Cultural Quagmire

Let there be no mistake about it; there is a cultural quagmire that is threatening to swamp the country, and it's taken up residence right here in our own backyard.

Ethically challenged doesn't even begin to describe what's going on, because to use the word "challenged" would be to imply that there was at least a fight between good and evil. What we have going on right now is the complete triumph of greed, dishonesty, lawlessness and apathy over morality, values and common sense.

On the national level, we have witnessed the Abramoff lobbying/payoff scandal, which is threatening to bring down some very big names, as elected officials from Congress to the President have been divesting themselves of tainted money, given to insure access, acquiescence and in some cases, legislative action.

At the state level, there have been a number of scandals involving payoffs and fraud, from the clerk at the DMV creating fake licenses, to the administrator at the Dept. of Education providing fake teacher certifications for people who couldn't pass the test. The Boston Herald also reported that a state representive (now former) is under indictment, along with a number of his family members, for "extortion, bribery, conspiracy, government theft and mail fraud." State Auditor, Joseph DiNucci, recently announced a full-scale investigation into $63 million dollars spent on computerizing the state's judicial system, in which only 2 - that's right, 2 of the state's 117 courts have had the updates implemented.

Locally, we're well acquainted with scandal. There have been a few thefts at city hall in the last few years, and in each case, the employee was let go. Yet, what began small in 1990, with Superintendent Foresteire's directive of a school employee to paint a school committeeman's apartment, http://www.mass.gov/ethics/ENFORCEMENTACTIONS.htm#Foresteire is now scandal mountain. We've witnessed multiple indictments for the superintendent, his now convicted of procurement fraud business manager and the "pled out but not yet sentenced" vendors who participated in the scheme. A state audit of Everett's "pride" revealed uncertified teachers, hundreds of thousands of dollars of misspent state and federal grant money, a special education slush fund, more than a million dollars in overspending and a lawyer who received thousands and thousands of dollars on cases in which he "lost" all the files.

Yesterday, we had a newspaper questioning where the outrage was regarding the continuing employment of Lona DeFeo, the convicted felon still running the maintenance department for Everett Public Schools. Along that same vein, the paper also questioned where the candidates were for school committee, and pointed out that it (the newspaper) had "accepted the decision of the school superintendent to leave her there, the School Committee to agree, the city government also..." while stipulating that charter change, something that "city government has shown no stomach for," would prevent the school department from allowing a convicted felon to continue working.

While the newspaper is partly right - it's also part of the problem. We do need charter change; we also need a culture change. There's a reason for the "don't stick your neck out" culture here. Maybe it started with old Joe Curnane, the late editor of the Everett Leader Herald, who went after political foes with a vengeance. Who can forget the "Gang of Five" headlines when Ron Vacca was on the school committee? Ron, who could be a guided missle in his attempts to get answers, was arrested during one contentious meeting. And while you might not agree with his approach, you could not fault the man for his passion and his caring. Yet, the headlines blared...and people stopped trying so hard to make a difference. It was into this culture the Fred Foresteire superintendency was born.

Is it any different today? The same newspaper that questioned "where the outrage was" is also one of the newspapers that has questioned and in some cases, ridiculed the critics of the superintendent. (Remember the special education slush fund?) This paper took the word of the superintendent as gospel - until the results of the state audit came out. The fact is, our three local papers do very little drilling down on what the superintendent says and does (journalism)....and more than enough on his critics, questioning motives and ideas with suggestive, quirky little innuendo-laden editorials. It's ridiculous to question where the outrage is....when you're one of the ones who have helped kill passion and caring in this city, the twin fuels of outrage.

The call by the Independent for charter change to deal with the DeFeo issue is a red-herring. Common sense and a decent moral core should dictate that Ms. DeFeo should be fired for her conviction in the line of her employment, and the school committee and city government should not need a charter change to figure it out, and the Independent should not need a march on Vine Street to print the truth of the matter.