H
HagiaSophia
Guest
Priorities in Massachusetts seems just a shade different than most places:
McGrory’s column today:
Then I get the facts. Town officials, upset with the size of the 6-foot-wide recruiting sign posted in front of an armory along Route 228, fretted that they couldn’t force the state to take it down because it was on state-owned land. But resourceful as they are, they discovered a hitch. Part of the sign was planted in town land. So they came out with saws and cut the thing off at its legs.
“We lost our patience and took it down,” the town administrator, Charles Cristello, told the Hingham Journal.
Honest to God, I’m not going to write that. But think about what just happened.
National Guard members are off fighting a war with no clear end, harm lurking around every corner, some of their families facing financial hardship back home. And Hingham officials are beside themselves because a sign in their safe, pretty town might be a foot or so bigger than zoning allows.
Think, too, about the fact that the Massachusetts National Guard has identical recruiting signs all over the state, and no city or town has ever cut one down before. It’s not a cherry tree.
I learn that at this very moment, there are 500 men and women with the Massachusetts National Guard fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq and on patrol elsewhere in the Middle East. Since Sept. 11, 2001, more than 4,000 members have been sent abroad, some on extended tours of duty, and a total of 9,400 have been activated in some capacity.
Their lives have been disrupted. Their futures are uncertain. And in Hingham, officials lost their patience with the size of a simple recruiting sign. Like fast food or colored lights at Christmas, it runs counter to their force-fed way of life.
But I can’t write this. I promised.
The good news is that this week’s local paper is filled with letters to the editor expressing shame of town officials. I’m betting those letters speak for the vast majority in Hingham. I’d also bet that most residents are ashamed of the local nags still trying to tie up construction of the Greenbush commuter rail, even though the town agreed to drop opposition in exchange for a gold-plated tunnel through Hingham Square.
If I were to write this, I’d probably note that National Guard Captain Winfield Danielson expressed disappointment with Hingham officials over the sign destruction.
He said the Guard is designing a new recruiting sign, 42 inches wide by 30 inches tall, and this time he’ll make sure both posts are planted on state land."
McGrory’s column today:
Then I get the facts. Town officials, upset with the size of the 6-foot-wide recruiting sign posted in front of an armory along Route 228, fretted that they couldn’t force the state to take it down because it was on state-owned land. But resourceful as they are, they discovered a hitch. Part of the sign was planted in town land. So they came out with saws and cut the thing off at its legs.
“We lost our patience and took it down,” the town administrator, Charles Cristello, told the Hingham Journal.
Honest to God, I’m not going to write that. But think about what just happened.
National Guard members are off fighting a war with no clear end, harm lurking around every corner, some of their families facing financial hardship back home. And Hingham officials are beside themselves because a sign in their safe, pretty town might be a foot or so bigger than zoning allows.
Think, too, about the fact that the Massachusetts National Guard has identical recruiting signs all over the state, and no city or town has ever cut one down before. It’s not a cherry tree.
I learn that at this very moment, there are 500 men and women with the Massachusetts National Guard fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq and on patrol elsewhere in the Middle East. Since Sept. 11, 2001, more than 4,000 members have been sent abroad, some on extended tours of duty, and a total of 9,400 have been activated in some capacity.
Their lives have been disrupted. Their futures are uncertain. And in Hingham, officials lost their patience with the size of a simple recruiting sign. Like fast food or colored lights at Christmas, it runs counter to their force-fed way of life.
But I can’t write this. I promised.
The good news is that this week’s local paper is filled with letters to the editor expressing shame of town officials. I’m betting those letters speak for the vast majority in Hingham. I’d also bet that most residents are ashamed of the local nags still trying to tie up construction of the Greenbush commuter rail, even though the town agreed to drop opposition in exchange for a gold-plated tunnel through Hingham Square.
If I were to write this, I’d probably note that National Guard Captain Winfield Danielson expressed disappointment with Hingham officials over the sign destruction.
He said the Guard is designing a new recruiting sign, 42 inches wide by 30 inches tall, and this time he’ll make sure both posts are planted on state land."
