Local Democrats Discuss Priorities for State Platform
 Richard Taskin facilitates a meeting of Democrats; top, Edward Wilk, center, discusses rail possibilities. |
More than two dozen registered party members and independent voters met Tuesday at the Richmond Grill in the Holiday Inn to discuss what the state Democratic Party should focus on. The meeting was one of only two in Berkshire County; a third Western Mass. meeting was held in Springfield.
It was the first time the party had solicited the input of regular voters on issues important to them. Joyce Wrend, chairman of the North Adams City Democratic Committee was pleased with the turnout, which included voters from Adams and Williamstown.
The discussion, moderated by Richard Taskin, included priorities such as health care, jobs, green energy, education, crime and the party's need to bow to the will of the electorate.
It was generally agreed that more effort needed to be put into ensuring health care was affordable and accessable. Preventive care should be a top priority, said one woman. Christine Cowlin said that should extend to mental health care as well. "More needs to be done."
Mental health issues also play into the problems of homelessness, both Wrend and City Councilor Lisa Blackmer said. Blackmer said there was no mention of it in the platform. "We need to acknowledge the impact of mental illness."
John Zelazo of Adams was concerned that the party leadership was trying to get around a very clear decision by voters to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana. The attorney general's office has been advising local state and police on controlling the public use of marijuana through fines. It wasn't the pot use at issue so much as the evasion of the people's will.
"The Democratic Party should stand up and make sure the will of the people is maintained," he said.
City Councilor Marie Harpin said the party should address the economic impact of charter schools on public schools. A section on white-collar crime should include fraud and scams, especially related to the state's elder citizens, said Blackmer.
"I feel strongly that we have to stand up for the people in poverty," said Richard Dassatti. "We need to make sure we pay people a living wage.
"If we can take care of people economically everything else will fall in place."
But the issue dominating the two-hour meeting was transportation — a real problem in Berkshire County where the old adage you can't get there from here is often a reality.
The county is served by an Amtrak train that runs east/west with a stop in Pittsfield; its arrival and departure times are iffy at best. It can take up to 5 hours to get to Boston. The public bus system, currently under review, doesn't reach large areas of the county.
Bringing rail back to the Western Gateway and the home of the historic Hoosac Tunnel should be a priority, they all agreed.
City Councilor Gailanne Cariddi said Pan Am had stated its interested in expanding its rail line during discussions about the proposed bike path through the city. The rail company is considering laying another line of rail on the property it owns along the existing line. "They are very viable," said Cariddi.
Edward Wilk, a former Adams selectman, remembered when rail brought "people from everywhere" to the region. "We have the potential."
Will the rail draw the passengers or should enough passengers advocate for the rail, said Lee Harrison of Berkshire Brigades. "It's the chicken or the egg question."
Taskin was going to take the notes he jotted down on large sheets of paper and distill them down into a list of priorities and reasons for review of the city committee. They would then be submitted to the state platform committee for possible inclusion.
The local attorney and political science isntructor at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts said the discussion could summed up in, appropriately, in the Four Freedoms of President Roosevelt famously painted by the county's own Norman Rockwell — Want, Fear, Religion and Speech.
We are at a time, said Taskin, when FDR's answer to the Great Depression should be taken to heart: "The country demands bold, persistent experimentation."
The convention will be held June 6 in Springfield. The local platform hearing will be shown on Northern Berkshire Community Television.
