New JK Editorial from Facebook: Leaders of Every Party Need to at Least Listen ...

[ObamaKerryDem]

..Before They Leap off An Ideological Bridge to Nowhere. Love the title and the commentary overall!:

http://www.facebook.com/indigochild86#!/notes/john-kerry/leaders-of-every-party-need-to-at-least-listen-before-they-leap-off-an-ideologic/10150224355985879

[karynnj]

1. great post - but while on Facebook, I found video to the Waltham town hall

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTSEJ5l5U78&feature=youtu.be

[ObamaKerryDem]

2. You beat me to it! :)

I can see myself from the back at 1:11 (I think it was)..right behind the man with the BRIGHT light blue shirt. And again a few times before the end..Ahh! *hides* :) But I am so happy there is video! I saw the Waltham press there. Shame on the Globe!

[politicasista]

3. Good editorial, though

they are going to have to get his constituent services together.

Some of these people should try living in a red state for one day and see how really bad politics is in this state. Not many complain about my GOP Senators not doing enough!

[Mass]

4. Once again, you consider some anonymous comment as truth.

Sorry, but the rest of the delegation is no better than Kerry in constituent services. You have no clue who the person complaining is and what her agenda is.

[politicasista]

5. Ok.

Sorry everyone. Peace.

[beachmom]

6. That's because we live in super red states where conservatives

think government should do nothing. No complaints in Georgia either. Not because Chambliss or Isaakson are great at constituent services; only that people here really don't engage like that the way they do in MA. I mean, let's face it Politicasista -- you and I don't get Massachusetts. So I'll probably defer to Mass. folks on perceptions of Sen. Kerry in state.

[politicasista]

7. Ok. True

You are spot on about red state government, constituent services, and being engaged like they do other states.

Wasn't trying to step on anyone's toes here or be a Debbie Downer concern troll (lol!), but that LTTE yesterday was sort of bothering because while is ok to speculate on an agenda, that newspaper is strongly close to Boston's minority community (in some ways part of the Dem base) that endorsed and supported Obama, Kerry, Kennedy, Patrick and other local elected officials (though turnout has been low, like other cities in a non-presidential election cycle).

You are right, we don't get MA, so will just stay out of commenting and let the MA people do their thing from now on.

[MBS]

8. oh, I'm with you-

intil recently, I've always lived in red states and/or LARGE states (like CA), where no one ever expects to meet even their Congressional representatives, much less their senators..
MA voters (even though I'm one) just have NO IDEA.

[politicasista]

9. That's all me was saying

but guess it was taken the wrong way. Going to leave it up to you guys to talk MA news now.

[karynnj]

10. I live in blue NJ - and it is blue even with Christie

I have NEVER seen Menendez. I have been active in my county, but other than in 2006, I really have never gotten a message that he was anywhere. This even though Dover, NJ is nearly half Hispanic, which you would think would make it a Menendez stronghold. I have seen Lautenberg speak twice, but once was in the gap when he was out of office and I went to the opening of the local Jewish Center (like a YMCA) that is named for him. I have never met my long time Congressman. I saw Corzine once at a county Democratic event where he explained his budget.

I am impressed that a powerful Senator has done 3 town halls and at least 2 open appearances in a state - no matter how big it is. Other than through seeing posts, I got one clue how different MA was when someone I was arguing with on blue Mass spoke of Kerry never coming to his town -as a sign that he just didn't care. When asked his town was Somerville - where Kerry has since been - I think at least twice. I was stunned as I stayed in Somerville when my husband and I came to see one of the Faneuil Hall speeches! I mentioned Kerry was in Boston often - but that was not good enough.

[TayTay]

11. He hasn't come to my town either,

except that he has. And the wonderful Roger Lau is everywhere, at once, in MA for John Kerry. (And Sen. Kerry couldn't have a better ambassador to MA. Roger is wonderful.)

MA is spoiled. Absolutely and completely spoiled. That is the explanation. It really is. Politics is personal here. It has always been personal. It has also been an enterprise that has engaged people the way it hasn't in other states. This goes back to the very origin of MA as a colony. We were founded by loud-mouthed dissenters and separatists who came here in order to get away from their English brothers and sisters. They fought each other, sued each other, argued constantly and vigorously and often about politics. The heavy influx of the Irish and their dependency on politics for jobs added to the already exisiting strain of emphasis on political speech. We love a good argument in the Bay State. We live for it.

We are just built this way. Even a reenactment of the Boston Tea Party gets the blood going and gives MA/Boston people a chance to argue. We just do this. And we are spoiled. Very, very spoiled. Our pols have the good news/bad news job of engaging with their constituents personally. It is expected. It is, after all, hard to have a really good and heated argument with someone who isn't there. We then report on the argument and the disagreements because "Kumbaya" isn't in our nature.

This is what MA does. We argue. We are not a mellow state. (God, you should hear some of the battles I have heard here over non-political things, like software engineers hashing something out. Ouch, my ears still hurt.) We formented a Revolution here and then told the rest of the country to suck it up and fight it. Ah, this is our heritage. We engage. So, our pols have to engage as well.

How the Revolution came about in Boston, according to the late Howard Zinn, unabashed liberal

What seems to have happened in Boston is that certain lawyers, editors, and merchants of the upper classes, but excluded from the ruling circles close to England-men like James Otis and Samuel Adams- organized a "Boston Caucus" and through their oratory and their writing "molded laboring- class opinion, called the 'mob' into action, and shaped its behaviour."

We have here a forecast of the long history of American politics, the mobilization of lower-class energy by upper-class politicians, for their own purposes. This was not purely deception; it involved, in part, a genuine recognition of lower-class grievances, which helps to account for its effectiveness as a tactic over the centuries. As Nash puts it:

James Otis, Samuel Adams, Royall lyler, Oxenbridge Thacher, and a host of other Bostonians, linked to the artisans and laborers through a network of neighborhood taverns, fire companies, and the Caucus, espoused a vision of politics that gave credence to laboring-class views and regarded as entirely legitimate the participation of artisans and even laborers in the political process. http://libcom.org/history/peoples-history-american-revolution

Boston is actually the capital of the world. You didn't know that? We breed smart-ass, quippy, funny people. Not that I'm one of them. I just sorta sneaked in under the radar.
John Krasinski, writer

[TayTay]

12. A brief History of MA, or why we are such Mass-souls

1620: A group of religious separatists depart from England for America in order to form a perfect place where they can all sit around and sing Kumbaya to each other. They have to turn around and head back because someone forgot the check the 2nd boat and it leaked. Group heads out again in late September because, you know, it's the North Atlantic, it's going into winter and what could go wrong with a voyage like that? Next stop: a settlement on the banks of the Hudson River and nirvana!

Later 1620: A starving, depleted, depressed and demoralized group of Pilgrims drops anchor off the coast of Cape Cod on Dec 16th. It's freakin cold. There's very little food, they have no housing, the crew of the Mayflower hates them now and they have to go ashore or die. Sigh! This 'voyage appointed by God' thing is not working out as planned. God should have sent directions. (This is not the Hudson River. However, it might some day make a great vacation spot.)

1621: If it wasn't for the Native Inhabitants feeling bad for the Pilgrims, they would have all died. That Kumbaya thing is sort of working out after all.

1629 The other group of major settlers come to MA. These folks actually intended to come to "Ye Olde Bay State" and land at Salem. They immediately engage in arguments, commence law suits against each other and make proclamations about establishing a new "City on a Hill" that talks about being a shining light unto the world and then grouse about their new neighbors, the Native Inhabitants.

1630: These latest settlers, called Puritans, decide they don't like Salem and establish a new place called Boston. Group splits and all the cool people head to Boston on account of it being a small peninsular and that means they can see anyone coming toward them and prepare attacks.

Interim: Puritan ministers declare that New England is the domain of the Devil and that it is the task of the Puritans to take it back from him. This is a work in progress, as we speak. (Seriously, New England was thought to be the Devil's property. All the other colonies knew this and teased us about it. They still, in a way, do.)

Post 1630 - War. Puritans love the Native Inhabitants until they outnumber them. Then they start to notice that these Native Inhabitants aren't very, ahm, English. War ensures. Most of Native Inhabitants killed or sent off as slaves. 1/3rd of Whites die in War. The Puritans, never a laugh a minute bunch to begin with, are now jumpy and, well, paranoid about everything.

1650-1680's - England becomes a Puritan state under Cromwell, then comes to their senses and throws the Puritans out. Mass-souls get even more paranoid about their relations with the Mother Country and start drinking heavily.

1692 Witchcraft outbreak. I hate my neighbor. He has more stuff then me. I think he got it through witchcraft. After all, the Devil used to own the land my house was built on. Let's kill them. Wait, we will have trials, just in case someone asks, present weird evidence and then kill them. The whole thing blows over once the Governor's wife gets accused. Leaves a bad feeling in people's mouths.

This is just history up to the end of the 17th century, during our medieval period. It gets worse. I mean, seriously, how could we not turn out to be churlish, argumentative types. But, at least we are funny.

[TayTay]

13. last history update, promise. True story

about my 9x great-grandfather, one Simon Stone

This passage is from the http://tinyurl.com/3z4qgpm">Magnolia or Religious History of the Commonwealth of MA, and was written by Cotton Mather.

This story takes place on the Lamprey River in Exeter, NH. during the aftermath of King Philips's War.

Cotton Mather also describes what he terms "A Remarkable Experience of One of Lieut. Thomas Bancroft's Soldiers while Fighting the Indians at Exeter" The story may seem rather trivial, but it is certainly interesting!

''On July 4, 1690, while eight white men were gathering hay in a field near Lamphrey River, they were set on by a large number of Indians who slew them all and took a lad into captivity. The next day they attacked Col. Hilton's garrison at Exeter. Lieut. Bancroft being stationed in the town with a small force at a distance probably of three or four miles, relieved the garrison at a loss however of eight or nine of his party.

"It is true that one Simon Stone of Groton here wounded with Shot in Nine several Places lay for Dead (as it was time) among the Dead. The Indians coming to strip him, attempted with Two several Blows of an Hatchet at his neck to cut off his head, which blows added you may be sure, more enormous Wounds unto those Portholes of Death at which the Life of the poor man was already running out as fast as it could. Being charged hard by Lieut. Bancroft they left the man without Scalping him and the English now coming to Bury the Dead one of the Soldiers perceived this poor man fetch a Gasp whereupon a Rough Fellow then present advised 'em to give him another Dab with an Hatchet and so Bury him with the rest.

"The English desisting this Barbarous advice lifted up the Wounded man and poured a little Fair Water into his Mouth at which he Coughed; then they poured a little Strong Water after it, at which he opened his Eyes. The Rough Fellow was ordered now to hale a Canoo ashore to carry the Wounded Man up the River unto a Chirurgeon:—Simon Stone was thoroughly Cured and is at this Day a very Lusty Man; and as he was born with Two Thumbs on one hand, his Neighbors have thought him to have at least as many Hearts as Thumbs.".

Definition: Rough Fellow = Irishman

Chirurgeon = surgeon

Fair Water is plain, unboiled frsh water, I believe.

Definition: Strong Water
Strong´-wa`ter
n. 1. An acid.
2. Distilled or ardent spirits; intoxicating liquor.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, published 1913 by C. & G. Merriam Co

A lusty man who revives from death when he is given liquor? How could that be one of my ancestors? Friggin Puritans.

[karynnj]

15. Wow - your ancestor must have been a very strong man

That is an amazing story. (One question had his son, who is also your ancestor yet been conceived - making his survival much more important to this group? )

[TayTay]

17. I have been doing historical research lately

This was spurred by two events. The first is the interest of my nephew in tracing his ancestry along with a neice in California who wishes to know what her MA history is. The second is an accident of history or some major synchronicity that renders my historical search much easier than I have any decent right to claim. My brother found an extensive geneology chart online that already has a great deal of the "begatting" and who relates to whom on it. I did not put this online and had zero to do with generating this list. It was done by others and was probably done because there is a strong LDS link in the family past. (Mormons are intensely interesed in ancestral research for religious reasons.) Here is the chart: http://www.whipple.org/descendants/mary5876.pdf (My grandfather is an 8 on here.)

I was delighted to find this generology chart. It feels like I won some sort of lottery. The chart represents an incredible amount of work and I know the source material so it's sound stuff. Wow!

IT is also humbling. My mother used to say, with a sort of pride, that we were "common as dirt" people. This was not intended to be a putdown. Quite the opposite, the "common as dirt" people are the majority of people on earth. They do the work, raise the families, pass on their values and are the glue that holds everything together. That said, there is some really wonderful stuff in this background, which is also the background of, by now, hundreds of thousands of others in this country.

(Ahm, I love charts like this, my family or not. Letting me look at stuff like this is like giving a child a box of Legos. I will happily get lost in the damn names, just the names and the sounds of them, for hours. I adore stories and this is just too much fun to play with for someone like me. A "fer-instance": all those women named Thankful. Love that name, must use it in something someday.OMG, someone named "Cephas Erastus" is on this list. What is that all about? Who names their kid Cephas Erastus and what does that mean in historical context? See what I mean, too much fun.)

[ladym55]

16. These posts on Mass history are GREAT!

It is a good thing that the people in Massachusetts give a damn about their government.

Being stupid about government at any level gets you elected officials like John Kasich (the AWESOME governor we now have here in Ohio who is busily selling off all public assets and legislating away workers' rights).

[karynnj]

14. I love the way Roger answers on facebook - always incredibly respectful and polite,

as he corrects misconceptions or gives information related to what people were posting on. Very low key - and great.

One question I have is why don't people demand answers on issues from Brown, whose opinion is often never known until a vote and then he rarely explains himself. Do you think as the election nears, people will demand that he have town halls? Could the difference be that people expect more out of Kerry - maybe because he has himself "promised" working for the things they want. You have posted that some want Kerry to live up to his potential - could there willingness to hold Brown to nothing suggest they do not see the him ever having the same level of ability?