opinion
Take two aspirin and call me in 2020 JANICE HARVEY
D
onald Trump and the GOP are bad for my health. It might be hyperbole to say life under this regime is slowing killing us all, though there are plenty of people out there who would nod in agreement. I’m not even referring to the easing of environmental restrictions the 45th president has managed to squeak past us while bellowing about nonsense. I’m talking about the stress of living life under a carnival roller coaster, which is pretty much what the last year and a half has felt like. My blood pressure is proof: 134 over 86 is not normal for me, and I can’t blame my salt intake alone. The Kavanaugh circus needed only a calliope to complete the act under the big tent. Tensions rose in every corner, as pundits chewed on the nomination, jamming microphones in the faces of
every elected official from here to Kalamazoo. Republican Sen. Susan Collins strung us along for a week before dropping a massive water balloon from the third floor porch onto the collective heads of women below. By dismissing Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s accusations of sexual assault and voting to confirm Eddie Haskell to the Supreme Court, Collins wrote her political epitaph - at least among women. ( Google that name if you’ve never seen an episode of “Leave It To Beaver.”) If there was ever a doubt in our minds regarding Republican disdain for females, the doubt was erased during the Kavanaugh debacle. The remarkable thing that came out of this terrible mess was the light shed on sexual assault - its prevalence, its profound effect on its victims, and the ways in which we address it. Donald Trump warned that men should be afraid they’ll be blamed for things they didn’t do, but
the flip side of this dog whistle is the notion they should be even more worried about the things they did. Surely Donald Trump knows this; he didn’t pay off Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal to cover up things he didn’t do. If men think twice before putting terrified women in wrestling holds to cop a feel, and reconsider wagging their genitals in the faces of female party goers, then maybe Dr. Ford didn’t sacrifice her privacy in vain. I don’t know a single woman who hasn’t been placed in a compromising or potentiallydangerous situation at some point in her life by men who think they have every right to “give it a shot.” Whether it’s verbal harassment or physical assault, every woman I’ve asked has a story. I have more than one tale of my own. I’ve considered airing my experiences, but I’m not ready, and I might never be. I understand why women wait,
Your Turn: Worcester’s Notre Shame TED D. CONNA
Janice Harvey contributing writer
There’s no way to sugarcoat this. Losing Notre Dame is an epic failure for Worcester, and the outcome could have been different if the community had been welcomed into the process. Too bad Hanover and City Hall didn’t see it that way. We will live with our shame. Ted D. Conna of Worcester is a leader of the Save Notre Dame Alliance.
LETTER
C O N T I N U E D F R O M PA G E 10
President Trump is right on the issues that affect the lives of working Americans whom Democrats dismiss as deplorable. It’s time Worcester take the bold step of at least renaming North High School as Donald J. Trump High School. Even better, Worcester should be the first municipality in the nation to erect a statue of President Trump, a true maverick and profile in courage, and place it on the Common where the people of Worcester can gaze upon it lovingly and the City Council may draw inspiration from the greatness of so honorable a man of the people. Winning!
11
Steven Feldman Worcester
WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM
ments there profitable. Every one of those five Council votes was an opportunity to require Notre Dame 46 subsidiaries in 13 states, plus be saved, but the Council never one offshore. Hanover reported bothered to do that. about $200 million in after-tax So either the Council completeprofit in 2017. Opus, its investment ly dropped the ball, or else they’re arm, manages about $10 billion in just a rubber stamp for City Manassets, including three subsidiaries ager Ed Augustus Jr. and the city’s related to CitySquare II, through corporate partners, like Hanover. which Hanover bought Notre Either way, it’s a problem. With the Dame and is now spending a small Council’s approval, Hanover called fortune to destroy it. the shots while taxpayers ponied Many of us wonder what this up $94 million for CitySquare, and demolition is costing, but Hanover’s soon we’ll be borrowing another not saying. What would have been $100 million for the ballpark. But possible if the millions spent on the Council couldn’t find a nickel destroying Notre Dame had been for Notre Dame, so Worcester dedicated to saving it instead? loses an irreplaceable architectural And what if the City Council masterpiece. It’s sad, it’s shameful, had actually lifted a finger to it’s infuriating, it’s embarrassing — save Notre Dame? They treated and it’s too late to change it now. us to a few speeches and some All of this points to a problem hand-wringing this past summer, I’ve watched play out repeatedly but only after it was too late to for more than 30 years. Worcester’s matter. For years before that they urban planning process is inaccesdid virtually nothing when they sible to most citizens, with power could have used their authority to and decision-making confined to demand Notre Dame be saved. The a small, powerful group of political Council often hid behind the fact insiders and corporations, and that Hanover owned it, but from public participation effectively 2012, when they first “requested” sidelined and ignored. Until that Hanover save Notre Dame, to the changes, this kind of cultural carpresent, the Council voted to apnage will happen again and again, prove three DIF amendments and and the cynicism it generates will two TIF agreements that funded continue to undermine public the progress of CitySquare and trust in city government. helped make Hanover’s invest-
greed, misogyny and racism. Only a blue wave can slow further damage and hopefully restore some balance. Mitch McConnell’s dreams have come true, and there’s very little we can do to alter that fact. I’m not naive enough to think Kavanaugh will be impeached and removed from the bench; that’s wishful thinking and would require many elected officials doing the right thing. Sadly, we seem to be in short supply of that species. Meanwhile, until Robert Mueller wraps up his investigation, I’m taking the salt shaker off the kitchen table, going for a massage and watching “Friends” reruns. My alreadybroken heart can’t take much more of this.
O C T O B E R 11 - 17, 2018
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et me get this off my chest. Whoever scheduled a baseball party across the street from the cultural vandalism at Notre Dame, on the very day the real carnage began, deserves an award for insensitivity. That just rubbed salt in the wounds of those who care about preserving our cultural history. I’ve got nothing against a new ballpark, aside from the all-too predictable, top-down way it came about, with dissenting voices effectively ignored. But did the destruction of one of our best architectural landmarks really need to be the backdrop and metaphor for our so-called “renaissance?” A more appropriate reaction to our failure to value and preserve our heritage would be shame, not celebration. When Hanover Insurance bought Notre Dame in 2010, they made an implicit promise to the Worcester community that they would give it a new life, and for at least a few years, they did put some effort and money into studying options for the building. But once they concluded, years ago, that no one could make money on it, Hanover pretty much bailed on
their commitment to save it. Even though many community leaders worked tirelessly for years to save Notre Dame, Hanover never offered the kind of cooperation they needed to succeed. Hanover has been a generous philanthropist elsewhere in the city, but there was no charity here. Nor was there any meaningful commitment to work with the community to raise the money the project would have required. Hanover basically said, “Find us millions of charitable dollars, or a Boston-style developer with deep pockets, and we can talk; otherwise, it’s coming down.” But without ongoing commitment to saving Notre Dame on Hanover’s part, community efforts were doomed from the start. A $6-million subsidy or charitable campaign could have saved Notre Dame, but what developer or major donor would take a risk on that when the owner of the building was no longer on board? It’s well known that one development group repeatedly tried, and they got nowhere. And it’s not that Hanover couldn’t afford to encourage a community effort to save Notre Dame. Hanover is a $5-billion Delaware corporation, with about
or never speak up. I get why they forget the details but remember the act. They’ve spent years trying to erase from their memories everything about the assault, but the delete button doesn’t completely obliterate the crime. And make no mistake: these are crimes. These men are criminals. I suspect nothing good will come from Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation. He’s a vengeful liar and a partisan tool, and for those reasons alone he should have been rejected by the judicial committee. He was coached by Trump, the master of denial and faux outrage, and in that regard Kavanaugh was a very good student. Watching Kavanaugh testify caused millions of women to suffer PTSD, myself included, and it’s my fervent hope that those same women vote in November. The GOP has finally scraped off its veneer of concern for the country and revealed itself to be the party of