Tag Archives: rant

Local Politics Rant

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I don’t often discuss politics in my blog, but this is one local issue that I can’t get off my mind lately, so excuse me while I vent.

I grew up in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, which is about forty-five minutes north of Boston. One of the reasons my parents chose to live there was because of its good school system, and I agree that for the most part, I had a great experience in the Chelmsford public schools. I had some amazing teachers, and I feel that I was so well-prepared for college that college actually seemed easy to me. I majored in English, and none of the English classes I took at BC were as rigorous as the English classes I took at Chelmsford High. I had a terrific calculus teacher who made things so easy to understand that I wondered why anyone thought calculus was hard. I had some wonderful teachers in elementary school and middle school, too, and some of my fondest memories of high school involve extracurriculars: swim team, musical theater, treble choir, yearbook, etc.

I don’t live in Chelmsford anymore, so I don’t really follow the local news there, but this week, I read in the Globe that voters had failed to approve a property tax override that would have prevented several budget cuts. I was sad to hear that, but I had to give the voters the benefit of the doubt, since I’ve never had to pay property taxes myself. Nobody likes tax increases, and I thought that if the override had failed so decisively (3 to 2), it must have been a significant increase.

Then I found out more facts about it. Because this override failed, an elementary school will have to be closed permanently, when the schools are already getting overcrowded. Students will have to be redistricted yet again. There’ll be a $200 bus fee per child, when previously, buses were completely covered. Student activity fees will be significantly increased, which means that some kids might not be able to afford to participate in the extracurriculars I was involved in. 35 school employees will be laid off. A fire station will be closed permanently. Police officers and firefighters will be laid off. Libraries will have to cut their hours.

These are not small things. These are life-changing, property-value-diminishing, educational-quality-decreasing, threat-to-public-safety changes. The people of Chelmsford decided, through the democratic process, that several people should lose their jobs, residents should be more vulnerable to crime, homes should be more likely to be destroyed by fire, and that the town should no longer have a high-quality, enviable school system that makes people want to raise a family there. That override must have been for a hell of a lot of money, I thought.

Then I found out exactly how much. This document explains that the taxes on a home valued $370,000, which is slightly above the town average, would increase by about $200 a year.

Whoa.

Back up there.

$200 a year? $200 a year! Not a month! A year. A YEAR! $200! Not $2,000. $200! Two zeroes! Two!

Now, you all know that I have no money. The first word of my blog title is “struggling.” I recently joined a Facebook group called “I work in publishing and I’m underpaid.” Taking a vacation is a dream of mine, and God only knows when I’ll be able to afford a house. But when I can, I will most definitely be willing to spend $200 a year to help schools and town services. I’d be willing to pay that now, for God’s sake, as little money as I have!

I just don’t understand this way of thinking at all. Not wanting a tax increase when you don’t know where your tax dollars are going is one thing, but how can you see these very specific things that are going to be cut and think, “Oh, we don’t need good schools! Screw the fire department and police, I’ll take the risk and save myself $200 a year!” I get that a lot of the people voting against it are senior citizens on fixed incomes, but most of them had children in the school system in the past. How can they look at the kids in their neighborhood and feel okay about decreasing the quality of their education so that they can save $200 a year? How are that many people so selfish?

The last override in town happened seventeen years ago. I actually vaguely remember it—I was in first grade, and my parents, along with many, many others, had a bumper sticker on their car and a sign on their lawn urging people to vote yes. I was only six and had no idea what taxes were, but I remember thinking, “Well, of course people should support the schools. Why wouldn’t you?”

Seventeen years later, my thinking hasn’t changed at all. Maybe someday I’ll look back at this and think, “Oh, you stupid, idealistic twenty-three-year-old. You have no idea how the world works,” but I really don’t think so. Last year, Chelmsford was named the 21st-best place to live in America by Money magazine. Somehow, I doubt that it will happen again. And I used to think that once I was married with kids, I’d like to live there and have my kids go through the Chelmsford public schools. Unless something major changes between now and then, that’s most definitely not an option anymore.

I believe strongly in public school education. In college, I was amazed to meet so many people who had gone to private schools, since I barely knew anyone who did growing up, and I’ve never quite understood the school choice position because it doesn’t address the problem of how to fix failing schools. Education is a right, not a privilege, and the people of Chelmsford, who, according to the PowerPoint presentation on this page, spend $2,000 less per student than the state average, aren’t asking for anything extravagant. They just want a school system in the town they live in with good teachers, small class sizes, available transportation, and affordable extracurriculars. I thought most people in Chelmsford felt the same way.

But apparently, by a 3 to 2 margin, they don’t.

An Open Letter

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Dear T Riders of Boston,

Here are some rules of etiquette for you:

-Do not set gigantic bags on the floor right by the door, causing people to trip over it and each other (literally), especially during rush hour.

-Do not stand in front of an empty seat. And don’t give me a dirty look when I say, “Excuse me,” and move to sit in it. You can give up your right to sit, and I respect that, but don’t infringe upon my right to take the seat you didn’t want.

-Do not block an empty seat in any other way. If you’re on one of the older green line trains, do not sit in the aisle seat and refuse to move over when you see me standing near you. Do not sit in the aisle seat and put your stuff on the empty seat next to you. If you’re in any seat on any line, don’t take up two seats, either with your body or your stuff.

-For the love of God, do not put your feet on an empty seat.

-Don’t be a college student. Not only do you annoy me with your loud chatter and inane conversation, but you make me realize a.) that I must have sounded exactly like that a couple of years ago, and b.) that I’m officially OLD if I’m at the point where college students annoy me.

That is all.

Love,
Katie

P.S. Well, not quite. I should mentiont that not all of you suck. Some of you are quite friendly, and some of you actually have interesting conversations that I like to listen in on. Like the guy I once sat next to and the woman he knew who walked over and started talking to him, whereupon I discovered that they were both actors in musicals. I’ve since seen the woman a few more times on the T (apparently, we have the same schedule), and one time she was mouthing the words on the sheet music she was looking at.

P.P.S. Oh, yeah, and if you’re a T driver, could you try not to slam the door on me (literally , close the doors with me stuck in between them) like you did last Monday? Thanks.

What Pisses Me Off More Than Anything

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I am about to admit an extremely disturbing fact about myself. In this day and age, there are plenty of things to get pissed off about. But the strongest amount of anger I’ve ever felt wasn’t over Darfur or global warming or the war or homelessness or world hunger or cancer or human rights violations. So what was it that caused me to writhe and seethe in the most frightening rage I’ve ever felt?

My computer.

Depending on my mood, “stupid,” “fucking,” or “piece of crap” can sometimes follow “my.”

Here’s my story. Yesterday, I came home, and my roommate Christina, who has a job interview next week, asked me if I’d take a look at her cover letter and resume. I said yes (and, on a side note, said “covah letta” without even thinking about it, thus proving that I can still drop r’s like the best Bostonians) and headed to the computer. Here’s what ensued.

First of all, I should note that on Christmas Eve 2005, I got a computer virus and my hard drive had to be wiped clean. Luckily, I had most of my stuff backed up, but my computer has had all kinds of quirks since then. Among them are its inability to use screensavers, so when I return to my computer after a long absence, there are three possibilities. I might simply have to press any key to return to what I was doing. I might have to hit the on button and then long back in. Or I might have to restart completely. On any given day, it might be any one of those options.

Yesterday it was option b, hitting the on button and logging back in. After that, however, I had to take out and re-insert my wireless card several times before I could connect to the Internet. When I finally did, I logged into gmail. I clicked on Christina’s attachment.

And I waited. And I waited. And w a i t e d . . .

The thing is four and a half years old, and it shows its age by having moments of ridiculous, incredible slowness. This was its worse one yet. After twenty minutes of not being able to open the attachment, I shut down the computer.

And then, of course, I had to wait about ten minutes, as always, for the computer to boot up and connect to the Internet. After clicking on Firefox, I had to wait for that to load. And once I got into gmail and clicked the attachment again…it was s t i l l s l o w.

By the time I finally got the attachment open, it had been about an hour. Yes, you read that right. It took me an entire hour to open one fucking attachment!

I first got this damn thing I’m typing on now in August of 2002, right before I started college. I was thrilled—it was the first time I’d owned my own computer. And for awhile, I was quite fond of it. I made my first mix CD on it. I typed my thesis on it. I wrote the few pieces of my writing that have been published on it. We had a lot of good times, this piece of crap and I.

But screw nostalgia. I can only take so much abuse. I can’t let this thing be like the boyfriend who calls you fat and won’t return your calls and, when you try to call him on it, reminds you of all the great things he’s done for you in the past and then has a couple of good days to try and make you forget.

But I WILL NOT FORGET! Computer, our days are over. I am breaking up with you. I am moving on and becoming a stronger person for it. You’re just getting shoved in the back of my closet.

Seriously, the amount of anger I sometimes have towards this thing is truly frightening. So I’m going to get a new one sooner rather than later. I don’t care if I go broke over it. Saving money is not worth my sanity.

Sure, this might read like an overreaction. But you know what? You wait until it takes you a FUCKING HOUR to open an attachment, and then tell me if you’re thinking about world hunger.