>>Valley Patriot>> |
In the rough and tumble world that IS the Lawrence political scene, you have to expect some degree of negative campaigning to occur in an election year. But it appears that this year it has sunken to an all time low. For example, you wouldn’t expect anonymous letters containing personal attacks to make it onto a City Council agenda or anonymous complaints to receive much more credence that a Sound Off would. But some people will simply stop at nothing when it comes to political and financial gains coupled with malicious intent, which apparently knows no bounds. Nothing illustrates this point better than the personal attacks against members of my staff and administration. These bogus attacks by members of the Lawrence City Council and their supporters may get them the headlines they desperately seek. But those headlines will only show the public how bitter and unprofessional their approach to leadership really is. Blatantly abusing their elected positions to taint the reputation of anyone they can to embarrass the Mayor’s office and the City of Lawrence, it has become clear that the best interests of the citizens of Lawrence are not at the top of their priority list. I guess political assassination is never pretty, but the taxpayers of Lawrence deserve better from their employees and elected officials. That’s why it is crucial for the voters to know and understand the value of political discourse, as well as the motives used by those who cannot justify their positions and resort to unethical and unsubstantiated accusations. The good news is that these factions greatly underestimate the collective intelligence of the voters in the City of Lawrence. The voters are not quite as ignorant as some wish to believe. They are certainly smart enough not to be fooled by vicious rumor and innuendo. The voters instead will believe what they see for themselves. That’s why I believe this campaign for Mayor is one of the most crucial elections of the last 20 years. Take a look around the City of Lawrence and pay attention to what you see around you. Sure, we have a lot of work to do before Lawrence is where we need it to be on the road to success, but look around and remember where Lawrence was headed four years ago, what the city looked like and what was on the horizon in the way of progress. Look around when you are driving by Lawrence Schools and see the $225+ million dollars worth of new school construction we’ve secured for our children in their quest for educational excellence. Look around at the home values in the neighborhoods of our city or do a search on the Internet for the hottest real estate zip code in Massachusetts. What you will see is that Lawrence is the #1 hottest real estate zip code in the state for percentage value growth over the last five years. Look around at the hard work that our fire and police departments have made, making Lawrence, Massachusetts a safer place to buy a home, raise a family and start a business than it was four short years ago. After decades of broken promises and neglect of our schools, the stadium, public safety and economic development, Lawrence finally has an administration that is doing more than passing time. We have a new waste treatment plant, a stadium and city hall renovation project along with millions of dollars of road and park improvements that previous administrations only talked about. It’s just too
bad that some people can’t (or refuse to) enjoy the
success story that Lawrence is becoming - simply because
of petty politics and blind ambitions! *Send your questions
comments to ValleyPatriot@aol.com |
