Why I’m voting for Ture Turnbull
Ture Turnbull is the only true progressive in the race for the State Representative for the 11th Suffolk district. When I first met Ture he was leading the policy conversation about healthcare justice. As someone who has worked in the healthcare industry for my entire career, I know all too well how broken our system is, and was inspired by Ture’s call to action in support of a Single Payer/Medicare for All healthcare system.
Ture is the clear choice for healthcare justice. As executive director of MassCare, he led the fight at the State House, pushing Single Payer through the Senate with a nearly unanimous vote (35-3), demonstrating his tenacity and effectiveness. He is the progressive voice we need to turn the House of Representatives on this issue. In contrast, Rep. Liz Malia has never co-sponsored any Single Payer bills.
I was heartbroken to see my current representative let the Safe Communities Act die. This act would have prevented law enforcement in Massachusetts from working with Trump’s ICE to tear immigrant families apart and detaining immigrant children here in Massachusetts. Advocates tried to get it attached to the budget, but Ms. Malia was no help. She only spoke up about the issue after it was killed by one of the committees she sits on. How disappointing.
Where were her progressive values then? We need a leader in front of these issues that are so important to us.
Public education is also very important to me, and again Ms. Malia let her constituents down. The House budget left a $1 billion gap in school funding. Malia has a lot of power as Vice Chair of Ways and Means, but what use is it if she refuses take principled stands against the Speaker of the House?
Ture Turnbull won’t kowtow to the Speaker. While Ms. Malia voted to eliminate term limits for the Speaker, creating a Speaker-for-Life, Ture will oppose any legislation that further consolidates the Speaker’s power and prevents progress.
Ture is not afraid of accountability and transparency to constituents. He believes all votes should be visible to the public, including those made in committee behind closed doors. Ms. Malia voted against legislation that would have done just that. Perhaps she is concerned that her constituents won’t support her if they see her voting record.
It’s time we have a bold progressive with new ideas that represent our district, who will fight for affordable housing, public education, protections for immigrants who are being attacked by ICE, and Single Payer healthcare. It’s a new age in Massachusetts, and we deserve progressive leadership that sets an example for the rest of the state – and the nation – to follow. It’s time for the 20 year incumbent to go. That’s why I’m voting for Ture Turnbull!
Alicia Allen
Jamaica Plain resident
SANCHEZ AND MALIA: CHAMPIONS FOR JAMAICA PLAIN NON-PROFITS
As people on the frontlines who work for the Jamaica Plain nonprofit sector, we are proud to support our champions: Representative Jeffrey Sanchez and Representative Liz Malia. And we would like to say THANK YOU to both of them for looking out for our Jamaica Plain nonprofits in the State budget! Sanchez and Malia have always stood with us to make sure our agencies have the State funds they need to operate, so that we can do our work in the areas of youth violence prevention, affordable housing, senior services, health care, services for people in need, and substance abuse prevention and treatment, among many other issues. They stand for equality for everyone in our community. We are so lucky to have both of them to help Jamaica Plain organizations succeed in the budget process. Please join us in supporting them and the amazing work they are doing to support nonprofits in our community.
Jeri Levitt
Kathie Mainzer
Horace Small
Wendy Polanco
Kassandra Ledesma
Rick Quiorga
Ken Tangvik
Dale Mitchell
Robert Torres
Kathy Brown
Joe Finn
Carol Leary
Michael Kane
Carol Miranda
Carl Sciortino
Andy Pond
Celina Miranda
Thank You to BPD Partners for National Night Out
On Monday, August 6, hundreds of friends and neighbors gathered near Jackson Square for an annual celebration of partnerships between local police and the community. This year’s Jamaica Plain version of “National Night Out” was organized by the Boston Police of District E-13, and hosted by the Mildred Hailey Tenants Organization. Hundreds of guests enjoyed hours of hot food, cold drinks, music, dancing, games, arts & crafts, repair services, resource tables, raffle prizes and Awards for community service.
Thank you to our many partners who helped to make possible this free, family celebration. These partners included: the Boston Housing Authority, Tree of Life, A.B.C.D., Hyde Jackson Main Street, Hyde Square Task Force, Martha Eliot Health Center, Brigham & Women’s’ Hospital Trauma Team, Stop & Shop, Whole Foods Market, Frogmore Restaurant, Il Panino Café, JPNDC, Urban Edge, Bikes Not Bombs, Fix It Clinic, Suffolk County Sheriff’s Dept., Transit Police, Bank of America, DJ Scorpion Aybar, the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council, Zumba with Lindsey Briggs, the Boston Floor Lords, the Boston Water & Sewer Commission and more.
Special guest speakers included Mayor Walsh, BPD Commissioner Gross, District Attorney Dan Conley, Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez, Rep. Liz Malia, Councilor Matt O’Malley, Councilor Annissa Essaibi George, BPD E-13 Captain John Greland, and more. The 5 Winners of 2018 Awards for Community Service included Ms. Carolyn Royce from Egleston Square Neighborhood Association, Ms. Alysha Noel from Martha Eliot Health Center, Mr. Lakis Themistocles from Il Panino Café, Mr. Abdalla Hussein from the Mildred Hailey Apartments and Detective Mike Aziz of BPD District E-13. The Winner of the Crime Watch Group of the Year was the Mildred Hailey Tenants Organization.
This free, community celebration was only made possible through the dedication & commitment of our local partners, who help the BPD every day to improve the quality of life for our friends and neighbors.
From the E-13 Police Station
Nika for LGBTQ+ Communities and for All
Nika Elugardo is a justice warrior, a leader who builds bridges and connects unlikely advocates. What makes her unique is the intersection of faith, policy, politics, and system change that she brings to everything she does.
As a person of color, Nika is no stranger to discrimination and strongly believes that everyone has the right to live in a world that protects them against it. An important part of Nika’s journey has been assessing the ways in which institutions, perpetuate homophobia and transphobia and challenging them to evaluate their biases. Where there is violence, injustice, or even microaggression against one of us, there is the same against all of us.
Nika understands from her own personal experience the journey from ally to champion. As an ally, she has loved and supported us, and our relatives, as gay and queer. As an ally, she has helped faith leaders embrace one another across historic barriers of race and sexual orientation. Nika works intentionally to reject the blindness of her privilege and to promote an end to any form of discrimination. As our representative, Nika will stand up as a champion.
One example where champions, not just allies, are needed is the Public Accommodations Law. This law protects the safety, privacy, and sovereignty of transgender persons over their own
bodies and establishes their rights as equal to those of cisgender people. There are those who, out of fear, hate, and ignorance, are trying to repeal this law. Anti-LGBTQ+ violence disproportionately harms trans people, especially trans people of color. Even the presence of phobic ballot initiatives negatively impacts the mental and physical health of LGBTQ+ youth and adults. It’s critical to champion this important law and vote Yes on 3 this November, and it will take champions like Nika to help transform our culture so this kind of harmful legislative attack is no more.
We must also hold our legislators to not only publicly praising but to championing and passing the LGBTQ+ public education–related legislation, such as the Healthy Youth Act for medically accurate sex education or the Gender Marker Bill to have an X as gender in your state ID. Nika will fight hard not only to legislate LGBTQ+ justice but also to educate our residents across the Commonwealth until the experience and beauty of the LGBTQ+ community is embraced and valued equally.
As members and relatives of the LGBTQ+ community, we are coming together to show our unwavering support for Nika Elugardo for state representative. We need Nika to bring her bold leadership and her inclusive and progressive agenda to the House of Representatives if we want to see real justice for all reflected in our state’s policies.
Wilnelia Rivera
Mike Leyba
Andy Lesser-González
Reggie Mobley
Jen Parks
Haidee Janak
Elizabeth Zoob
Robert Tumposky
Heshan Berents-Weeramuni
Lindsey Weeramuni
Joel Schwartz
Janet Selcer
Quentin Palfrey has my support
I’m writing to express my support for Quentin Palfrey, a Democrat running for lieutenant governor (LG) of Massachusetts.
Quentin is extremely qualified having served served as:
o Deputy General Counsel for Strategic Initiatives in the U.S. Commerce Department
o Chief of the Health Care Division of the MA Attorney General’s Office where he played an important role in the implementation of health reforms and spearheaded consumer protection efforts
o President Obama’s Senior Advisor for Jobs and Competitiveness in the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy where he worked to foster innovation and create American jobs
o Head of J-PAL North America, the poverty lab at MIT which conducts research and promotes evidence-based policy
Throughout his career, Quentin has been a leader in fighting poverty and inequality. I’ve known Quentin for fifteen years, since I served as legal assistant supporting his work as a young attorney. My fondest memory was assisting Quentin as he successfully gained political asylum for a woman from Cameroon. I continue to admire his work and values today.
As LG of Massachusetts, he would fight for:
-Fixing our broken criminal justice system
-Making Massachusetts a leader once again in expanding access to high-quality healthcare, including moving to a single-payer system
-Investing in our public schools and infrastructure
-Addressing challenges of climate change
The LG has a critical role to play as a bridge between the Governor’s office and cities and towns. Many of the most important policy issues that touch people’s lives, such as education, transportation, the opioid epidemic, and housing policy, happen at the local level. As LG, Quentin would be an ally and advocate for local governments on these issues.
Lauren B. Cook
Jamaica Plain resident