Left In Lowell

The most democratic place in Lowell should remain open and welcoming to all regardless of societal prejudices about age, perceived addiction problems, shade of their skin, accent, how they dress or even if they smell.

I am talking about the Pollard Memorial Library our city’s public library. For the second time in a month, the Lowell City Council Sub-Committee on Public Safety (CCs J. Milinazzo, Chair, A. Kazanjian and R. Elliott) held a meeting to discuss “safety’ at the Library. Viewing the 1-hour political motivate proceedings made me angry.

If you have an hour to spend on doing your civic duty, please watch the streaming video on LTC of last night’s subcommittee meeting. I really am beginning to dislike CC Sub-Committee meetings. There is no rule, decorum or procedures. And the CC wants to have full, official meetings every other week so that they can have lengthy sub-committee meetings. Please! (more…)

Tonight the Lowell School Committee honored the winners of the Knowledge Bowl, the Sullivan School. This contest amongst Lowell’s nine middle schools takes place every year with each school having 8-10 student teams. It is a Jeopardy-like competition which focuses on knowledge learned from curriculum topics. The questions are really hard and most of us could not answer them as quickly as these students did.

It was the first time in the 18 year history of this competition that the Sullivan school won. You can read the details in Rita Savard’s article which appeared in the March 19th issue.

What stood out for me in this evening’s ceremony were the comments by one of the competitors. In accepting the acclamations from the City Council, this Sullivan School student said after a only a few of them volunteered for the team, they then decided to complete the team by asking classmates who could take the pressure of the competition and would not be afraid of hitting the buzzer.

Here was a 13-year old kid telling all of us what it takes in life to succeed: Do not be afraid to hit the buzzer.

This Saturday, April 5th, at Tewksbury High School (320 Pleasant St. in the Auditorium), local registered Democrats of the 5th Congressional District will meet to select our delegates to the national convention. We have 6 delegates to elect. Two of them (one male, one female) are to be elected for Barak Obama. The caucus starts at 1pm - doors open at noon, and lock closed at 1pm sharp.

I have knowledge of four people running for the Obama slots, two for male and two for the female. I thought I would share with you that information (I am not endorsing, though I know who I am going to vote for). The 5th Congressional District is made up of the following towns: Acton, Andover, Ayer, Berlin, Billerica, Bolton, Boxborough, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Concord, Dracut, Dunstable, Groton, Harvard, Haverhill, Hudson, Lancaster, Lawrence, Littleton, Lowell, Maynard, Methuen, Shirley, Stow, Sudbury, Tewksbury, Tyngsborough, Wayland (Precincts 1, 3, and 4), and Westford.

The two males are Rep. Jamie Eldridge and Alex Buck of Chelmsford. The females are Sarah Compton and Wilda Gerideau-Squires. After the flip, I’ll tell you what I know of these folks and post what they have sent to me. (more…)