Death...and the promise of SPRING
They say another winter storm is brewing for this week. Yet Daylight Saving(s) (the s is optional) Time is here http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-daylight-savings-20140308,0,4528883.story#axzz2vW9OtjTj
and the promise of rebirth, renewal, growth and infinite possibilities.
Last week came the news that two close friends had died. On
Wednesday a tribute was published here on the Patch, then on Thursday
the wife of a good friend called to tell me that her husband was gone.
They have a special needs son who knows that daddy isn't around, but
doesn't know why.
A bitter winter should mean an incredible
spring. For as they say, hope springs eternal. But how do we best
commemorate the lives of fallen comrades while keeping our own sanity
and learning to live without the people we knew, the people who said
kind things about us, the people who were on our side? A wonderful
woman was on the phone with me this week, a stranger, yet we were both
quoting the Bible to each other. Just a business woman from out of
state who took the time to chat about life and loss. She said
"sometimes it is about our experience, as much as it is about their
passing" (paraphrased.) Which, of course, is kind of the opposite of
the late Jerry Garcia's quote that I have used often when writing about
people passing on:
Death only matters to the person that's dying. The rest of us are going to live without that voice.
http://books.google.com/books?id=xy2zO9bUVboC&pg=PA107&lpg=PA107&dq=jerry+garcia++death+only+matters...
We
lost Jerry in August of 1995, and one wonders if he knew how poignant
his quote would become since so many of his colleagues passed on after
him, and in quick succession!
Yet I'm finding that
venerable old Jerry's quote is not entirely accurate. The rest of us
have to live without more than that voice. My friend Doug & I had a
get together with a mutual friend around Christmas 2012. My best
friend and I had plans the same day this year so I didn't get to see him
in 2013. Now Doug is gone, as well as the fellow whose wife called me
on Thursday. These individuals had so much to offer the world, and the
world has changed without their presence. So Mr. Garcia, all due
respect, but the impact of those dying is great on those who were close
to them. It MATTERS for the people left behind, it certainly matters.
I Thank God that I called Doug two weeks ago and that we got to chat.
He had fallen and didn't know that he broke two ribs and punctured his
lung. He told me that he had hurt his back, but it was worse than he
thought. He was unconscious on Saturday, and hospitalized for a week and
a half before passing away on the fifth. Meanwhile the other friend's
passing was more complicated with the possibility that he was given the
wrong medication. Have not got the full details yet and only know that
these two individuals are now gone.
__________________________________________________ I
canceled a trip to New York this week, as well as a get together with
friends today, Sunday. It's a time for reflection. What helps those of
us in Medford with this promise of spring is the promise from the Mayor
that he will do the right thing. We can only hope.
Those
of us who go up to the City Council week after week and professionally
state our case might politely ruffle Mr. Camuso's feathers. That says a
lot more about Mr. Camuso than it does about the speakers. You see,
there is responsibility that comes with being a Council president. Not
the responsibility to vote yourself a pay raise, but to listen to the
residents and be truthful with them, no matter how much that truth might
appear to stand in the way of your political aspirations. Helping
citizens instead of a politician helping himself would go a long way to
giving the residents some indication that we matter to elected officials
every day, not just on election day.
Mr. Camuso showed
disrespect to the late Pat Fiorello. He has disrespected Dr. Storella,
disrespected me as well as others older - and sometimes wiser - than
him. Note to Mr. Camuso: respect your elders. We may have information
that you need. Glad I could get you up to speed on the Open Meeting
Law, yet I wonder how much you've yet to learn taking a position that
you, clearly (by virtue of being unaware of the total of the Open
Meeting Law) aren't ready for.
Which brings us to public
access. So on Thursday night seven people looked at a viable space for
a new station. I have submitted a solid, logical proposal on how to
best utilize that space in a win/win/win situation.
When
the now-dissolving corporation read this, they went on the attack.
They just didn't have the decorum to allow citizens to move forward with
access without the bad history that was MCC TV3 lurking like a shadow
attempting to pounce and sabotage the new situation.
The
rocks that got thrown at me by a small group of heartless and cruel
individuals is mind boggling. For the readers who don't know the
back-story, the Mayor receives X amount of funds from the Agreements
with Comcast and Verizon. The non-profit in charge is supposed to do
tremendous outreach to the citizens. A retired judge found that it was
an insiders club, a private access station. Citizens - including over
two dozen former board members, ran from the situation because of the
bad experience of speaking out. There was harassment, there was name
calling, there was violence perpetrated on the victims.
Then,
after this writer kept the battle alive at the City Council when it
looked like it had little support, we gathered our strength and got City
Hall to do the right thing. City Hall pulled the funding.
I
didn't pull the funding. The other brave souls didn't pull the
funding. City Hall pulled the funding. I worked diligently to help out
two elected officials and an employee at City Hall to remove egregious
materials aimed at them. It was a horror show. It was difficult. We
were dealing with people who were steeped in cruelty and have to hide
behind aliases to throw the rocks that you saw thrown at me today.
The meeting minutes are missing. The financial records are missing.
The citizens who paid a LOT of money to the cable providers want to know
why the Mayor hasn't been proactive in getting to the bottom of this.
While two of my colleagues in the media are being buried,
while I'm working hard for my community, those vindictive individuals
can't let up. They just can't stop their abusive taunts and their bad
behavior that got them thrown out of Channel 3 in the first place. They
can't behave like adults.
The cold hard winter is a
reflection of what dozens and dozens of residents experienced at the
cold, cruel hands of TV 3 and their accomplices. But the promise of
Spring is around the corner, and one of the people in a position to say
this told me on Thursday night that we will have a new access TV
station.
I was there. The former cronies who took a
wrecking ball to the station were not there. You do the simple math,
and you'll know why this writer is being cyber bullied by multiple
people who - quite clearly - have something to hide.
It
takes courage to go up to the podium on a Tuesday night. It takes
courage to prepare a speech that you know will be dissected by cowards
who sit behind a keyboard and call you names, without the courage to
look you in the eye, face to face.
You see people, EVERYONE
knows where I am on Tuesday nights. I invite people to come up and be
civil and state their case. So when someone accuses people of not
looking them in the eye, when a person who should adhere to a code of
conduct lies to her superiors in her current situation, maliciously
attacking a man who is available to talk to the entire community every
Tuesday night, then you know what you are dealing with when she writes
the filth that this writer had to put up with today.
Julie Kelleher says that bullies write from the darkness and
won't look at you. She's 100% correct, and she's describing herself.
Unlike cowardly Julie, you can find me at 85 George P. Hassett Drive
just about every Tuesday night at 7 PM while Julie Jarhead is throwing
rocks and the ugliest things imaginable, and pontificating that she has
no sins and is as pure as snow. Sounds like the Kool-Aid TV 3 fed us for
decades, and it begs the question, if Julie Kelleher wants to be with
the old TV3 board, Malden Access TV should give her the permission to
leave them and join the old TV3 board. That appears to be where she
wants to be and what she wants to do. Julie is behind her typewriter
attacking a man, doing the opposite of what a marine is supposed to do.
This man is at City Hall every week for any legitimate person to speak
to in a civil fashion, something that woman can't comprehend or define:
civility.
It begs the question: why can't they just bow out gracefully and let
us build our new station to benefit this city? Is it because they are
so afraid that we will do a better job instantly? That's certainly part
of it.
I'm working hard for this community, and the community knows it.
Kicking a dog when he's down is not smart; because every dog has his
day. Spring is around the corner. I'm not afraid of that charlatan and
fraud, Julie Kelleher. But I am man enough to pray for her.