Listen Up, Deval

Marriage

The governor was the babbling baby in the corner and the legislature was paralyzed without meaningful leadership. Hey, all, the Supreme Judicial Court told you that marriage equality was the only thing compatible with our constitution. They said, “Make it happen.”

So, make it happen. Settle this damn thing finally. This is a small subset of laws that will fully formally enact the necessary rights. You’ve had years to fix it. This should be the top quick-hit of the new administration.

This will reinforce not only the constitutional interpretation of the highest court, but the repeated votes of our legislators already and the public view in which 60% or more want this. It should also stop those divisive type who can’t get on with their lives. Maybe they can move to New Jersey and cackle there.

Ballot Initiatives

We are only one of many states where citizen redress of initiative petitions have been hijacked by the hateful and self-interested. Fine-tune them. Fix them. Return them to their original purpose.

In case you forgot, they exist to give the public a way to correct crazy and detrimental legislation. They are not to foster business interests, nor to legalize theocratic precepts, nor to deprive groups of citizens of civil rights, and certainly not to the overrule court decisions.

The nasties have seen what they can do with sleazy money and dishonest tricks of campaigns. We don’t need unfunded mandates. We don’t need narrow political interest and religious groups sneaking their self-serving laws on us under the guise of helping the public.

This will require a little study, but not much. The issues are clear. The lessons of the recent ballot drives are all we really need to study.

Mass Transit

Forward funding was a colossal blunder. Fix it.

At a time when it is plain we need more people taking public transit, we hike the fees yet again and repel riders. We need fewer cars, less pollution, and decreased congestion and accidents.

Instead the dull-witted T board and the inert legislature saddled the T with crippling debts. It cannot meet the legal requirements forced on it and serve the public.

Forward funding’s basis is income that we did not and shall not get. It is dishonest and a sure loser. Any business, or well-managed government, would revise a major funding scheme when it became plain it was unworkable.

Don’t doom the T. Remove the debt, so that it can operate at break-even. Deval is smarter than Romney. He can lead the laddies and lassies of the legislature to this quickly and with business savvy.