Today,
Monsignor Romero's legacy is commemorated around the world. Here in
Somerville, Centro Presente, a Latin American immigrant organization,
honors the legacy of Monsignor Romero through the organization's every
day work in the community.

"At Centro Presente, every day, we
try to commemorate the legacy of Monsignor Romero through our work,"
said Patricia Montes, the Executive Director of Centro Presente.
"Monsignor Romero worked for the defense and promotion of human rights,
and denounced the systematic violation of human rights by the social
and economic power structures which still exist in El Salvador today.
He was the voice of those without voices. At Centro Presente, we are
trying to give voices to our members from the Latino immigrant
community, those who can not speak for themselves because this society
is not giving them the opportunity."

Some twenty-seven years
after it was established, Centro Presente has grown to service upwards
of three thousand people a year, mostly in Somerville, Boston,
Cambridge and Chelsea. Immigrants from all over South America benefit
from the countless services that the organization offers. From adult
education classes in English or computer skills, to legal immigration
counseling, to after-school programs, Centro Presente is an invaluable
support system to thousands of residents in the local community.

"We
are a member-driven, state-wide Latin American immigrant organization
dedicated to the self-determination and self-sufficiency of the Latin
American immigrant community of Massachusetts," noted Montes. "We work
for immigrant rights and for economic and social justice. Through the
integration of community organizing, leadership development and basic
services, Centro Presente strives to give our members voices and to
build community power."

Just as Monsignor Romero once strove
to give voices to people in El Salvador, Centro Presente commits every
day to helping Latin American immigrants by continuing the traditions
of Monsignor Romero. On March 19th, the organization will dedicate an
entire evening at Machu Piccu Restaurante Turistico in Monsignor
Romero's honor, to celebrate "la lucha" for Justice and Human Rights
and to recognize Jim and Julia Wallace for their continued dedication,
mission and lifelong commitment to social justice.

Through
Centro Presente's continued dedication and commitment to the Latin
American immigrant community, Monsignor Romero's legacy will always be
heard.

The
current financial crisis has added angst to the level of urgency among
educational public policy makers. The challenge of closing the
achievement gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students,
improving student learning overall, getting the most out of limited and
declining dollars, and surviving in an unprecedented stressful time for
young students are only some of the daunting challenges in everyday
life in public education.

Media reports are full of stories
about teachers, superintendents and local elected officials who must
confront and comply with the voluminous regulatory mandates imposed by
state and federal legislators and bureaucrats. Editorial pages are
crowded with highly charges points and counterpoints between school
committee members, administrators, teachers, business leaders, and
academic thinkers about charter schools, standardized testing, longer
school days, and fair finance. But what's missing from this picture?
Why are parents and citizens in general not engaged more attentively
and actively in the battle for the heart and soul of public education?

Governor
Patrick has called for a campaign for civic engagement. The
Massachusetts Association of School Committees has called for linking
this goal with parent empowerment. In fact, the dirty little secret
that real school reformers never want to reveal is that they really
don't want parents actively involved in schools. Of more concern are
the calls by people like former US Secretary of Education and some
conservative think tanks for parents to do their job getting kids ready
for school and leaving the rest to the faculty. In other words,
"Parents, keep out!"

So, what we have are citizens who are
disengaged in public school issues and parents who limit their
involvement to the traditional roles of preparing their kids, going to
parent nights, and attending the school social activities.

Moreover,
we live in an era where we are pulled in so many directions that our
"complexity tolerance" is low. We simply give up on the
hard-to-comprehend issues. Unfortunately, public education is one of
them. Who but a handful of people can explain the principles of
Education Reform, a "foundation budget," the details of state financial
aid to school districts, the state and federal mandates around special
education, or any one of the 15 different accountability, assessment,
and accreditation systems that create a virtually unmanageable maze of
school regulations?

When the citizenry is disengaged, the public
regulator acts without restraint. Do we really want unelected
bureaucrats determining whether school districts should consolidate or
merge against their will? Should people who can't even teach make rules
about standardized testing and accountability? Should the average state
public educator have to spend an average of 160 hours per year on
compliance mandates, paperwork, and tasks unrelated to teaching? Are we
powerless to deal with the stress of intensive curricula, voluminous
testing requirements, and the humiliating labels imposed on kids and
schools from of bad regulations and sloppy lawmaking?

Who will champion the cause of children if not parents, active citizens and the people they chose to oversee their schools?

That's
why the role of parents and school officials needs to come front and
center. In 1993 the legislature created school councils to empower
parents. Today they have not come close to living up to their potential
to advise principals and school committees about school-based concerns
or to run issue forums presented for the citizens at large.

We propose some solutions:

First,
as we look to tune-up education reform and preserve our status as the
best in the country and, in several categories, best in the world in
academic achievement, let's strengthen the role of the school council,
add meaning to the annual school improvement plan, and require close
scrutiny of these measures before the local school committee.

Second,
rev up the advocacy part and get more people interested in the most
fundamental activity of civic engagement: running for local office,
including the school committee.

Third, come face to face with
local legislators and ask that they take a direct interest in both the
large picture and fine details of school policy.

When you speak
with your legislators, the Advocacy Committee of MASC asks that you
focus on six key areas: 1) adequate funding for public schools through
the state's Chapter 70 formula and appropriation; 2) fully fund special
education's unfunded mandates, including the special 'circuit breaker"
program for high cost cases; 3. Require that federal stimulus money for
education go directly to classrooms and not to state bureaucracy; 4.
Control the regulatory monster and impose no regulations and mandates
without paying for them; 5. Support the mandated cost of transporting
students to school; 6. Reform the way charter schools are overseen and
financed so that local taxpayers have a say in how their money is taken
away and used.

Every
humane society in the world today with the means to do so provides
healthcare to all of its citizens, except for the United States of
America. And "if we had set out to design the worst system that we
could imagine, we couldn't have imagined one as bad as we have," says
Marcia Angell, former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of
Medicine.

The U.S. health care system is the most expensive in
the world on both a per-person basis-$7-8,000-and as a percentage of
the total economy-15-16%. Switzerland's, the next-most-expensive
system's, per-person costs are 56% of ours. Canada's are 44%; Great
Britain's, 22%.

Yet 47 million U.S. residents have no health
insurance, and the numbers keep growing. Back in the economy's boom
days, more than half of all personal bankruptcies were the result of
medical emergencies.

While American healthcare is the most
costly, its outcomes are shameful. The United Nations ranks U.S. life
expectancy at 29th in the world and our infant mortality rate at 33rd.
Our own CIA puts these rankings at 45th, and 42nd respectively. The
World Health Organization ranks the U.S. 37th in health system
performance, between Costa Rica and Slovenia.

Our system's
staffing levels are low, and it lacks safety controls, putting staff
and patients at risk. Estimates of annual deaths resulting from medical
errors range from 48,000 to 98,000.

Virtually every analyst who
studies the entire system from a perspective free of self-interest and
ideological presuppositions concludes that a single-payer healthcare
system is the best solution. In such a system, the government
negotiates contracts with doctors and hospitals and pays their bills.
Citizens pay for healthcare through the kind of payroll tax that now
funds Medicare.

Propagandists and fools call this "socialized
medicine," but that would be a system that is owned by the government
and employs the doctors. The Veterans Administration is socialized
medicine. A single-payer system is not.

From statistics already
cited, it should be clear that single-payer systems produce better
health outcomes. By covering everyone and emphasizing preventative
care, many health problems never arise, while those that do can be
identified at an early stage, where treatment is more effective and
less expensive.

Single-payer plans can also disseminate and
encourage best practices. Mitchell Selzer, a leading hospital
consultant studied the practice profiles of 24,000 physicians treating
1.5 million patients. He found that a subgroup of those doctors studied
consistently admitted, diagnosed, and treated patients using 20-to-30%
fewer resources and incurring correspondingly lower costs than the
average doctor studied. Yet this group produced better care-fewer
errors, shorter stays, fewer infections, fewer readmissions, fewer
deaths.

Preventative care and best practices are not the only
reasons why single-payer is less expensive. A landmark Harvard Medical
School study determined that some 30% of healthcare dollars go to
administrative costs. Health insurance companies dispute this figure,
citing an industry-average administrative expense of 15 percent. But
they don't acknowledge that healthcare practitioners absorb the
expenses required to deal with insurance companies. By comparison,
Medicare's administrative costs are 1%. And insurance companies don't
have the will or bargaining power to negotiate the kind of prices that
send Americans to Canada to purchase their prescription drugs.

Single
payer is a fiscally conservative solution. Between decreased healthcare
costs and increased taxes, Americans would spend less. And American
businesses would be more competitive. General Motors' healthcare costs
are $1,500 for every car that it manufactures.

I began this
series during the elections, when the word most often on presidential
candidates' lips was "change." My intent was to show that in every
policy area, a fundamental transformation of our economic and political
institutions would be required to achieve the basic conditions that all
Americans should expect.

Single-payer healthcare is an
excellent example in that its implementation would not require such
fundamental change. But apparently, its adoption would.

Instead,
policy makers support piecemeal solutions that add large costs, reward
those responsible for the mess, and do not solve the problem. The
prescription drug benefit passed in 2003 comes to mind.

A CBS
News/New York Times poll published in February reported that 59% of
Americans say the government should provide national health insurance.
Other polls put this figure as high as 70%. Meanwhile, 59% was also the
portion of doctors who told researchers for an Annals of Internal
Medicine study that they support legislation to establish national
health insurance.

Opposing these citizens and doctors are
lobbyists and publicists, well paid by the multibillion-dollar health
insurance industry. In addition to broadcasting falsehoods that
single-payer healthcare is a "socialized" system that would be more
expensive and less effective, they say that consumers would have fewer
choices.

The reverse is true. Freed of restrictions imposed by
their current medical plans, consumers could choose any doctor or
hospital that they wanted, increasing competition.

Politicians
who posture as defenders of the people's interests quail in response to
forces mobilized by health insurers. It's not just the huge campaign
contributions that insurers can invest. Once something is considered to
be politically unfeasible, it's suicidal for a politician, no matter
how well established, to keep advocating it. He or she is considered to
be hopelessly unrealistic and disloyal to the party.

Journalists
focus on politics rather than substance. They reflect opinion rather
than inform it. They confuse objectivity with impartiality,
uncritically quoting both sides of an issue and thereby passing along
myths and lies.

Forceful and consistent presidential leadership
that continually points to hard evidence and poll results could defeat
the health insurers, for-profit hospital chains, and right-wing
ideologues. Instead, we are moving toward another piecemeal policy.

In
Canada, politicians had the courage and vision to say to health
insurers, "you're out of business. You have a much better chance to
find new work than citizens have to improve their health under the
current system." In the United States, we allow an industry with
140,000 agents to kill policies that would benefit 250 million
Americans.

Doug
Holder: When you started this novel "Or So It Seems" you were divorced,
bitter and angry. How about when you finished the novel?

Paul
Stone: It is an interesting arc that I traveled. The novel evolved into
something bigger and less driven by the forces that made me start the
novel. There has always been a novel in me. When I started "Or So It
Seems' I was bitter, I needed to feel like the victim, and my now
ex-wife was the guilty party. I was told that my first attempt with the
novel lacked narrative tension. I sat down to reorder events. As soon
as I did this, this spiritual aspect came in to play. It was if someone
hit me on the side of the head and said: "Now you are going to write
the novel you are supposed to." All of a sudden all these concepts and
ideas came flooding in. I really hadn't wanted to rewrite.

DH: Was it therapeutic for you?

Ps:
Absolutely. It saved at least 20 years of paid therapy. It allowed me
to vent…the time to look closely at something. I moved on from
feeling like a victim all the time. I am no longer a victim but the
author of a novel.

DH: Before you started your rewrite of you
said it was like you heard a voice guiding you. If you had to personify
the voice who would it be?

PS: Well I am not hearing voices! But
I feel there is someone, a muse, or some force, an elder, whatever that
helps me. An entity that wakes me up at 3AM with ideas. I'm in
advertising. I get ideas for my work as well that way -they come from
somewhere. I get a lot from these "voices"

DH: The protagonist,
Paul Peterson, constantly steps back with his spiritual guru-to observe
the material world/ reality. In a way this is like the novelist, right?

PS:
I think so. One of the intriguing conceits of the novel is that
Petersen talks in the present moment sharing the action with the
reader, as if the reader was there. It is almost as if the narrator and
the reader are there at the same time together-going through it. The
first time I wrote this I didn't need the conceit. The 2nd time it made
sense.

DH: The writer Thomas Wolfe holed up in the Chelsea Hotel
in NYC and wrote (standing up) for hours on end. It was described as
"automatic writing" Anything like that happen with you?

PS: No.
I have had experiences where things get done through me so easily all I
have to do is make the pen hit the paper. Other times I have to sit
down and think about it.

DH: A lot of writers self-promote these days. How do you going about getting the word out for your book?

PS:
I took a workshop at Grub Street, given by this lady who recently had a
successful book. I was amazed at how she had treated marketing her book
as if it was an advertising campaign. Up until this time I had not
thought about it this way. But she was very methodical. She had a
website in place; she had pieces that she would send out to the
different publishing arms. She had different elements-it seemed all
part of a brand. So I saw what I was supposed to do. The way I
approached it was I looked at every avenue that was low cost. I made
business cards. I have unique cards that fold out like little books,
with reviews from readers inside. I try to take the least expensive
avenues and try to do it at a high level. A level that people don't
expect from someone who is doing it himself. If you act as if the book
is important in everything you do it will seem important. The book will
be treated importantly.

DH: In the book you write about the advertising world. It is not a flattering picture.

PS:
I think the world would be a much better place without advertising. But
there is always going to be advertising, and it is a business, so I
think of myself as a positive influence. So it is good to have people
in the industry like that. The work I do for W.B. Mason is fun stuff.
People enjoy seeing the TV commercials. But I think there is something
shallow where art is second to commerce.

DH: Can you tell us about your next book that will be a collection of columns you wrote for a south shore newspaper.

PS:
Yes. They were written in many different voices and with many different
subjects. Some were short fiction pieces, one column celebrated
adversity. The columns deal with things I found of interest or
concerned me at the time. The book will be called "How to Train a
Rock." I wrote a series of columns on training rocks. This will be a
diverse collection.

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Back and Forth

Heritage is shadows standing beneath

the pecan tree and black gold

strapped and slumped

from the oak

Rusted relics;

yoke and choke;

sweat and blood spilled

for land and consumption

History is freedom's journey

Is a long walk from manicured, porcelain toe tips

to a soft and tender step,

barefoot, fungus-scarred;

eyes glistening in the woods

Back and forth

Back and forth

95 North is sweet

like the piston of April flowers;

bitter like the citrus' rind;

is a crimson and gold sunrise;

star spangled sky

A blue note specialty song

is bitter; is sweet juice;

a gold filled heart;

a belly pot; a bouillabaisse,

simmering over the ages;

slow cooked and roasted Negros,

red men, white knuckle,

black body swinging

like the bell's hammer

Heritage is blue night,

white star, black line

white finger;

back and forth

on 95 North

Redemption is a bible verse;

an unbroken circle;

a token to take you

back and forth

A long walk is history's course,

from Heavenly father to

Holy hip-hop,

barber shop talk,

the wino's walk;

baked apricot;

cobbled peach;

palmetto tree;

moonlight;

stars shine the sea;

apple for pies;

truth for lies

Back and forth

on 95 North

Southern belt;

the whip's welt;

a cry, praise,

a song, a long river

to the planter's inn

A sin-soaked whisper;

the liar's grin;

the black finger rising

with a raging spirit

A call; a response;

Back and forth

— Bridgit Brown

John McCormack lost his thirteen-month-old
daughter, Taylor, when a shunt (a valve regulating the flow of
cerebrospinal fluid to and from the brain) placed in her head at birth
failed, and upon admittance to the emergency room, was given less than
proper treatment, largely because of neglect and carelessness by
doctors on call. Taylor died the next day, without once being seen by a
fully licensed physician.

Jen Tosca's son, Brian, was left
permanently disfigured when several surgeries to correct an
inward-turning eye resulted in the loss of the eye altogether. When
questioned, doctors said that Brian's eye "just gave up" and that there
was nothing she could do.

Robena Reid's mother, Marie, was
diagnosed with mesothelioma, a rare form of lung cancer. While in the
hospital, Marie contracted a "common hospital-acquired infection,"

MRSA
(a type of staph infection). The time it took for her to recover from
this infection interfered with her cancer treatment, and she passed
away shortly thereafter.

Lucilia and Joe Prates' father,
Antonio, also died in part from a hospital-acquired MRSA infection. He
had been admitted for kidney stone removal, but a MRSA infection and a
"medical adverse event" during surgery led to his death just eight
months later.

Quality healthcare can truly change lives. In
these cases, mistakes made during treatment resulted in death or
disfigurement. It is important for patients and their families to know
their rights, and to insist on second opinions and alternative methods
of treatment. The aim of both doctor and patient is to minimize any
chance of error. While this responsibility is and should be legally on
the doctors, patients can protect themselves by being informed and
involved in their own healthcare. In the worst cases, doctors keep the
whole truth from their patients when something begins to go wrong, for
fear of a malpractice suit. Doctors are advised never to admit direct
culpability, so while a doctor may regret having made a poor decision,
patients and their families often do not get the comfort and closure of
a simple apology. The result is lawsuits after the fact, and a deep
distrust of medical professionals.

The focus of the Consumer
Quality Health Council is to encourage a cooperative rather than
hostile doctor-patient relationship. The Council, made up of people
like these presenters who have all been directly affected by poor
healthcare, are galvanized to put legislation in place that will
tighten up the healthcare system and minimize the frequency of such
occurrences. In partnership with Healthcare For All, they are working
to pass four bills that will improve healthcare, two of which are
modeled after similar bills that have proven effective when passed in
other states. The first seeks to reduce medical errors and infections
in hospitals through the use of "checklists of care," a series of steps
to be regularly taken by teams of healthcare providers to decrease
patient harm for given procedures. The second, similarly, would have
healthcare facilities screen high-risk patients for MRSA and take
certain precautions if they test positive. Such an act was particularly
successful in Chicago-area hospitals, where MRSA infection rates were
reduced by 60 percent. The third would establish an expert panel to
determine the prevalence of medication errors in the Commonwealth, and
suggest ways to reduce them. The fourth supports the keeping of health
records electronically, and aims to clarify and enhance privacy
protections within the proposed new system.

Despite all the
presenters have been through, they work for change through the Council
in hopes of improving the healthcare system that failed them and their
loved ones. The consequences of neglect in this area are absolutely
real, as the Council members know too well.

***************

Seems Mike
Buckley, former top aide to Mayor Joe Curtatone, has gone off to
greener pastures but not far. He is now Chief of Staff to Mayor Carlo
DeMaria, Jr. of Everett; we wish him the best of luck in his new job.
He did a good job here in Somerville and will be missed, but
Somerville's loss is Everett's gain in this loyal worker.

***************

A
big get well soon goes out to the Ward 6 Community Police officer Neil
Collins who is recuperating at the MGH after being treated for blood
clots. Neil is a great guy and we wish a speedy recovery.

***************

A
very quiet St. Patrick's day here in Somerville, but the day was
interrupted when a manhole exploded on Medford Street near Central
Street. The Police and Fire Departments soon put the situation under
control.

***************

Condolences go out to the family
of Brian Cohn who sadly passed away this past Sunday; Brian grew up in
Somerville and graduated from SHS. He was a Junior at Coastal Carolina
University in South Carolina, where he was a member of the Phi Beta
Kappa Fraternity. Brian was a 10-year member of the Shriners, a great
guy, and will be greatly missed.

***************

Happy
Anniversary to Victor and Rosa over at Victor's Deli – in business here
in Somerville now 27 years and popular as ever – the lunch crowd is
still huge and daughter Nancy is running the evening dinner crowds
later in the week. If you haven't been to Victor's Deli in Ball Square,
you should and everyone wish them another 27 years plus.

***************

Speaking
of Anniversaries, The Somerville News is celebrating 40 years of
Community Service here in Somerville, the only locally owned and
operated and staffed paper here in Somerville. We don't have to stand
behind anyone and listen in on conversations to get news like some
others we know; we bring you only Somerville News – fresh news.

***************

Seems
that a so called regular columnist over at the Farm Team keeps calling
out one of the Publishers here at the News – this guy, even by the
standards of some of the progressives in this city, is whacked when he
opens his mouth. We want to thank KB for the free press, he thinks that
PDSers make up a majority here in Somerville, and they don't. For the
umpteenth time KB – this is a rumor column – we know you don't like it
when we say stuff about the PDSers, here but guess what, we will call
out anyone including the PDSers every time they do something stupid or
lame. Heck, we can't make up some of this stuff. For a guy that doesn't
like name-calling he sure can be creative with the names he uses
himself. But then we're not surprised they (PDSers) say one thing and
do another, you know they're not interested in working out solutions,
only in taking over – even if it means climbing over the backs of their
own supporters. Just ask Jack Connolly and the many others they have
used.

***************

The Somerville Fire Department won
an 11-4 victory over the Somerville Police in the annual Guns and Hoses
Hockey Tournament this past Saturday night – they raised over $5,000.00
for Somerville Youth Hockey. Lots of fun and action and in the end
everyone wins in this annual tournament.

***************

Over
4,200 runners wearing the Green on Sunday for the 6th Annual Ras na
hEireann road race here in Somerville, it has become a classic and much
anticipated event here – the money raised is estimated to be around
$25K, which will go to various local charities and scholarship programs
here in Somerville.

***************

You know those big
green solar trashcans in and around here in Somerville? Appears we have
about 50 of them with a cost of about $3K each – they are supposed to
be environmentally good for Somerville. We noticed a lot of them were
broken down, there was an interesting article in the New York Times on
the 17th regarding their use in Somerville.

***************

After
a year of cosmetic repairs, the McGrath Highway overpass seems to be
falling apart from the inside out – if you take a good look at the side
of the aging bridge by standing next to the intersection of Somerville
Avenue and Medford Streets, you can see the main support steel beams
rotted all the way through. Maybe this is a good spot to start dumping
some of that stimulus cash before it gets eaten up as well.

***************

The
Little Sisters of the Poor are holding a Fundraising Rummage Sale on
Friday, March 20th and Saturday, March 21st from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm
each day. The Little Sisters is located at the Jeanne Jugan Residence,
186 Highland Avenue. All proceeds benefit the low-income elderly of the
Little Sisters of the Poor. Arts & Crafts, Clothes, Housewares,
Furniture and more – everything must go!

***************