Fun Times in Worcester

I've taken the last couple of weeks off from writing because I went on a family vacation.  A nice family road trip down south is definitely a way to relax.  But oh how the tides have turned in our city.  When I left there was uproar over the city council voting to let the City Manager negotiate a host agreement with Mass. Gaming and when I got back there was a new uproar,  the fact that the body of "Suspect #1" was being prepared for burial right here in Worcester, I miss all the good stuff.

I would have had an opinion of the body being in Worcester if I only cared, unfortunately I din't.  I cared about the body being in Worcester just as much if the body were in Cambridge, Brighton, Russia or Burkina Faso. I don't want my lack of caring about it to be misconstrued as a lack of respect of the injured and the deceased, it's not.  I just don't want to give this clown more thought dead than I gave him while he was alive. I prefer to honor the victims by standing behind them and their families as they embark on the road to recovery and the grieving.  Not by protesting a dead body, which does nothing to help the victims and their families move on.

"Suspect #1" should be buried because, as Worcester Police Chief said in his press conference, "We are not Barbarians".  As Central Mass native Charlie Pierce noted in Esquire magazine that bad guys that have died all were all buried.  Boston Strangler Albert DeSalvo was buried, Lee Harvey Oswald was buried, Benito Mussolini was buried, heck, even Adolf Hitler was buried nine times before he was ultimately cremated.  That is just what we as a society do, we bury the dead.

As I read the papers after the protests at the local funeral home began, a new outrage was developing as to the cost of having police officers at the funeral home to keep order and keep the media somewhat at bay.  The number was estimated at roughly $10,000 a day.  Now people are taking the police department to task for the cost.  I can sit here and discuss the cost of police details, but that's not the issue.  Freedom of speech is usually not free, there is typically a cost for these protests and it very rarely goes to the protesters.  So if people wanted to see those costs go away, the protesters needed to pack up and go home.

I am not saying that the protesters were wrong; they should always speak out for what they believe in.  But  in theis case the protests were doing more harm than good.  Harm to a local business man who was just doing the right thing.  Harm to a community that was using its police resources to protect order and being re-allocated from their normal duties.  There are just times when it's just good to walk away and know in your mind that you made the difference.  Now that the body is gone from Worcester let's get back to a more important discussion in Worcester.  To Slot, or not to Slot

3D

If you don't take it from me, ask my wife.