“I fear that the county I love is becoming the country I left” are words Lily Tang Williams made famous two election cycles ago in a YouTube video. They resonate with me not just because of my support for her, but also because I moved to Nashua as a young adult after 18 years of living in the CommIEwealth of Massachusetts. In the latter part of those 18 years, I saw Nashua as the proverbial shining city on a hill from one of its suburbs and decided to live there.
City Hall has long since MASSed up Nashua, and I grew tired of the routine city-election post-mortem talk: “better luck next time.” I saw 2023 as the last and best opportunity to turn things around because the mayor was on the ballot and Mike Soucy was his opponent. It was also right after the worst property tax assault in recent history. The whole city was appraised in 2022, and angry people were sure to VOID (vote out incumbent Democrats) City Hall. Not only was I wrong, but some of the same bad actors and bad policy became worse.
Take the nasty, emboldened Ward 8 alderman, for example, and consider the screed he wrote for Nashua Ink Link, apparently published within 24 hours! Laura Colquhoun promptly submitted a rebuttal to his October 1 article, which was ignored for several days until after it appeared in Granite Grok, which also uses the Disqus platform for readers’ comments.
I commented on Laura’s article at Ink Link and was amazed to see that it actually got APPROVED. Free speech much, Ink Link? After my comment was approved, the admin actually posted a reply. I said the following words:
“The alderman’s original Soapbox article was published on 10/1, and the Colquhoun rebuttal was promptly submitted, but not published. Then Granite Grok ran it on 10/7. I find it interesting that here we are, 2 days later, and it finally gets published. What took so long and what ultimately changed the mind of the editor?”
Then the admin’s response was as follows:
“Hi Laura – thanks for your submission. As human beings here we generally take the weekend off here, unless there is some breaking news. I had some medical appointments early in the week, so I did not get to check the “in box” for submissions. But after taking a look at the Grok article there is some fake news included – no one declined to publish your submission. You should have received an automated acknowledgement right away. After that, I do my best to get things posted but with campaign season in full swing we’ve been inundated with submissions. I also try to do my due diligence when there are facts and figures included in a reader submission.”
Not only did Carol Robidoux think I was Laura, but her response was full of unfounded innuendo and lame excuses, including one that referenced the day of the week and personal matters. October 1 was a Thursday, and so was yesterday! The way I learned about the preferential turnaround time given to the Ward 8 alderman was because he accused Kevin Avard (who represents Wards 1, 2, and 5 in the Senate, but not 8) of not “being bothered to show up to debate his opponent.”
Perhaps the alderman and his enemy-camp teammates, especially those in higher offices, should look in the mirror because Goodlander has avoided debates. I’ll even acknowledge that several candidates on both sides of the aisle who are seeking offices higher than the state senate have refused debates.
And speaking of higher offices, and considering that an executive councilor serves 1/5 of the state, more than 5 times the population of a senate district, he didn’t complain that Ms. Melanie Levesque was absent from the same event Kevin didn’t attend.
And about that event Kevin, Denise, Melanie, and Councilor Wheeler skipped, for whatever reasons they cited, I wanted to know when it was. A quick internet query turned up Wednesday, October 21. That means the alderman, after commenting on Kevin’s absence, submitted his screed sometime between late Wednesday night and Thursday, because the screed is dated Thursday, October 22.
Considering what the editor said in her reply to my comment on the Colquhoun article, it stands to reason that submitting a rebuttal to yesterday’s drivel will NOT get the same 24-hour preferential treatment. Otherwise, I would be busy refuting an enumerated multitude of absurdities.
You can see for yourself, but beyond the drivel, I can see why Kevin wouldn’t want to attend. The League of Women Voters co-hosted the forum. I declined their invitation to one of their dog-and-pony shows at the library in 2023 when I was Alderman Dowd’s opponent. As Kevin’s former constituent, I praise him for deciding not to attend. Plus, the forum he declined was in Rindge, the westernmost part of District 12 and farthest from Nashua. Rindge voters already see through such circus acts and vote red.
At this point, readers might be wondering why I started this article with my personal perspective on Nashua’s decline, and whether I dare say “circle back,” or if those words are reserved for stupid former press secretaries. I threw in the towel and left Nashua after accepting that it’s a city lost at sea with very little hope for reform. While I know next month’s election is for state and federal offices, the Ward 8 alderman is an example of everything wrong with voting blue, and Ink Link is an example of everything wrong with the press.
I will finish by mentioning that I complained about Ink Link to one of the most respected elected officials in a larger city, and the reply was no surprise. The words were “Ink Link is awful.”
