Memorial Day and Canvassing
This weekend was the first one in which I started canvassing. This meant knocking on doors, texting volunteers, finding out what I did wrong when setting up the canvassing software, and shoving fliers into doors in South Medford. Many folks were gone for Memorial Day weekend, but a few answered their door and were able to talk about their concerns. Most of what they discussed was related to transportation and parking issues. Admittedly, my platform is a bit thin on transportation. This is partially because I need to research the issues more myself (most of my background was in affordable housing), and partially because I need to better understand what City Council ordinances can and cannot do (we can put up speed bumps to slow traffic on certain streets; making the MBTA run more frequently requires advocacy at the state level). I met with a traffic engineer last week to pick his brain and get my head wrapped around these issues. Voters mostly discussed speeding along Willis Ave, issues with visitor parking, potholes, and noise from planes flying into Logan. I mostly just listened, noting their concerns in a spiral notebook and thinking of ways to incorporate that into a comprehensive platform plank. Unrelated to transportation, one fellow also showed me his backyard to point out where rats were infesting his property. A lot of folks also discussed issues with revitalizing Medford Square. Canvassing is just as much about getting my name out there as it is educating myself on what voters are thinking.
On Sunday, I attended service at the Unitarian church. The head of the Sunday School there had had one of her lesson plans fall through, so she asked me to skip the service to talk with a few of the teenagers there about the importance of local government and the process of running for City Council. I happily obliged, spending 45 minutes sipping coffee and chatting. The discussion wasn't really about politics, per say, as much as the logistics of running for office, what local government actually does, and the relationship between activists and politicians. The teenagers were pretty sharp and interested.
Medford’s Memorial Day ceremony took place on Monday morning in the Oak Grove Cemetery. It was attended by the Mayor, most members of the City Council, a few from the School Committee, the chief of police, Medford's director of veterans' services, the high school marching band, the police, and the honor guards. The audience was a crowd of veterans and their families standing behind the graves of fallen soldiers.
My father had spent 22 years in the Navy band, which meant that I grew up in military housing and frequently shifted schools. I'd commissioned last year as a reservist, and I'm still going through the long, irregular training pipeline to get qualified to deploy. I have less direct experience with the military than the vets at the event, but I'd grown up around the scene. That world means a lot to me. To be honest, I was a bit uneasy reconciling that with my new identity as a city council candidate. Politicians (and aspiring politicians) need to show up, pay homage to veterans, and take care of them. Veterans are the defense and foundation of this whole country. We unfortunately have a history of failing veterans that goes back to the Revolutionary War, when Congress didn't establish Continental Army pensions for over 30 years. Personally, I didn't want to have the event just be an opportunity to meet voters in the same way, for instance, Circle the Square or the Farmer's Market is. I held off on taking selfies (which is usually recommended when going for political office), though I ended up snapping a couple of pictures of the event; a WWII Marine lives on my street but was not in good enough health to attend in person. Having a few photos to show him would probably liven up his day.
After the event, I walked to the WWII Monument on Winthrop and spoke extensively with the Medford's director of veterans affairs. He was a 14-year Army vet, a mustang who deployed to Afghanistan. I liked him a lot. He told me about issues that Medford and the Commonwealth had with poorly designed data management systems that maintained veterans' health records, warning me to keep track of my own health records. All good information to keep in mind.
