Archive for the ‘local stuff’ Category

Protest on Main street tomorrow

Posted: January 27, 2010 by datechguy in local stuff
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Newly re-elected city counselor-at-large Rosemary Reynolds (who won the seat held by Annie DiMartino) attended a meeting of Mass Right to Life in Fitchburg and informed them that Planned Parenthood will NOT be attending the Tuesday city counsel meeting on the 2nd.

Supposedly this is due to a key official of PP not being able to make it.

I wouldn’t put it past them to try to “deke” people in order to keep the turnout down so I think I’ll show up anyway.

The group will also hold a protest on main street tomorrow. I’m sure that will re-assure the remaining merchants on main street that PP won’t hurt business.

One side thought. The one Mosque in Fitchburg is located on main street. As Islam generally opposes abortion I wonder if the local Muslim community will be joining this protest?

Oh fyi the “re-elected” refers to her previous time on the city counsel.

“Now; What shall we talk about?”

Posted: January 23, 2010 by datechguy in local stuff
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Planned Parenthood wants to talk:

Dianne Luby, chief executive officer of the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, said she would be “more than happy to come to a City Council meeting” to discuss the concerns that drove six city councilors to vote to draft a resolution urging Planned Parenthood to abandon plans to open a Fitchburg chapter.

Planned Parenthood officials will attend a Feb. 2 City Council meeting.

Steve DiNatale is has a few things he’d like to talk about too:

State Rep. Stephen DiNatale, D-Fitchburg, said Thursday that he wants to meet with Planned Parenthood officials to explain to them that Fitchburg is not the right place for them to open a new office.

“We will gladly, gladly, meet with the state representative’s office, in the district or at the Statehouse; whatever works for him,” Mermell said.

DiNatale said he was trying to connect with officials from Planned Parenthood on Friday afternoon.

“I want to know what their plans are, how they arrived at the city of Fitchburg, some of the fine details you might say,” DiNatale said.

I’m sure PP will be wearing it’s most friendly face, but no matter how friendly and polite the face may be, the reality doesn’t change.

Robert Stacy’s 3rd to last photo from Massachusetts…

Posted: January 23, 2010 by datechguy in local stuff, oddities
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…was of the counter of the Fifth Street Diner, (also known as the old time Luncheonette).

Well Stacy is gone but not forgotten, if you are in Fitchburg sometime in the future and you sit in the corner booth at the Diner/Luncheonette you will see a photo of a man sans fedora wearing a red sweat shirt with ALABAMA across the center of it with a big smile.

Come down and see it while you get the fish in particular, unless you are Charles Johnson, then sit at the other end next to the door, the fish is too good to be spat out in anger.

…and the sides are taken

Posted: January 22, 2010 by datechguy in local stuff, opinion/news
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When I posted about Planned Parenthood coming to Fitchburg yesterday I wrote this:

The fight is now going to come here and the question is going to quickly become; what side are you on?

Well it didn’t take long for some on the City Counsel to decide:

“The City of Fitchburg is always complaining that we’re the social mecca of northern Worcester County. Do we really need another social service agency?” Councilor-at-large Thomas Conry asked.

State Rep. Stephen DiNatale signed on to the late-filed petition calling for a resolution, and said he planned to sit down with Planned Parenthood officials and explain to them why Fitchburg is not the right community for them to come to.

“It’s a blatant duplication of services. We have local agencies, with local people doing an outstanding job,” DiNatale said, following the City Council meeting.

“We do not need them on Main Street,” DiNatale said.

The most amazing statement on the subject was uttered by ward 5 Counselor Solomito in opposing the resolution:

“We shouldn’t prohibit anybody from coming here when we don’t know anything about them,”

We don’t? It’s not like they’ve been around for nearly a century, but if Joe wants to know perhaps he can ask Abby Johnson.

Johnson said she became involved with the clinic “to help women and … [do] the right thing.” The idea of increasing abortion numbers to increase revenue was repugnant to her. She said that ideally the facility’s director would provide “so much family planning and so much education that there is not a demand for abortion.”

But this ideal was not shared by the rest of Planned Parenthood, she said, because “abortion is the most lucrative part of Planned Parenthood’s operations.”

“With the family planning corporation really suffering,” Johnson said, “they depend on the abortion corporation to balance their budget, help get them out of the hole and help make income for the company.”

She continued, “They really wanted to increase the number of abortions so that they could increase their income.”

And a little history for the rest of them.

There is going to be a fight and it’s going to be big, as I’ve already said that this will give Catholics in town a place to re-direct their anger from church closings, but it is also going to animate the large evangelical community that has been growing in the area.

Meanwhile on the left I expect to see angry Coakley people using this fight as a place to vent.

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