Governor’s visit
I attended the press conference mostly to satisfy my curiosity over the reason why Governor Baker is so interested in our city – after all, Lawrence didn’t vote for him and Mayor Rivera went out of his way promoting his opponent.
To our surprise, he was very candid bringing up the subject on his own because, as he admitted, people have been asking him about that. Governor Baker explained that when he was running for the position, he said that he would be a governor for 100% of the Commonwealth, no matter for whom they had voted.
The relationship that Governor Baker has with Mayor Dan Rivera seems to be one of respect and cooperation. For example, Mayor Rivera was picked by Baker to be part of his transition team and before he was sworn in, the mayor had explained the problems with the intersection at Lawrence St. and Park St. The governor promised him that he would be approving those funds before taking his jacket off once he took office.
“Well, it was not before taking my jacket off but a couple of days later,” Governor Baker joked.
Later, Mayor Rivera was overwhelmed with the amount of snow the city got and our equipment was insufficient to make a dent on the mounds accumulated. Again, he asked for the governor’s help and received eight bobcats from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) through his efforts.
What a lesson on civility it was!
I never had to ask about my curiosity and left the meeting with a renewed feeling of hope. Politics has become such a dirty word that it is pushing people away from getting involved.
Elections are over; let’s get together and work with the current administration at the local and state level –no matter who you supported.
Now for one pet peeve
While watching the Super Bowl last week, I couldn’t get over Pete Carroll’s habit of chewing gum. He reminded me of a cow eating grass only faster.
When watching the city council meetings, notice the same people doing it. I grew up hearing that chewing gun in public was a sign of not being well-mannered, yet it is common seeing people being interviewed on television holding the chunk of gun on the side of their mouths while they talk.
Oh, well… I cannot fix the world.
