Letters to the Editor

Santa Says Thank You

Dear Editor,

I would like to report another successful trip through the Town of Winthrop. It is such a pleasure to tour Winthrop prior to my trip around the world.

I would like to thank the Winthrop Firefighters Local 1070 for everything they do to make my trip possible. I would also like to thank the Winthrop Fire Dept., Police Dept., DPW, Auxiliary Police and anyone else that made my trip run smoothly. I would  like to thank Dennis Boudrow for coming back after retirement to set up and ride along to make sure everything worked properly. I would also like to thank Firefighter Bill Vecchio for spending his last night before his retirement driving me on my trip around town.  A big thank you to Mrs. Claus for her help and support. And finally a special thank you to the good people of Winthrop and their guests for their encouragement and great energy. Until next year, have a very happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year.

Santa

North Pole

A Great Year for Veteran Services

Dear Editor

2019 has been a blessed year for Winthrop Veteran Services.  From the many businesses to our residents, our Veteran Food Bank and Giving program has received so many donations.  Some of the businesses who never stop giving are Webster First Credit Union, BlackStrap BBQ, CrossFit, and the Winthrop MarketPlace.  There are so many of our residents that give every month to our Veterans – and this is so appreciative.  One recent resident, and personal friend of mine is Holly S., who held her birthday party to support our Veterans.  My Food Bank Volunteers, Keith, Bill, Joe, Jim, Gail, Heather, (and more) who come month after month.  Another is the Constantino children, who have asked for foodbank donations instead of birthday gifts.  My own family, who with a moment’s notice, are there for our Veterans!  These are only a few examples – there are SO MANY MORE!

Working in our beautiful little town by the sea has connected my department with so many other departments as well.  We have such a strong bond between Winthrop Veteran Services, Winthrop Public Housing, the Senior Center, DPW, School Department and students, my amazing coworkers, both Fire and Police departments, and our Social Workers.  We are all working together for the betterment of our residents.  The Winthrop Emblem Club who are always present at our Services along with the yacht clubs and Churches in town. And of course, American Legion Post 146 members who actually sponsor all of our Veteran events and allow me unlimited access to the Legion Hall.

With 2020 coming, and so many more who may need assistance, it’s always nice to know I have people who come through!

With so much gratitude and appreciation,

Roseann Trionfi-Mazzuchelli

Veteran Service Director, Town of Winthrop

Vote Warren for President

Dear Editor,

“Steadiness comes from character and commitment.”  I read this recently, and it reminded me of why I support Elizabeth Warren for President of the United States.

“Steadiness,” another name for persistence, is something Elizabeth Warren has been commended for by her supporters and criticized for by her opponents.

Over the past nine years when I’ve met Elizabeth Warren and heard her speak, read her books “A Fighting Chance” and “This is Our Fight:  The Battle to Save America’s Middle Class,” or viewed her on TV; I’m ever impressed that she is unwaveringly committed to “leveling the playing field,” not just for the very few extremely wealthy and well connected but for all working, disabled and retired persons who are just trying to get by and live from check to check.

Why is Senator Warren so committed to this “fight”?  This question con-nects with the question the young Warren Regional Organizer Daniela Michanie asked me when I signed up again to lead the “Winthrop for Warren” campaign – this time for president.  “Why are you supporting Elizabeth Warren for President?” Michanie asked me.  “Because Elizabeth War-ren never forgets where she came from and WHAT she came from,”  I answered. 

Sen. Warren tells the story of growing up the 4th child in a family “hanging onto the middle class by its fingernails.”  She recalls knowing the words “mortgage” and “foreclosure” at an early age of 11.  Though an aviator and a man who mastered plane mechanics, Elizabeth’s father was deemed too old to join the Air Force during WWII.  Instead, he sold carpet and fencing.  Then he became a janitor.  He sustained a debilitating heart attack that made for a turning point in the family’s existence.  The family was about to lose their home.  That’s when Senator Warren turns to the story about “the dress.”

Elizabeth describes her very anxious mother who put on “the dress” – the one the mother wore to funerals, weddings, and special occasions.  Elizabeth’s mother marched down to the local Sears Roebuck and took on a minimum paying job (about $1.30 back in the early ‘60s), a minimum-paying job that was able to keep the house and a family of three together.  Elizabeth NEVER forgets her roots, her beginnings, and the fear and pain a family encounters when in the midst of medical expenses and  glooming financial doom.

FOR THIS REASON, Elizabeth Warren is committed to helping all the other families in this country who are “hanging by their fingernails” to keep a roof over their heads, utilities paid, and possibly some chance at higher education and/or technical training for their children.  Elizabeth Warren recognizes, too, that today’s family’s are faced with constantly rising rents and mortgages, high medical bills, out-of-control higher education costs, and unaffordable quality child care.  Rising expenses while living on wages that have been stagnant for the last four decades. 

She recognizes the impact of economic inequality where the upper 1 percent, highly paid CEO’s salaries have risen to nearly 300 percent since 1980.  For “the rest of us,” the real average wage, accounting for inflation, has about the same purchasing power it did in 1980.  (PEW Research Center).  Elizabeth also knows that 5 out of every 10 persons are working a second or even third job to sustain a bare living.  Many families rely, in this day and age, on local food banks to survive, while other families face rising homelessness.

Elizabeth Warren also knows that median family income only raised $514 this past year–a 0.4 percent increase.  There was no $4,000-$9,000 wage increase promised the average worker when President Trump crafted the nearly $2 trillion tax cut for his Wall Street cronies back in December of 2017.  Most of that tax cut money DID NOT TRICKLE DOWN to increase workers’ wages when productivity increased by 70 percent.  The money did NOT go back into business and factory development.  Rather the CEO’s of the Business Roundtable put most of the tax cut money into stock buybacks, which primarily benefit executives and other wealthy shareholders.  Just what Sen. Warren predicted in December of 2017 when the proposed tax cuts were on the Senate floor.

In addition, in 2018, 91 profitable Fortune 500 corporations such as Amazon, FedEx, General Motors, Netflix, and Starbucks, paid no U.S. corporate income taxes and instead got billions of dollars back in tax rebates. (Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Dec. 16, 2019).

The tax cuts have caused a nearly $2 trillion deficit (a 70 percent increase) in the federal budget.  To cover this deficit, President Trump, not upholding his promises, has proposed $845 billion in cuts to Medicare and $241 billion in cuts to Medicaid.  Social Security, once considered sacred and untouchable, is also on the Trump chopping block or with considerations to “privatize” it, thereby subjecting the funds to the rises and falls of the stock market.

To address some of the hardships the average family and workers are experiencing with stagnant wages and rising costs of housing, education, medical care, and child care; Elizabeth Warren outlines “plans” to deal with these challenging issues.  Her plans also attempt to enforce antitrust laws, execute fair taxation policies, reform campaign financing, raise the minimum wage, provide free public college and vocational education, lower student loan interest rates, uphold women’s rights, garner green and clean economic development, safeguard the environment, and insure workers’ rights to fair pay and safe working conditions.

And having gotten to know Senator Warren over these past few years, I know that if her “plans” don’t get it right the first time, she’ll GO BACK to the drawing board, enlist her team of experts, and get it right in a reasonable period of time.  That’s persistence.  That’s the “steadiness” coming “from character and commitment” that Warren exemplifies.

To review many of Senator Warren’s plans go to www.elizabethwarren.com.  To join her campaign for US President go to www.elizabethwarren.com  or contact Winthrop resident Donna Segreti Reilly at [email protected] or 617-240-1510.

Donna Segreti Reilly