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Goes our town EVER NOT get a project that doesn't end up costing more. How does one start a project NOT knowing about massive power lines under it? Don't they know about digsafe? Should fire whoever did this. What a waste of MY tax money.
mikeybsr, I agree with much of what you say. Certainly that history should never be forgotten -- even if it's history that we might wish had never happened. Whatever our wishes, it _did_ happen, and that should be acknowledged. Don't get me started on the Turners Falls Indians. Whatever the merits of the underlying issue (I leaned towards the "change" side, but with reservations because I knew how disruptive it would be; changes like that are sometimes better done gradually), the way it played out in the press and public meetings and the school system and social meetings was horrible. I think that any good that might have come from making the change was cancelled out by all the bad feelings generated by the process. But, as I said, don't get me started.
That said, I kinda like the Thunder logo -- looks very menacing, in a good way. And speaking of Christopher Columbus, I've been reading about the Vikings, who came to Canada (and maybe further south) hundreds of years earlier. We didn't learn about them growing up in Connecticut. . . .
Very interesting Mike N! The history seems a little complicated. Sometimes I wonder "why"! Growing up I went to school at TFHS. Home of the Turners Falls Indians! Being alumni from TFHS we always, or at least I though Turners Falls Indians was honoring what happened at the falls within the town many years ago! Times have changed. I get that!
Many years ago I had traveled Navajo Nation through the southwest! Very depressing! My point though is history "good" or "bad" is and should never be forgotten.
The Racism Card" seems to be played too much and the media polarizes this by brainwashing people daily!
Back to Turners Falls. Keep in mind the high school, Turners Falls Indians! Takes pride within the town and is FAR from being racist!
Thanks to Christopher Columbus for naming American Natives indigenous people. I guess he set sail to the West Indies, thought he was there. Maybe met some people who were unable to speak the language he new and came up with the name "indian"!
"Captain William Turner, commander of the Hadley garrison, decided to take action despite the instructions from his superiors."
This is a complicated history (as many are), and I daresay most of us (myself included) are only familiar with a small part of it. Maybe best to resolve to learn more before forming firm opinions. . . .
Bit of an oversimplification there, Stash. You might want to talk with our Millers Falls neighbor David Brule to get a fuller understanding of what happened. . ..
Yes folks 1676! 324 years ago! A man by the name of William Turner was sprung out of jail to carry out a mission assigned to him to carry out a mission for immunity! He was jailed in the eastern part of the state for his religious beliefs! (Didnt know that was something to be locked up for).
Here we are many years later offended by a town named after a man who did what he was instructed to do! Yes! During the King Phillip conflict Native Americans were fighting for their land and their beliefs! It's unfortunate but people, people in general were slaughtered both the colonists and Native Americans. Supporting a name change because of history which happened over 300 years ago is foolish!
But even though companies are paying the town for a generic police officer the town still has to budget to pay the police officer. Income and spending are different line items and have to be noted even if it evens out.
today's town meeting voted not to increase the police budget from last year. The police chief had requested an increase in spending but the town meeting members wanted to send a message about all the police reports around the country and I guess some reporting about disparities in arrests in Montague. At the meeting I did ask the chief why he wanted an increase and his response was "contractual obligations which included raises". I expect the chief will come back at the next special town meeting with more concrete information to present to the town meeting when he asks for more money. Somebody mentioned that police shouldn't be wasting their training directing traffic but I thought it was a state law in Mass that construction areas had to use police officers?
No results yet on town web site. Just a guess, but they may be waiting until they know the winners in all the races. There were more open seats than candidates for a number of town meeting races, and it can sometimes take a while to go through the write-ins to figure out who won. (If anyone -- one year in Precinct 2 there was a tie, and the precinct town meeting members had to meet at town hall for a special election to choose between the candidates.)
Maybe I missed it, but I haven't seen anything about the contest for tree warden in Monday's election. Does anyone know who the challenger is and why they are running? Thanks in advance. .. .
Mike Naughton
In general, I agree, though point #1 may need some fine-tuning: I think there are kids who get SS benefits because their parent died, for example -- they never contributed, but the parent did, so maybe some kind of allowance needs to be made.
As for #2, I'm in complete agreement. People who talk about SS having a problem don't mention this, so people should keep bringing it up.
I would add a third: if there realy IS a problem, remove the cap on SS and Medicare wthholdings. Right now, they start with the first $1 you make (I was having to deduct money from $10 checks to Millers Falls firefighters back in the 1990s, if you can believe that), but they stop at around $128,000. If you make more than that, they don't take another penny for either SS or Medicare. Why not? I'm not asking the rich to pay more (that's another discussion), but is there a problem with their paying the same as poor people (and not less)?
Was yapping with the Old Dude and he suggested a solution for the SS and Medicare shortage. If you did NOT contribute you do NOT get. Also the Feds tapped into the plan a while back. Now they are crying. PUT IT BACK. Problem solved.... Ed and Old Dude