Letter: Project 2025 is bigger than Dobbs

To the Editor:

Please join Greylock Together and Indivisible chapters all across the country (13 in Massachusetts alone) on Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Field Park in Williamstown on the two-year anniversary of the Dobbs decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Bring signs, hear speakers, leave with actions to take.

The Dobbs decision two years ago was the tip of the iceberg. Since then, 14 states have banned abortion entirely and many more have restricted access. MAGA Republicans have made clear this is only the beginning. Trump and his enablers winning in 2025 means those things can go national. As outlined in Project 2025, produced by The Heritage Foundation and a coalition of 100 right-wing organizations, they plan for a "post-constitutional" federal government. This plan threatens the very roots of democracy and the rights and freedoms upon which it is based. You can read it here: project2025.org.

The plan includes:

• Placing the entire federal government under direct presidential oversight, essentially abolishing the independence of key agencies like the Justice Department, Federal Communications Commission, Federal Trade Commission and others.

• Reclassifying thousands of federal workers as "at will" so that those who don't follow extremist policies can be fired and replaced with those who do.

• Restricting reproductive freedom, including abortion access, contraception and surrogacy by restructuring Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act and invoking the Comstock Act to track and limit "mail order" abortions.

• Eliminating agencies crucial for energy transition, abolishing the environmental justice department of the EPA, shutting down any offices or departments connected to the Paris Climate Agreement, reopening the Arctic for drilling and boosting fossil fuel use.

Wendy J Penner
Pam Wax
Williamstown, Mass. 

The writers are members of Greylock Together and the organizers of the event scheduled for Sunday.

Williamstown Fire District Won't Seek Retirement Exemption for Chief

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
05:16PM / Thursday, June 27, 2024

Prudential Committee members Lindsay Neathawk, left, David Moresi, Alex Steel and Joe Beverly meet at the Water Street fire station on Wednesday.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Prudential Committee on Wednesday voted 3-1 to not seek an exemption that would allow the fire chief to continue in his role past his 65th birthday.

 

Fire Chief Craig Pedercini had asked the panel, which governs the district, to seek the exemption to prevent him from having to retire in March of next year.

 

The five-member committee referred the question to a newly created Personnel Committee, which on Wednesday recommended that the district not seek the exemption to the state-mandated retirement age and instead begin the process of finding the department's next chief.

 

"After much discussion, we decided not to entertain an extension for the chief," said Prudential Committee member Joe Beverly, who served on the Personnel Committee. "That is our recommendation to give to the committee to make a vote on this evening.

 

"The recommendation had nothing to do with the current chief's job performance. It's a law. The process is a very complicated process to move [the exemption] forward. And the time frame we're under right now, we may not be able to do it prior to the chief's 65th birthday.

 

"We appreciate the 20-plus years the chief has given to the district."

 

Pedercini on Thursday morning said he knew the Personnel Committee was having the conversation but did not have a sense which way the full Prudential Committee would vote before Wednesday's meeting.