Governor Patrick Takes All Questions
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"We need a change at the federal level. We need federal leadership involved in domestic policy," said Patrick in response to a question by Barbara Dean of Great Barrington on whether the governors should band together to force an end to the Iraq War — and pour the millions being spent on it into domestic concerns. "This is not about being partisan. It's not about being a Republican. This is about being engaged in policy."
While not agreeing with her that it was up to the governors, he said, "as your governor ... this was the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time ... I'd think that even if we were flush on the domestic side."
It was all part of the governor's town meeting series, designed to help him discern his constituents' concerns and needs. This was the ninth of 10 town meetings and the only one in Berkshire County this summer. Among those in attendance were town officials, Pittsfield Mayor James Ruberto and Workforce Development Secretary Suzanne Bump.
Some 200 people ranged chairs and blankets around the gazebo's grassy lawn, seeking shade under the trees as the sun slowly slipped below the mountains. With jazzy music playing over the loudspeakers, it was more like a picnic.But Patrick was only lightly grilled as people, some of whom traveled hours to the South Berkshire town to speak with him, lobbed questions about policies, platforms and the joys of being a governor.
"I wanted an unfiltered relationship with residents, with voters, to find out what you like, what you don't like," said Patrick. "And you need to hear directly from me what we are working on. ... I'm not interested in abstract reasons, I'm interested in how policy touches people."
Marie-France Chocot, visiting from Paris, was impressed that the governor really seemed to want to follow up on residents' questions and by the general lack of political partisanship at the meeting. (While Patrick stated as fact that he was "enthusiastically supporting" Barack Obama and commented on the Democratic primaries, he neither made nor encouraged any overt partisan comments.)
"Like in a good family, you put the question up and they try to find answers," she said through friend and translator Donald B. Easum.
Easum, of New York City, spent nearly 30 years in the U.S. Foreign Service, including as ambassador in the late 1970s to Nigeria, where he met a young Patrick. Their families have been friends since, said Easum.
The town hall meetings, during which citizens can ask unvetted questions about anything, was prompted by a press conference that failed to transmit a breakthrough in the movement of the much-vaunted life science bill.
"We called a press conference at Massachusetts General Hospital to dispel the notion of bickering between myself and the Speaker [Salvatore DiMasi]," said the governor. Legislative leaders and life science experts were on hand with "lots and lots" of television cameras and newspaper reporters. Yet, the governor's new haircut became the story — not the more significant and costly life science bill.
That sent Patrick on the road, in a way, to tell the state's citizens directly what's going on. A mission that would be easier, he noted, if "there weren't so many cameras here recording every mistake I make."
"Awesome opportunity you've created for everyone and a lot different than what I've seen go on politically around here, which is longer than you might assume," said Jules Jenssen, youth operational board coordinator for the Railroad Street Youth Project. Jenssen urged the governor to explain his Statewide Youth Council, to which Patrick readily agreed.
Ari, of Great Barrington, was more interested in discovering the governor's views on pot, the subject of a petition to decriminalize it to some extent that will be on the November ballot. (The state's district attorneys oppose the initiative.)
"I don't actually have to have an opinion on everything," Patrick responded to laughter. "So I'm going to dodge your first question." He agreed with part of Ari's stance, that first-time nonviolent offenders shouldn't be languishing in jail.
His off-hand description of the petition as "a local grassroots movement" brought more laughter, which it took the governor a second to catch on to. "Sorry, I walked right into that," he grinned.
Editor's note: Information about the marijuana ballot initiative in this story contained errors and has been corrected.
