Democratic Primaries

Last edited Mon Feb 10, 2020, 12:58 PM - Edit history (1)

I'm a native Coloradan and extremely proud of where and how I grew up but I've been very fortunate to live in nearly every area of the United States. Now as it happens I coincidentally live in Medford, MA exactly 2.1 miles from where Mike Bloomberg grew up and just over five miles from the headstone of my great ancestor Mary Chilton. I often wonder what she would think of the times we live in and who she might vote for. Vote? I can imagine her sitting by her small fireplace in that tiny cottage in Plimoth initially elated that eventually her daughters of the revolution could do such a thing and then quite upset that it took so long for them to have that right. Well, we weren't even a country then, they were fighting for their lives at that time, not yet for their freedoms and voting wasn't yet a thing. We were simply a remote though heavily taxed colony of England. But hope was what it was all about in those days. It is still what it is all about - freedom.

I want to tell you something about where Mike Bloomberg grew up because I happen to live here now and I don't think many people know of this place. There are a lot of native Medford folks here, people who were born and raised in the same house where they now raise their own families. There are also a lot of people who immigrated from Asia, Latin and South America, as well as Eastern, Western, and Southern Europe. My neighbor on my right makes the best Lasagna I've ever had in my life. They are wonderfully Italian! My neighbors across the street are from Mexico and we have barbecues in the summer together, they make a great skewered shrimp. My neighbors behind me are from China and they have a fantastic garden that my Italian neighbors rave about - their veggies they say are way better than from our local Wegman's. Our neighbor next door to the Italian family is from Albania and they taught me the phrase "drago mi jega vas ne prozem." Only in Medford can you hang out with the Irish on their front porch screaming about scumbags on a Saturday and then attend a wedding given all in Portuguese on Sunday at a church that hangs two flags, American and Rainbow. This is Medford today, very diverse and well integrated but when Mike lived here I have been told it was a somewhat rough neighborhood although just as filled with hope as it is today.

Medford is the fourth-oldest neighborhoood in the United States. Jingle Bells was written here (yes I know Savannah GA debates that point, coincidentally I've lived in Savannah too on Taylor St. east of Forsyth park - another wonderfully historic area of our country). Not everyone knows that just down the street from me on the Mystic River here in Medford is where many ships were built that fought for our independence. Medford is where the very first toll-bridge (recently restored, not a toll-bridge these days) was built. Medford rum is from right here folks, in fact a hundred and fifty hears ago there was a distillery where my home is now.

Listen, you can't drive half a mile here in the Northeast without seeing a dozen American flags hanging out of the windows of houses, condos and apartments. Patriotism is in the blood here and there is no question where the football team acquired their name (we root for the Packers and get some light-hearted hell for it). I regularly walk past the graves of people who died before we were a country, right here in the center of downtown Medford. Incidentally, this is just a few minutes walk from the work that is going on as we speak to restore our local library where Mike's mom spent a lot of her time. That work is being funded in part by Mike himself. I've never seen more American flags in my life than in the Northeast (or gay pride flags for that matter outside of Castro district) and we are talking every day of every week of every year. They never come down. Whether it is the fourth of July or the tenth of February, the flags fly all year round here in New England and it does go absolutely berzerk on the fourth. I've been to D.C. many times and you can feel it there too, that deep-rooted American pride, that love of independence and freedom and awe for how far we've come. But here in Medford the feeling is distinctly a-political, but very liberal, and more of a neighborhood feeling, a feeling of if we work together no matter what we look like or who we are or where we came from we can achieve anything. Just a few minutes drive from here the slogan is "Live Free or Die." Die they did, just about a million of us over the very short time we have been fighting for independence, as we still fight - don't think complacently about that. So please do live free because there was a real cost that we paid in lives and future generations to get to where we are today.

Mike Bloomberg is not a billionaire because someone gave it to him or because he's a tyrant or because he is an oligarch or because he is some kind of king sitting on a throne on the other side of some vast ocean. He is none of those things. He is a son of Medford, a son of America. He's a billionaire because our country supports innovation, ideas, and success in a way that no other country can understand. He is the hope that makes people fly from Guam with their daughters in the hope of opening a restaurant here in America, but more importantly the hope of providing their children with great educations and an unbounded future. He's a billionaire because that's what America is, we are the land of hope and of freedom. We recognize that to build great things you have to offer great hope. Mary Chilton had to have that hope to get aboard that wooden ship and come here from across a vast ocean where more than half of a colony could perish in a single harsh noreaster. I'm a libertarian and I've switched parties to democrat because I'll be voting in the primaries here in downtown Medford for a son of Medford and a son of America. Think what you want about him, it is a free country, but I can tell you I know where he grew up, the values he has, and I know that the patriotism that runs through his veins is the same patriotism upon which this country was founded.