The city is benefitting from political involvement

Date: 9/7/2017

Putting together coverage of the people running for office in Springfield underscored several important points for me.

The first one is that democracy in the City of Homes is pretty damn healthy. Now, no offense to any of the incumbent city councilors or members of the School Committee, but competition for these seats is a very good thing.

It speaks to the involvement of the electorate that people want to risk their time and money to run for office – that even with a stipend can be a relatively thankless job at times.

The number of people involved in those two races also shows the diversity of the city. Thanks to the implementation of ward representation, the City Council more closely resembles the city itself.

I’m not sure if you remember the city council from 20 years ago when there was usually one African-American and perhaps one woman serving at any given time. The all at-large body meant that some people who were certainly qualified to run, couldn’t because of the cost of staging an all-city campaign.

Certainly social media has lowered some of the cost of campaigning, but old-fashioned door knocking, sign holding and other personal interaction with voters wins elections – as we saw in the recent Hampden County Sheriff’s race.

It’s a fact that not all of the newcomers are going to win, but what is being created potentially is a group of politically involved activists who, if they wish to continue in serving the city, will find ways to channel their energy for the betterment of Springfield.

If you live in Springfield, please take the time to meet or at least do a little research on all the candidates. You owe that to yourself and to them.

Pumpkin?

I’m standing at a Dunkin’ Donuts the other day waiting for a breakfast sandwich and I couldn’t help but be drawn to a video billboard in the shop breathlessly proclaiming the return of pumpkin to the establishment.

Pumpkin flavor in various coffee drinks, pumpkin cream cheese for bagels and pumpkin cake donuts were all heralded.

When the heck did this happen? Now I’m not a coffee drinker, but my wife is, and I know, being the semi-astute husband that I am, she looks forward to pumpkin lattes every year. My question is when did pumpkin flavor become a small industry?

I grew up at a time when pumpkins were grown for two reasons: pies and jack ‘o lanterns. I became aware of the pumpkin presence in coffee a few years ago but was caught off-guard by the creeping influence of the fall vegetable in other items.

Who decided such things? Is there a pumpkin lobby that advances the cause of pumpkin for the nation’s pumpkin growers – farmers who were tired of having such a limited market for their versatile vegetable? Did a Dunkin’ Donut exec discover the glories of pumpkin for him or herself? Are pumpkins just cheap and available and therefore easy to exploit?

Don’t get me wrong, I like pumpkins just fine, preferably in a pie.

Now I might be a bit on board if raspberry was suddenly and literally the flavor of the month, but that is just a personal preference.

Madigan’s a great journalist

WGBY recently announced the retirement of long-time news host Jim Madigan and I would be remiss if I didn’t add my voices of the many who have sang his praises.

I first met Jim in 1979 when he was working at WLDM and I was with the Westfield Evening News, as it was called then. Jim has always been a true professional.

Over the years he has deservedly earned the respect of his fellow media professionals, as well as the many elected officials who sat next to him for an interview.

I would see him in passing when I was a regular guest of the WGBY’s “Watercooler” shows in the early 2000s and I have been honored that I was on “Connecting Point” several times to deliver opinion pieces and then to talk about my book “Fifteen Minutes with: Forty Years of Interviews.”

Jim is always thorough and gracious to his guest, qualities that have served both him and his viewers well.

He is one of the good guys.