Editor’s note: Article 44 at the Town Meeting on March 28 will ask if Lincoln residents support passage of the We the People Act. The full warrant can be found here.
To the editor:
I attended the first of eight “Commonwealth Conversations” with state senators at Newton North High School [last week] to urge quick passage of the crucial We The People Act (Mass. House Docket 1988, filed Jan. 15, 2015). The “Commonwealth Conversations” are a series of grassroots forums that our state senators are holding to hear from us. It was a moving experience.
Lincoln’s Senator, Mike Barrett, was there, as was Senate President Stanley Rosenberg, lead sponsor of The We The People Act Senator Jamie Eldredge and several other senators, also many state representatives in the audience. The senators listened for almost two hours as more than fifty people spoke briefly on a wide range of issues and problems that urgently need to be addressed. Time ran out before all those who wanted to could speak.
More people spoke about the We The People Act than any other issue.
Lincoln’s upcoming Town Meeting will also discuss the We The People Act. There is a free workshop at Bemis on Saturday, March 21 from 9:30 a.m. to noon on the We The People Act.
Until we pass an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would affirm that the rights in the Constitution of the U.S. are the rights of human individuals only and not corporations, and that the spending of money to influence elections is not protected free speech under the First Amendment, little to nothing will happen to tackle let alone solve the issues brought before the Senators.
We are no longer a government of, by or for the people. Our state legislators are our last best hope to bring it back. Article V of the U.S. constitution empowers state legislators to call for an amendment convention if Congress refuses to act six months after 34 states have requested that they do so on these issues.
Here are just some of the many issues I wrote down that were addressed at the “conversation” in Newton (editor’s note: see the Newton Tab for more coverage):
- Support for Senator Barrett’s efforts to bring a much-needed revenue neutral carbon fee that would reimburse people for using less carbon based energy and would be a win-win for the people of Massachusetts and the environment
- Addressing rising medical costs (HD 1690) that might be solved with the passage of Medicare for all
- Urging more support for the mentally ill, those in recovery, children in schools, children in broken homes, people in nursing homes
- Addressing the foreclosure crisis that is still very much ongoing
- Improving the efficiency of open meeting laws to provide more transparency (HD 56)
- Support for local agriculture
- Solving the disaster that is the MBTA and public transportation in general
- Criminal justice reform
- Ending unjust, unequal mandatory minimum drug sentences
- More support for legal aid
- Support for transparency in State House Committee Assignments and the Massachusetts legislative budget process in general
Sincerely,
Jean Palmer
Tower Road
Letters to the editor must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to news@lincolnsquirrel.com. Letters must be about a Lincoln-specific topic, will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Letters containing personal attacks, errors of fact or other inappropriate material will not be published.