On September 1st, the City of Worcester joined the rest of the state in running the state’s primary. It is a rainy day, and low turnout is expected. For the most part, races are unopposed, and the way it is seems destined to continue at the State House.
Often, if you read the local news, Democrats here in Massachusetts celebrate themselves and the policies in our Commonwealth. There are a ton of lawsuits against the Trump Administration, and it seems like many victories. But for the poor and middle-class people of our state:
-Prices keep rising
-Rents keep rising
-Homelessness is at all-time records
-Addiction keeps rising
So I was unsurprised to see the picture that District Attorney Joe Early posted on his Facebook. The picture was clearly from City Manager Eric Batista’s office. I have been there a few times in futile attempts to get various city managers to change their minds on this issue or that. It never works. As our illustrious Mayor shows us, all deals are done in the dark.
This picture included the following caption:
Today we met with City of Worcester, Massachusetts City Manager Eric Batista, City of Worcester Health & Human Services Commissioner Dr. Seema Dixit, Worcester Police Department (Official)’s Chief Paul Saucier, and Worcester County Sheriff’s Office Sheriff Lew Evangelidis to share ideas and brainstorm solutions to combat the opioid crisis and support Worcester’s unhoused population. Our hope is that by working together on a community solution, we can make a greater impact and continue building a safer, healthier Worcester.
How can it be a community solution if no one from the affected community is there? This is the disconnect our leaders have. In that picture there are registered Democrats, Republicans and unenrolled. All of them seem blissfully unaware that there is no one at that table with lived experience relative to the issues at hand. As much as the three law enforcement leaders might know about how to arrest people, prosecute them, and then house them in a corrections facility, none of them have ever lived on the street.
The interesting thing is that all of them know local professionals who have. All of them work in some capacity with program directors who interact daily with folks who have had successful recoveries. All of them have spoken publicly at events where people in recovery have had success. Yet, at this meeting of power brokers in that space, not one of them had the wherewithal to invite a person with relative experience.
It is such an interesting juxtaposition on this day, in the shadow of the Civilian Review Board debate, or the discussion of law enforcement accountability. If you go to their Facebook pages, you will see local people who argue up and down that no one without a law enforcement background should EVER oversee law enforcement personnel. The NEBPA Local 911 and its president take the same position.
Yet the same leaders think people without experience in the homelessness field or addiction field should have the ability to review and make decisions. They have a meeting, with a picture like this, taken on purpose on primary day, and show you exactly what they think of you.
I do not think that local people are stupid and offer no value to these important conversations. Looking at this picture, it would appear that they do.
