May 1 is Speak English Day in Lawrence – KATHY’S LAWRENCE NOTEBOOK

By: Kathy Runge – Feb. 2017

First, I would like to thank Mayor Rivera and Governor Baker for protecting us from the snow. Snow is easy. Snow doesn’t vote. Let’s protect the people from the evil snow!

Mayor Rivera is proposing a gun buyback program. It’s scheduled to go before the council at the first meeting of March. He’s reciting the old mantra that “if it saves even one life it will be worth it.” What do you say to the victims of illegal immigrants? It seems that their lives aren’t so valuable.

Mayoral Candidate and current Councilor at Large Modesto Maldonado has closed his state mandated campaign bank account and not opened another. He changed his office sought from Councilor at Large to Mayor with the state in December and then closed his bank account on January 10, receiving a cashier’s check for $3,587.91.

Where’s the money? Is there a cashier’s check sitting in a shoebox somewhere? He hasn’t filed an end of year report. I’m sure he has a good excuse. I wouldn’t put it past him to have done this on purpose so that he can complain about being picked on when he gets caught.

May Day: May 1 is going to be a day without immigrants in Lawrence. A person’s country of origin makes no difference to me, but if the organizers really want to show us how it would be without immigrants, let’s make it “Speak English Only Day.” Let not one word of Spanish be uttered in City Hall.

It won’t be a day without immigrants. The goal is a day without immigrants working. They’ll be doing their best to be in your face. Since all of the politicians will be there they should call it a day without immigrants and politicians.

It’s hard to figure out the purpose of a city that’s comprised almost entirely of immigrants having a day without immigrants. Who are they going to inconvenience? I hope they clean up after themselves and get any necessary permits.

A group called Cosecha is the sponsoring organization. On their website they state “The name, Cosecha, is to honor the thousands of undocumented workers that provide food to our many tables today and for the legacy of the millions of workers that were forced to become slaves to provide for the accumulation in this country.” We have lots of those people in Lawrence.

At the first organizational meeting for the event, the group handed out papers for illegals to sign to name a custodian for their minor children should they be deported.

Speaking of immigrants, how many people are going to ‘immigrate’ to this city for the sole purpose of running for office? State Rep Juana Matias moved here from Haverhill just to run for the State House. She’s busy working to make Massachusetts a sanctuary state and voting her colleagues’ raises.

We have Ruben Nieves, who is considering moving to Lawrence from Andover to run for mayor. Lastly, William Lantigua has come back from the DR to supposedly run for mayor. The man can’t live in this city unless he holds an elected office. I take that back, he couldn’t even sleep in Lawrence when he was an elected official. The only reason he comes to this city is to run for office. It’s insulting.

It will cost Mr. Lantigua some money to get on the ballot. State law requires a candidate to be up to date with the Office of Political and Campaign Finance. As of this writing, he hasn’t filed his end of year campaign finance reports for 2016. On February 22, he was sent a notice stating his fine was $825 and growing at a rate of $25 per day up to a maximum of $5000. I’m sure he has a good excuse.