GLAD Members, Associates and Interested Democrats:
GREATER LOWELL AREA DEMOCRATS MEET ON OCTOBER 16TH at 8AM
I’ve just been advised that Lt. Governor Tim Murray will definitely attend the Greater Lowell Area Democrats regular breakfast meeting tomorrow morning at the Independence Grill/Radisson in Chelmsford. The meeting is scheduled for 8am. Please join us at the meeting. Tim Murray is a longtime friend and supporter of Greater Lowell Area Democrats.
Marie Sweeney GLAD Chair
Newark, N.J., is putting other cities on notice that it plans to go big with its arts and culture sector. At rh.com we like to keep our eye on creative economy initiatives in the US and abroad. Read the NYTimes article here, and consider buying the NYT if you appreciate the reporting.
This is a vintage photo – circa 1967 – of Richard Cardinal Cushing – Archbishop of Boston – blessing a new unit at Carney Hospital. Cardinal Cushing led the way to building and establishing Bon Secours Hospital – now Caritas Holy Family Hospital - in Methuen to serve the need for Catholic heathcare services in the Lower Merrimack Valley.
In today’s Globe Robert Weisman continues his reporting on the process of finalizing the sale of the Caritas Christi Health Care system to Ceberus Capital Management. Attorney General Martha Coakley approves the sale with conditions. The Massachusetts Public Health Council approved new licenses for the six Caritas hospitals with minor conditions. The pending sale awaits the ruling of the Massachusetts Supreme Judical Court – a requirement when assets of a non-profit entity are transferred to a for-profit entity. Apparently, last August the Vatican weighed in with a “no objection.” The Vatican has standing in the process because – according to the Globe article – Steward Health Care Systems LLC needed more that the state licenses to operate these hospitals.
“… under the Caritas bylaws — amended in 2008, when the system became an independent nonprofit — its longtime owner, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, retained the right to approve a sale.”
Moreover, the “stewardship agreement” approved by Cardinal Sean O’Malley last May contained certain moral directives especially about abortion but interestingly also included an escape clause for Cerberus.
Even with the stewardship agreement, which included an escape clause that would allow Cerberus to end the religious affiliation under some circumstances, the deal still required the church’s sign-off.
Terrence C. Donilon, spokesman for the archdiocese, yesterday confirmed that church authorities had given their approval, subject to the conditions outlined in the asset purchase agreement, which included the promise to keep the hospitals’ Catholic identity.
“We look forward to seeing the process completed for the good of Caritas, its patients, employees, and the general public,’’ Donilon said.
There are some Catholic groups who still oppose the sale of this Catholic healthcare system – including the “Coalition to Save Catholic Health Care.” R.T. Neary the coalition Chair claims he and other critics will continue the fight against the sale.
Neary, chairman of the Coalition to Save Catholic Health Care, cited the stewardship agreement’s escape clause, which allows Cerberus to back out if it determines complying with Catholic guidelines is “materially burdensome,’’ a phrase that is not defined.
If it ends the religious affiliation, the new owner would have to pay $25 million to a church-designated charity and remove the hospitals’ Catholic symbols.
“There’s no way we can understand how the archdiocese would approve anything that Cerberus would be involved in, Neary said. “They have no interest in the religious identity of Caritas Christi, which is the heart of what the system is about.’’
The end of this proccess seems near with all but one of the necessary approvals in place. The majority of the stakeholders seem satisfied. The discontented don’t really have a place to go now but stay tuned as the process plays out to its conclusion. This sale could be completed by November 1st – if the SJC moves forward with its approval.
Read the full Globe article here.
Culture, Current Events, Greater Lowell, Politics, Science | 
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Another example of Tony Sampas’s amazing eye for great photos of Lowell. These from a sidewalk on Central Street.
This past Wednesday was the 235th anniversary of the birth of the US Navy. That fact is not in dispute but the identity of the birthplace of the US Navy is a controversial topic. Five communities claim the honor. Philadelphia maintains that on October 13, 1775, the Continental Congress voted to outfit two ships for battle and since the vote occurred in Philly, that city should claim the honor. Providence, Rhode Island counters that the motion to build the ships was made by representatives from that community and so Providence is the rightful birthplace.
Two Massachusetts towns, Beverly and Marblehead, also claim the honor. Before Congress even began to debate the question of whether there should be a US Navy, General George Washington after taking command of the colonial militia gathered around Boston after Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill, ordered in September 1775 that a ship be outfitted for battle and sail out to harass the British Navy. That ship was the Hannah and it was modified for war at Beverly but it was owned and manned by residents of Marblehead.
Whitehall, New York also lays claim to the honor even though it lies far inland. Originally called Skenesboro (after a British officer), Whitehall is at the southern tip of Lake Champlain, only 5 miles west of the Vermont border. In the summer of 1776, General Phillip Schuyler ordered the construction of several warships to be used to fight the British on the strategically-vital Champlain. These ships were put under the command of Benedict Arnold and were used at the Battle of Valcour Island. In that engagement, most of the American vessels were sunk or captured, but they halted the British advance down the lake which kept the colonies from being split in two.
For one reason or another, I’ve visited all five of these communities. Despite my Massachusetts heritage, I like Whitehall which is pronounced by its residents as “Whitehaw”. I visited that community one summer day spent exploring the region involved in the Battle of Saratoga (which was more of a multiple month campaign than a single battle). I got to their small museum just as it was closing but the janitor happily let me in and escorted me around with a personalized tour. He was very friendly and the museum was great. So I can’t say I’d pick Whitehall as the birthplace as the US Navy, but I would urge anyone with an interest in the Revolutionary War to consider a visit.
Is former Democratic Attorney General Tom Reilly for real?
Is there really anyone who doesn’t believe Reilly’s endorsement of Republican Charlie Baker yesterday is nothing but a childish action motivated by his sour grapes attitude. In 2006 Tommy thought he had the Democratic nomination for governor wrapped up before the race even started… then a virtual Massachusetts nobody named Deval Patrick came from nowhere and kicked Reilly’s entrenched butt. No question the defeat was a huge embarrassment for Reilly, especially amongst party leaders who expected more from Mr Charmless.
You see, the dull Reilly just won’t admit that Patrick beat him because, well, Patrick was a better candidate, more dynamic and articulate.
Hey, we all get blind-sided at some point in our lives…but most of the time we are grown up enough to take our lumps and learn.
But not Tom Reilly…for him Patrick’s re-election is the perfect opportunity for revenge. And Charlie Baker is the perfect tool to use to get it.
By the way…am I wrong or did Baker not even find Reilly’s press conference yesterday important enough to attend.
During yesterday’s endorsement of Baker, Reilly said one thing I can’t seem to get out of my head…when talking about Baker’s turn around of Harvard Pilgrim after it was put in receivership under the former Attorney General…Reilly said “Working together (that’s Reilly and Baker) we got the job done in the end”…
Ahhhh, they work well together, I wonder if this is wishful thinking by Reilly as he campaigns for a Baker Administration?
Massachusetts State Senator Steven C. Panagiotakos – (D) Lowell
Greater Lowell Area Democrats (GLAD) will honor Massachusetts State Senator Steven C. Panagiotakos as the 2010 Distinguished Democrat at the Annual Fall Breakfast Brunch on Sunday October 24, 2010 at 10am at Lenzi’s in Dracut.
For more information or to reserve a seat or a table and pay for a ticket(s), please contact the GLAD Chair Marie Sweeney at sweeney133@verizon.net. Tickets are $35.00 per person – make check payable to GLAD. No corporate checks can be accepted.
Current Events, Greater Lowell, Lowell, Politics | No Comments »
Less than halfway through his first term, Obama has compiled a remarkable track record. As president, he has rewritten America’s social contract to make health care accessible for all citizens. He has brought 100,000 troops home from war and forged a once-unthinkable consensus around the endgame for the Bush administration’s $3 trillion blunder in Iraq. He has secured sweeping financial reforms that elevate the rights of consumers over Wall Street bankers and give regulators powerful new tools to prevent another collapse. And most important of all, he has achieved all of this while moving boldly to ward off another Great Depression and put the country back on a halting path to recovery.
Along the way, Obama delivered record tax cuts to the middle class and slashed nearly $200 billion in corporate welfare — reinvesting that money to make college more accessible and Medicare more solvent. He single-handedly prevented the collapse of the Big Three automakers — saving more than 1 million jobs — and brought Big Tobacco, at last, under the yoke of federal regulation. Even in the face of congressional intransigence on climate change, he has fought to constrain carbon pollution by executive fiat and to invest $200 billion in clean energy — an initiative bigger than John F. Kennedy’s moonshot and one that’s on track to double America’s capacity to generate renewable energy by the end of Obama’s first term.
On the social front, he has improved pay parity for women and hate-crime protections for gays and lesbians. He has brought a measure of sanity to the drug war, reducing the sentencing disparity for crack cocaine while granting states wide latitude to experiment with marijuana laws. And he has installed two young, female justices on the Supreme Court, creating what [historian Douglas]Brinkley calls “an Obama imprint on the court for generations.”
Read the complete article here, and consider buying Rolling Stone if you appreciate the journalism.
Culture, Current Events, Election 2010, History, Lowell, Politics | No Comments »
Here’s the schedule for the 2nd annual Boston Book Festival.
Note that the featured authors include Tom Perrotta and Ann Hood, who were two of the big names at this year’s Kerouac Literary Festival in Lowell. Also highlighted are poet and writer Nick Flynn, who appeared at the 2008 Massachusetts Poetry Festival in Lowell, and author and Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen, who holds an honorary degree from UMass Lowell. The keynote speaker is novelist Joyce Carol Oates (who has not been to Lowell as far as I know, but that’s OK.)
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