Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

“What have you done today to make you feel proud?”

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That was the title, or at least oft-repeated line, of the theme song for Deval Patrick’s 2006 campaign.  Today, I know how the Governor himself can answer that question.  He has had plenty of accomplishments.  I was recruited to the campaign by Nancy O’Connor Stolberg back in 2005 when if people heard of him at all they thought his name was Patrick Deval and have staunchly supported him since.  I am very proud of what MA has accomplished on his watch and was more open to casinos in part because someone I knew, campaigned for, and trusted was backing them.  MA has taken the lead in so many areas under his leadership.

However, I cannot think of a time that I have been prouder of him, or that I think he can be justly proud, than this week when he decided that yes, Massachusetts would welcome some of the refugee children from Central America into temporary housing in our state.  This is a stellar example of humanity trumping politics.  While some are unwilling to touch this political hot potato, some are threatening to not co-operate in solving the overall problem, and others are screaming, “Not our children, not our problem!” or “Go back to Mexico” (never mind they aren’t from Mexico), our Governor has acted to actually alleviate the situation rather than resorting to xenophobic rhetoric.  John Walsh at the Together PAC and the state party are currently trumpeting all the ways that Massachusetts leads the nation.  Those are well and good, but mostly measurable by statistics.  What the Governor has demonstrated here is a different kind of leadership, a moral leadership that is difficult if not impossible to quantify.

As you know the two colonies that eventually formed Massachusetts were founded on explicitly Christian bases, and while we have rightfully gotten away from that I would like to think that these actions harken back to our heritage of Christian charity and that we can again be as a City Upon A Hill.  We did not have to do this.  We could have washed our hands and claim no responsibility or thrown them in the air with no clue what to do.  After all, we are about as far away from our southern border as you can get so it is not likely the kids would have come to our corner of the country on their own.  Yet we have instead acted upon our liberal impulses which despite the apparent illiberalism of our founders I believe are rooted early in our history.  In a time when not only the federal government, but many states, have basically failed in a lot of ways due to being hostage to ideology.  I am proud to be a Bay Stater where we can get the right things done for the right reasons.

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  3. I couldn’t be prouder of Deval Patrick! Great speech, and, even greater decision. Thank you, Governor!

  4. is if the migrant children could be housed in a facility in or near Waltham. It would have the added benefit of making DFW’s head explode.

  5. This should go without saying. I am amazed that Deval and others were forced to spend time selling this to people. WTF. I just don’t understand people.
    This episode put a pit in my stomach.

    • i heard him ranting and my goodness. The hate, the lack of empathy, the lies. I would think 90% of MA residents don’t have a problem with this.

  6. although I wish he would go further and propose that they be given permanent residence in the state. Housing children on an air reserve base is not really a solution in itself. What will happen next for them?

    I’m also curious why this post takes such pains to put the governor’s action in the context of Christianity. Christopher writes that the governor’s action “harkens back to our heritage of Christian charity.” The post also makes a point of saying Massachusetts, as a colony, was formed on an “explicitly Christian” basis.

    In fact, the governor was acting as the head of a state government in announcing his plan to accept these children, so it was not really an act of charity, nor was it exclusively a Christian act. It was an exercise in the use of state power in a moral way. And let’s not forget that the Massachusetts Constitution was one of the first to advocate the separation of church and state.

    I think that what Governor Patrick has shown here is not his Christian side, but his human side. And given what I know of his record involving families in the DDS system, I’m glad to see he has a human side.

    • … but it does come in handy at times, because its commands are so unequivocal when it comes to situations like this.

      I wish I could be magically transported back to the days before internet commenting, because the amount of hate and venom expressed on this topic is really scary. Also, most of what I have read is anonymous, so although I can form a stereotype of who these people are and why they might be so angry, I don’t really know if it’s accurate.

      Good decision Gov. Patrick, I hope you will be remembered for your leadership in times like this.

  7. The Governor himself made reference to his faith:

    The other reason I have offered our help is more personal, less about patriotism and more about faith. I believe that we will one day have to answer for our actions — and our inactions. My faith teaches that “if a stranger dwells with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him,” but rather “love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” (Lev. 19:33-34). We are admonished to take in the stranger, for “inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these,” Christ tells us, “you did it to Me.” (Matthew 25:43, 45). Every major faith tradition on earth charges its followers to treat others as we ourselves wish to be treated.

    Of course he ends with a nod to every major faith tradition and the broad basis is emphasized by the Jewish and Muslim leaders who stood by his side. Maybe it wasn’t explicit enough, but I was hinting at the point that it is often from the side that loudly proclaims that we are supposedly a Christian nation that we hear some of the most unChristian rhetoric and proposals. Massachusetts, OTOH, which really does have Christian roots shows by this action how to truly be Christian (and yes, humane generally) even this isn’t generally the state from which you hear a lot of explicitly Christian rhetoric.

  8. from the excellent Mother Jones

    In a doorless desert safe house in northwestern Mexico, the drug traffickers sized up the boy—17 years old, 1,700 miles from home, gay, alone—and asked if he was too scared to strap on a load of marijuana and walk across the border into Arizona.

    The kid—I’ll call him Adrián—paused to consider his options. He didn’t have any. Okay, he told them. He’d do it.
    He’d grown up mostly on the streets in Guatemala City, his abusive father a crack addict and his mother everywhere but around, leaving him with a thin, green-eyed prostitute friend who would sometimes have sex with johns right there next to him. He’d seen robberies, stabbings, shootings; he’d never once set foot in a classroom. Eventually he started making a little money selling clothes and makeup in the city’s colonial district. It wasn’t much, but even so the Barrio 18 street gang took notice and started asking for a cut. When Adrián didn’t budge, they pockmarked his tiny stall with bullets. It was time to leave.

    Just like that, Adrián became part of an explosion of child migrants traveling alone to sneak into the United States, a group government officials and advocates have begun referring to, with alarm, as “the surge.”

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