The experiment that wasn’t
A few days ago, I wrote something on Facebook with the sole intention of making people aware of their rights and fighting for good representation in our city government.
What we have been seeing this year in Lawrence has been worse than any other election year. Perhaps we are getting used to discrepancies in voting to the point that it’s becoming part of the norm.
The situation with Jennifer López and Fidelina Santiago has become a huge scandal. Let’s face it, stealing ballots from mailboxes is a federal offense and I’m sure they both knew it, but Fidelina had to win no matter what it took.
I don’t understand how anyone could defend such an action and blame it on politics. What they did was wrong, and illegal and they now must face the consequences. We should talk about this case so newcomers and everyone understand how wrong that is.
I would like to tell you that I intended to test people’s reactions as part of a social behavior study but I’m not that smart. It just happened! My purpose was to educate the public about not allowing politicians to force their way into positions and explore ways to combat their games using legal means.
Instead, the attention that my message received was astonishing. The readers didn’t get the message because they focused on a one-word mistake I made while they missed the reason for writing it.
Yes, some courageous people called me to demand a retraction. I praised their valor by calling me because they had no idea of how I would react to their request. Instead, I thanked them for calling and told them to stay tuned to my response. Frankly, I was stunned by their fanaticism in defending Ms. Santiago and Ms. Lopez from my “attack”, completely refusing to discuss what they had done.
Well, my error was that I said they had been “arrested” when they were “indicted” according to the District Attorney’s letter Paul Tucker. I should have caught it and my spell checker didn’t know the difference.
My confusion was created perhaps because I knew they were visited at their homes and taken to Boston. I’m sure that was not a voluntary trip on their part, so it was easy to think that was considered an arrest.
In subsequent days, I was maligned on social media and radio programs as if I were a criminal; that’s why I call it a social experiment because they have turned the issue all around to distract their audience. At least, by picking on me they left Councilor at-Large Ana Levy to rest a bit.
They keep talking about the letter she sent to Mr. Galvin with an air of authority that the foolish masses tend to believe.
In the interest of clarification, I am not a journalist, I have a bachelor’s degree from Franklin Pierce College but never took journalism courses. I do have 15 years of experience producing my own show on Channel 56 where I won an EMMY Award, I published a book with two novels, and I’ve been involved in radio for over twenty years and have produced a few informational and educational programs during that time.
Then, in 1996, my husband and I created Rumbo because we saw the need in this area to inform this community without any experience on how to publish a newspaper.
But I’m not a professional journalist.
Through those years, the most important thing I learned was that finding the truth on any topic was vital to success. There were times when I looked like a fool for not being knowledgeable of a topic and I quickly learned to be prepared when interviewing anyone.
Let me tell you, there are many “fools” on the radio who are completely ignorant of what they are talking about – including professional journalists.
Councilor Levy has been accused of many things concocted by radio personalities such as being the one who requested the Secretary of State William Galvin to conduct this ongoing investigation on the Santiago/Lopez saga. A total lie.
To put that to rest, I requested that letter from Councilor Levy to see the content (anyone else could have done the same) and I was shocked to see that it had nothing to do with the Santiago/Lopez case. It was about the Germinudis Rosario issue during the Primary Election, and it was dated October 2, 2023.
If interested, you can read it on page 5, but please, make sure to call the “professional journalist” and tell her that rule number one in journalism in get evidence, check your sources, investigate before you open your mouth, and always tell the truth.
I hope Councilor Levy gets an apology but maybe, she’ll also miss that point.
Inauguration on Tuesday
The inauguration of the recently elected members of the city council and school committees. It will be held at the South Lawrence East School at 7 o’clock.
There have been efforts to prevent Fidelina Santiago from being sworn in as Councilor for District A until the federal investigation is concluded but it’s not possible to stop it. My reason for believing that she will be an awful councilor is because the day after her election, she called other candidates and told them to remove all their political signs because she is going to clean up District A.
Such authoritative conduct, knowing that the reason for winning was due to her dirty deeds, tells me that she will be a terror to deal with in the city council.
In a conversation with City Clerk Eileen Bernal last Friday, she explained that she has not been found guilty of anything and has every right to be part of the inauguration. “Besides, this is a celebration for all those that were elected; let them enjoy their night!” she added.
Ms. Bernal also explained that they are prepared not to allow any disturbances during the ceremony. “Anyone behaving in a less than honorable way could be arrested,” she told me.
Meanwhile, Mayor Brian DePeña has been staying out of everything even though he’s been blamed for the investigation by State and Federal officials on Fidelina Santiago and Jennifer Lopez’s stolen ballots. He was on the radio on Saturday morning with a New Year’s salute to the audience and said that, in his position, he is “not supposed to pick sides involving the people he will be working with in the future.”
Be the first to comment