator Steve Panagiotakos, chair of ways and means, who announced late this afternoon that he will not be seeking re-election this fall. Add this democratic seat to the other 23+ that are open this fall and you have a watershed moment in Massachusetts politics. According to Myers, one name that keeps coming up as a likely candidate for the seat is former city councilor Eileen Donaghue. Many see Donaghue as an excellent candidate and one who would run a good campaign. Readers may recall, she ran a solid campaign for Congress, losing in the primary to Representative Niki Tsongas.

Watching the votes for healthcare reform last night brought a mixed bag of hope and despair—hope that finally we would begin to move in the right direction, and despair that this issue would continue to divide our nation in harmful ways. The negative voices will not be silenced, and as always with criticism, the no voices appear louder and are more destructive. Today’s media coverage continues to be filled with the doomsayers and their horrific predictions about cost, bankruptcy, and cries of socialism as well as promises to repeal the law. I can’t help thinking back to the decision to invade Iraq when there was little talk of outrageous costs, or the number of lives that would be lost or damaged, or any plan for how it would end.  Aren’t many of today’s naysayers the same people who supported that expensive act of aggression, and who now claim we can’t afford to provide decent healthcare to our citizens? This bill, as imperfect as it is, is where we begin because without it, we have no national starting point (see today’s Boston Globe for the bill’s impact on the Commonwealth’s healthcare reform).  

Amid all these accusations and predictions of doom, however, there is another very real and great loss we all share. That is, the loss of belief in our system of government.  Both sides of the aisle have become so divided as to be nearly paralyzed except for exchanging barbs, and citizens are disillusioned with the prevailing sense that all government is corrupt, all politicians self-serving, and there is little to be hopeful about. For that reason, I was comforted by James Carroll’s column about spring and moving forward, about human spirit, and our ability to change. As hopeful as Carroll seems and as much as I applaud the healthcare reform bill, there are many who are strongly opposed, who gather strength in their own negativity and promotion of fear. Somehow we must find a way to come together as Americans, regardless of party, to solve the difficult challenges ahead. To do that, we need true leadership that will inspire people to believe in democracy again, to insist we work together, and to show that better days lie ahead for all of us. During an election year, that will not happen unless citizens demand it.

As I rush off to two school committee meetings (finance subcommittee at 6 and regularly scheduled meeting at 7), both televised live from LTC cable channel 10, I wanted to take a moment to share an Irish blessing on this, the very American holiday of St. Patrick’s Day. Celebrating the day has always been a big tradition in my family, mostly because my father made it so, with his green attire and accessories (right down to shamrock boxer shorts). For me, the day will always be about family, wearing green, and eating corned beef and cabbage, and especially remembering my father, who died on St. Patrick’s Day 17 years ago. In that spirit and on this glorious feels-like spring day:

May the road rise up to meet you

May the wind be always at your back

May the sun shine warm upon your face

And the rain fall soft upon your fields

And until we meet again

May God hold you in the palm of his hand.

I was listening to WCAP this morning, so I heard about the delays on the commuter rail line from Lowell to Boston. I checked online, phoned for an update, and sure enough: Due to flooding, the trains were stopping in Wilmington to unload passengers and shuttling them by bus to Anderson, where they would get back on a train for the rest of the ride to Boston.  This supposedly would make the trip only 30 minutes longer. Even with that hassle and having to allow extra time, the thought of fighting traffic and paying to park in Boston rather than sipping coffee and reading the paper made the train/bus/train option still my first choice. Fortunately, by the time I left on the 12:15, they had resolved the flooded-track issue somehow, and we took the train straight into North Station, albeit slower than usual.  As we rode, we passed wetlands of trees standing in small ponds, backyards that had become dark lakes, above-ground pools encased in water, and homes floating in puddles halfway up garage doors.  Alongside the tracks, a rushing gully of dark water kept pace with a current of tiny waves. Later, when I left North Station for the 15-minute walk to Beacon Street, the wind savagely ripped my umbrella into a deranged tangle of metal and torn cloth, rendering it useless, while rain sliced through my coat and stung my face. I was soaking wet and cold when I got to my meeting, and as much as I dreaded the walk back to North Station and the slow ride home, I knew I would dry easily. Not so, for those folks whose homes and businesses had been deluged.