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ATTENTION!
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Today
We Are All Lawrencians!
In
the race for the Mayor’s office Michael Sullivan
beat Isabel Melendez. While I did not support Mike and
have some serious reservations about his leadership
style, this is a new day. The election is over. The
campaigning is done and whether we like it or not Mike
Sullivan is going to be our mayor for at least our years.
He promised on the campaign trail that he would serve out
his four years, "to the last day." If that’s
the case, Michael will be shaping Lawrence’s future
in a significant manner over the next four years. He will
be faced with a number of serious issues that affect all
of us, such as; crime, a new fire station, the excess of
low income housing, a shrinking budget, a slowing
economy, millions owed in back taxes, a pending lawsuit
by the Justice Department and a school system that still
has a long way to go before we are considered up to par.
Those who did not support Mike during the election must
now put aside their (our) differences and reservations
about Sullivan and wish him the best. It is in the best
interest of the city give him a chance to make some
progress where others have failed. Each time there is an
election the supporters of the losing candidate
immediately rush to beat up on the new mayor and refuse
to give them any chance for success. They criticize every
move and question the motive of every proposal because
they do not want the person who was their campaign
adversary to achieve anything.
This has to stop. It is dragging Lawrence down and nobody
benefits.
I urge all supporters of Isabel Melendez, Jose Santiago,
Joe Quartarone and Ralph Carrero to come together and
congratulate the new mayor. More importantly, I urge you
all to offer the new mayor whatever help he needs to
tackle running such a tough city. Lawrence can only
survive if we put the best interest of the city before
political differences. One of the reasons I am so
supportive of councilors like Patrick Blanchette and
Marcos Devers is because they never let their personal or
political feelings get in the way when they support or
oppose a mayors’ position on something. We should
look to men like this as an example of what needs to
happen if we want to make Lawrence a better place to live
in.
Mike was not my choice for mayor. Nevertheless, as of
today, he is the new mayor of the city of Lawrence. If
Michael Sullivan fails, Lawrence fails. It’s as
simple as that. We now have an obligation to the city and
ourselves to stand with him as Lawrencians and look at
his platform from a new perspective.
I firmly believe that everyone involved in this election
wants Lawrence to progress. Though we have our
differences on how to do that, we are only hurting
ourselves if we do not put those differences aside now
that the election is over. Any newly elected mayor should
be given the breathing room to make mistakes and correct
their own mistakes in the early times of their
administration.
Let’s not allow any bitterness from the campaign to
spill over into the Sullivan administration and cause
damage to the city in the process. We have a lot of work
to do and many obstacles to overcome in the next four
years. One thing for sure, they will be a lot easier to
solve if we are working together.
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