The Column: Republicans rock out in Chelmsford
Scott Brown leads a band
IT’S NOT every day you see more than 100 Republicans rock out on a Thursday night, especially when politics are involved.
But apparently, nearly every table at the Princeton Station restaurant in North Chelmsford was full when former U.S.
Sen. Scott Brown took the stage, electric guitar in hand.
Yeah, you didn’t misread that.
Once a Massachusetts politician, Brown paid a visit to a Republican fundraiser with his band, Scott Brown and the Diplomats. There, he drew quite the crowd in support of gubernatorial candidate Geoff Diehl and 3rd Congressional District hopeful Dean Tran.
Republican State Committee member Dennis Galvin, of Westford, who is part of Tran’s campaign team and challenged state Rep. James Arciero, Dwestford, in 2014, said it was a pleasure for Brown to stop by, even though he’s no longer active in politics. It’s worth noting that Brown does occasionally perform in front of a large American flag wearing American flag ripped jeans, which is arguably a political statement.
And interestingly,
Brown previously played at a convention party for former gubernatorial candidate Chris Doughty before he lost the Republican primary.
Regardless, Brown’s “got a great sense of humor,” Galvin said.
“I think he gets a lot of kick out of it, I think he enjoys it and has a lot of fun with it, and he’s a great presence,” Galvin said. “When he walks through the room, people will still remember his fantastic run there a few years ago, so he’s got a lot of drag.”
Brown was a state representative for six years, moved to the state Senate for six more, and ended up in the U.S. Senate from 2010 to 2013. He ran in 2014 for a U.S. Senate seat in New Hampshire, but lost to incumbent and current U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.
This was one of several fundraisers the Tran campaign has held over the last few weeks, Galvin said, as Tran eyes U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan’s spot in the State House. Trahan, a Democrat, was first elected in 2018.
“This was a good (fundraiser) because it brought Geoff Diehl in and it brought Scott Brown in, so it was kind of a highprofile one,” Galvin said. “We were glad that people came and covered it.”
Besides Diehl — who trails Democrat Attorney General Maura Healey by upwards of 25 points, in a poll taken a month before their Wednesday debate — other prominent Republicans stopped by to enjoy the festivities.
Andrew Shepherd, nominee for state representative in the 1st Middlesex District; Aaron Packard, candidate for state representative for the
3rd Worcester District; Karla Miller, who’s running against Rodney Elliott in the 16th Middlesex District; and other Republicans mingled with concertgoers ahead of the statewide election on Nov. 8.
While members of the party have had their differences, Galvin said they’ve still successfully pushed candidates forward. As he said at the meeting, Galvin repeated, “it’s a question now of common sense versus sanity.”
“The Republican Party is working more like a team now than it’s ever done before, which I think is good,” he said. “I think it’s going to show in the election.”
What seems to be the common unifier, party politics aside, is rock ‘n’ roll. That’s where Scott Brown and the Diplomats step in.
The band, led by Brown on vocals and guitar, was formed from an older band out of New Zealand, where Brown served as U.S. ambassador. When his bureaucratic days were over, Brown connected with other musicians to create his own version of the band and live the rock star lifestyle.
According to his website, Brown has played with 1970s and 80s rock icons Cheap Trick six times and Buck Dharma from Blue Oyster Cult — the Saturday Night Live sketch might right a bell. They’ve also opened for an Eagles tribute band, and what is more rock than that?
Though Galvin was unsure how much money they brought in that night, they typically will raise about $4,000 to $5,000 at similar fundraisers.
Galvin said he thinks the majority of Americans believe the country is moving in the “dramatically wrong direction.” Inflation, gas and fuel prices, immigration issues and “concerns about parental rights in schools” are all in play this election cycle, he said,
Trahan is “not on the same page,” but Tran, who he’s known for a few years now, could properly get the job done, Galvin said.
“Dean is very, very analytical,” he said. “He’s very sharp, but very committed.”
One of the first Google search results for “Dean Tran” produces a state-issued press release from July of this year, stating Tran — a former state senator from Fitchburg — was charged for allegedly stealing a gun from an “elderly constituent.” He pleaded not guilty in Worcester Superior Court later that month.
That might be a conversation for another time. Officials kept it lighthearted Thursday night, because, after all, they had a show to put on.
But if you missed Brown and his crew at this gig, you can catch them at Bull Spit Brewery in Winchendon on Oct. 30 in a show
that’s bound to be quite spooky, just in time for Halloween.
Can the cycle of homelessness be stopped in the schools?
THE PATH to adult homelessness often begins in childhood. A leading indicator of that future is the trauma suffered by persons who were homeless when they were young.
Unhoused Lowell Public Schools students run a high risk of being the unhoused of tomorrow, which means that the city is potentially fostering a homegrown demographic that may bedevil policymakers years from now. The cycle of despair, dislocation and disruption may continue into generations of Lowellians.
It’s not an unknown problem in the city’s schools. A 2019 report found 982 unhoused students, a 20% increase over the previous year.
The number now stands at 1,457 students — a staggering 67% increase since 2019. Ten percent of the overall student population have identified as homeless in the 2021-2022 school year, according to report from Chief Equity and Engagement Officer Latifah Phillips with Superintendent Joel Boyd’s office.
The report is in response to a motion made by Councilor Vesna Nuon requesting City Manager Tom Golden provide the City Council with a report concerning what actions Lowell Public Schools are taking relative to youth homelessness in the city.
The national average for unhoused students in the elementary and secondary school population is 2.7%; 2.4% in the commonwealth. The highest rates are found in major metropolitan areas such as New York, Washington, D.C., California and high-impact communities such as the Bureau of Indian Education. At 10%, Lowell is sadly punching far above its weight in the area of unhoused students in the
public school system.
In its Sept. 21 meeting, the School Committee unanimously passed a motion made by member Stacey Thompson to ask that Boyd “get information about students experiencing housing insecurity and the impact on graduation numbers over the past 3-5 years … and consider additional supports to put in place.”
Communities of color are overrepresented in the unhoused population. In the Greater Lowell region, individuals who identify as Black or African American represent 13% of the overall population, but 40% of the population of people experiencing homelessness.
Thompson said she made the motion because she had experienced homelessness when she was in school, and understands the impact that “rootlessness” and “couchsurfing” can have on student performance and achievement.
“The housing crisis is continuing to escalate,” she told the committee. “Last week there was a report that people are spending about 60% of their pay on housing. Great organizations are doing a lot of good work, but we need to look at it from the school side, and figure out what we can do.”
The committee referred the motion to the Equity & Access Subcommittee, but the problem of unhoused students may be bigger than the LPS’S ability to address alone.
A Lowellian who is trying to mitigate a small piece of the overall problem is retired firefighter Larry Finn. He runs a nonprofit, Coats from Ann Above, named in honor of his mother, who died in 2008. The organization is staffed by current and retired Lowell firefighters, and works through LPS social workers to identify children in families that are living in transitional housing like a motel or shelter, in their car, couch surfing with friends and family or an ad hoc structure like a tent.
For the past several years, the nonprofit has annually purchased more than 300 new coats for these students. At the high school alone, Finn says
they purchase between 5080 coats, but he says the need is bigger than the nonprofit’s pocketbook.
City Councilor Rita Mercier decried the millions being spent to provide upgrades like rain gardens to the city’s historic 22.5-acre South Common Park, one of Lowell’s earliest public open spaces, that is located off Thorndike Street and bounded by Summer, South and Highland streets.
“There’s nobody there,” she fumed. “The homeless are there. Bathrooms — not rain gardens and shade shelters — would make more sense because when you go there, that’s all you’re stepping in is human waste. I’m telling it like it is. We’ve come out of the Middlesex Sheriff’s Office (on Summer Street) many times with Narcan because someone has overdosed. This is what we’re seeing over there. I don’t think families are going to bring their kids there. We’re spending all this money for what? Making it a better place for people to sleep there in their tents?”
She said she would vote to support the matching state grant because “what else am I going to do?” but wished all that money had gone into supportive housing for the unhoused.
Remediating the adult unhoused situation is a much larger and thornier project that has bedeviled many national and city policymakers with its multilayered complications of substance abuse, trauma, mental and physical illnesses.
But reaching the unhoused youth may offer a more attainable, sustainable and real-time pathway that will pay longterm dividends for the student and their families, the schools and the City of Lowell.
Lowell’s large — and apparently, fast-growing — population of unhoused children is a serious public health crisis, and should be sounding alarm bells throughout school and city leadership.
Burying the hatchet
WHAT A difference a year makes, or, more accurately in Dracut, nine months. It was only in February that the Board of Selectmen and Dracut Access
Television ended two years of conflict by signing a three-year contract focused on funding.
This past week, Selectman Heather Santiago-hutchings proposed a resolution declaring
Oct. 20 Community Media Day, giving recognition to DATV for its work. She brought forward the motion as a celebration of DATV’S 40 years as the town’s community cable access provider, she said.
Selectman Tony Archinski called the recognition “well deserved.” He added, “I think they set the standard for public access TV. Everybody around looks to them to see just how they do it. They have an incredible staff, and they do a great job.”
Even Selectman Joe Dirocco was inclined to commend DATV. Often a vocal critic of the access provider, the veteran selectman added a caveat to his praise.
“Not everything they do is beneficial to the town,” he said, quibbling with a word in Santiago-hutchings’ resolution.
Dirocco did agree however, that the staff deserves praise for the work they do.
“Some of the shows are too political, and they have half-truths,” he said.
And Archinski, who often clashes with Dirocco, agreed on the assessment of DATV’S content.
“I can’t argue with you there,” Archinski said.
The two-year war of words between selectmen and DATV was over a perceived lack of transparency and the way it was funded. It received funding directly from Comcast through residents’ subscriber franchise fees that residents pay to the cable and internet services provider.
Former Town Counsel James Hall vowed to settle the dispute before he retired in March. The deal to have Comcast channel subscriber franchise fees to Dracut for distribution to DATV was reached in February.
This week’s Column was prepared by reporters Cameron Morsberger in Chelmsford, Melanie Gilbert in Lowell and Prudence Brighton in Dracut.