Gov. Maura Healey, like leaders of other states buckling under the strain of a never-ending migrant influx, is on board with Biden’s short-term solution bonanza.

As the Herald reported, the Healey Administration and the White House announced a plan to help some new arrivals secure employment.

During the week of Nov. 13, officials from the Department of Homeland Security and the Bay State will host a “work authorization clinic” for migrant families currently living in state-provided housing.

“We are glad that the Biden-Harris Administration is hosting this clinic with us, which will help process work authorizations as efficiently as possible. Many shelter residents want to work but face significant barriers to getting their work authorizations,” Healey said.

“This clinic will be critical for building on the work that our administration has already been leading to connect more migrants with work opportunities, which will help them support their families and move out of emergency shelter into more stable housing options,” she said.

And what stable housing options might those be? There’s a shortage of affordable housing in Massachusetts as it is, as the non-migrants in the state’s shelter system can no doubt attest.

Rising rents have made it increasingly difficult for working families to afford to keep a roof over their heads. Having a job doesn’t guarantee you’ll have enough to rent a home or apartment.

In fact, Healey addressed this very issue last week, with the release of a $4 billion bond bill aimed at spurring housing production and boosting affordable home ownership. The Affordable Homes Act, a package of spending, policy and programmatic actions, represents the largest proposed investment in housing in the state’s history while simultaneously striking at the root causes of housing unaffordability, according to an administration release.

So, when migrants in our overwhelmed state shelters get work authorization help and secure jobs, where will they move to? What happens next? Whatever affordable housing options are produced by Healey’s bill are down the road at best, so migrants will find themselves in the same boat as others looking for a place to live that won’t take up their entire paycheck, and then some.

Leaders are working on that solution, and have been as the number of unhoused grows in Massachusetts. The migrant influx isn’t helping, and gainful employment for new arrivals will provide a leg up, but not necessarily the sort of boost that leads to a stable address.

There are two simultaneous crises in the Bay State: a migrant influx and housing. One needs to be solved, or at least greatly ameliorated, before the other can be competently dealt with.

Also omitted by Biden and Healey: there are more migrants coming. As the Associated Press reported, some 5,000 migrants set out on foot from Mexico’s southern border Monday, walking north toward the U.S.

Here they can get a drivers license and a job – and join the scrum to find

a place to live.

Business is the backbone of our democracy, and neglecting the engine that drives our freedom is irresponsible. Every warning light is blinking, governor, so erase your calendar, roll up your sleeves, and get out your toolbox.

The Tax Foundation ranks Massachusetts as the 5th worst state in its Business Tax Climate Index. New Jersey, New York, California, and Connecticut rank lower — but New Hampshire is in the Top 10. That alone should worry Gov. Healey. Last time when drove north it was a quick trip.

The sad part is Healey doesn’t seem to care. Neither does Speaker Ron Mariano and state Senate President Karen Spilka. Our Democratic-run government is more adept at knocking down entrepreneurs than helping them out.

This Tax Foundation report — showing the Bay State dropping 12 spots in just the past year — should be a wake-up call. Businesses and citizens vote with their feet, and we risk losing both if the status quo remains.

A driver behind the state’s nosedive in tax competitiveness, the Tax Foundation found, is the state’s new Fair Share Amendment – or Millionaire’s Tax – which taxes incomes over $1 million an extra 4%.

“While the $1 million threshold at which the surtax kicks in is indexed to inflation, the surtax imposes a sizable marriage penalty that the Commonwealth lacked previously,” authors wrote in the report which came out last week. “This policy change represents a stark contrast from the recent reforms to reduce rates while consolidating brackets in many other states.”

Paul Craney, a spokesman for Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance and a staunch opponent of the Millionaire’s Tax, called out proponents who pledged that the surtax would strictly apply to individuals with an income of over $1 million.

“With a flip of a switch, the Legislature lowered that threshold to $500,000 for married people and the Tax Foundation is predicting a clear negative outcome from this,” Craney added.

Why should you care?

Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, told the Herald this weekend that people and businesses alike are continuing to leave Massachusetts due to taxation.

His organization represents 4,000 businesses in the state so it’s not wise to ignore his comment.

The Tax Foundation also called out a payroll tax that went into effect this year in Massachusetts’ poor ranking. The organization also found that the state dropped 33 spots from the 11th-best state for individual taxes to the sixth-worst.

Hurst said high unemployment and health insurance costs, both of which are the worst in the nation, according to the Tax Foundation, need to be fixed.

The Healey administration and Beacon Hill lawmakers can not be allowed to go unchallenged. It’s embarrassing to be near last on any list. It’s unacceptable and reflects how out of touch our lawmakers have become.

With the gutless coward Robert Card the suspect in the mass shootings in Lewiston, Maine found dead, this is the best outcome that could have possibly happened. The good citizens of the state of Maine are spared the cost of a trial where Card’s lawyers would have played the insanity card. And the state of Maine is spared the cost of incarceration for decades to come. Unfortunately the families of those Card murdered will never learn why this happened . My heart goes out to the families of all those killed and injured.

Paul J. Baranofsky

Waltham

Audit the Legislature

It makes perfect sense for the Massachusetts State Auditor, Diana DiZoglio to lift the veil of secrecy and audit the Legislature.  In our one party, Democrat-led state, there is always meetings held behind closed doors and deals made in secrecy.  What better reason for an audit is what Speaker Ron Mariano and President Karen Spilka say in opposition to opening up the books of their fiefdom.  They howl that the Legislature is a separate branch of government that makes its own rules and governs and audits itself.  Wow, isn’t that a reason enough for another pair of eyes to peak under the rug and see what was swept under it?

Donald Houghton

Quincy

Hamas terror

The White House Office of Moral Philosophy, formerly staffed by Barack Obama and presently by his student Joe Biden, continues to plead for ethical clarity to the theocratic hooligans in Iran. If we just give them a little more, the Obama-Biden thinkers believe, then surely they will meet us halfway. But, dagnabbit, those rascals in Tehran never seem to get the memo. Oh well, better not upset them, after all holy men follow different timelines and patience on our end will gain credence with Russia and China. Yeah, that’s the ticket. I suspect that elimination of this train of thought would go a long way toward countering the moral confusion tangling our nation, especially the anti-Enlightenment antisemitism now raging on our streets.

Paul Bloustein
Cincinnati, Ohio

Biden and oil

Joseph Robinette Biden and his administration has shut down oil and gas leases from the nation’s vast public lands and waters starting on Jan. 20, 2021. Well, I have a question, don’t all military tanks, ships, planes and transport vehicles use fuel oil? So if the United States can’t supply this product who will? There’s a lot of bad stuff going on in the world, time for America to rethink stopping oil production in our country, being self sufficient is the answer and trusting other countries to step up and help is really scary.

Tony Meschini

Scituate

What’s the biggest lie promulgated by the left?  President Biden’s age is an asset.  What’s the second biggest?  Foreign policy is his particular strength.

Someone needs to remind N.H. Senator Maggie Hassan that the reason this country is confronting “significant problems at home and around the world” is 100% due to the stunning lack of competence and forthrightness of the Biden administration.  Has anyone noticed that the bad actors around the world only began to stir when Trump left the White House?

Sean F. Flaherty

Boston

Renaming Hall

There is a movement to rename Faneuil Hall again. I cannot think of one rational reason to do that. Unlike the renaming of Dudley Square which had no national recognition, people countrywide say if you visit Boston you have to visit Faneuil Hall. At some point we have to let names of places stay as is and don’t cater to special interest groups’ demands.

Paul Quaglia

Billerica

Wars abroad

Peace through strength is not an empty cliché.  Under President Trump, the United States had become energy independent.  The U.S. was able to become an oil exporter,  selling oil to Europe and undermining Russia’s stranglehold on Europe’s oil dependency.  Now, Russian oil sales are funding the war in Ukraine.  In September 2020, President Trump brokered the historic Abraham Accords where countries of Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates recognized Israel’s sovereignty.

There was relative peace in the Middle East.  Iran’s mullahs were dealing with internal unrest.  Oil embargoes handcuffed Iran’s ability to fund Hamas and Hezbollah.  Along comes Biden who is eager to dump billions of dollars in Iran’s lap.  What could go wrong?  Then we have Biden’s total fiasco of the U.S. pull-out from Afghanistan.  Thirteen marines were killed and $80 billion worth of ammunition, guns, trucks, jeeps and rockets were left behind for the Taliban while our forces snuck out in the middle of the night from Bagram Air Base.  Israel and Hamas are at war.  Ukraine and Russia are at war.  These are Biden’s wars because America displays weakness on the world stage.

Donald Houghton

Quincy

The op-ed “Menthol ban would boost $$ incentive for cartels” omits recognizing the unprecedented scientific evidence-based facts favoring the FDA’s pending menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars ban. A nationwide menthol ban would be the most aggressive and impactful development to diminish the leading cause of preventable death, smoking, in the world.

It is misleading not to mention that the FDA mission is to save millions of lives and the pending menthol ban is expected to have an offramp for smokers by also focusing on nicotine addiction. Reports have suggested that FDA authorized modified risk tobacco products may be exempt from the ban.

A plant biotech company named 22nd Century Group has FDA authorization for the first nearly nonaddictive cigarettes in history, called VLN (Very Low Nicotine) and the FDA requires “Helps You Smoke Less” to be on all their packs.

The immeasurable mortality and enormous public health costs of not banning menthol cigarettes and addressing nicotine addiction makes drug cartel profits miniscule in comparison. The FDA has put a lot of scientific research and resources into the menthol ban decision and evaluated input from a wide range of professionals and the public. Politics and preserving tobacco industry profits shouldn’t play a key role in the decision.

Devender Coleman

Boston

Biden on world stage

During these perilous times, with the world becoming increasingly destabilized, American civilians being killed and U.S. soldiers under attack in the Middle East, people are sharpening their scrutiny of President Biden, particularly given his overt weakness, timidity, and unsettling vacillations in response to ominous global developments. Many political observers can’t help but remember what Robert Gates, who served as defense secretary for the Obama administration, famously said about Biden some years ago: “I think he’s been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.”

And many Beltway observers are also uncomfortably remembering something that former president Barack Obama, in a moment of brutal candor, privately said of Biden: “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to (expletive) things up.”

By all accounts, as evinced through Biden’s unsteady presidency, and particularly through his handling of the unnerving world events of today, it would appear that Gates and Obama were uncannily accurate in their assessment of Biden.

Michael J. DiStefano

Jamestown, RI

Wednesday night’s mass shooting at a bowling alley in Lewiston, Me.; the gunfire at a Dorchester parade in August that left eight injured, the shootings that shatter the peace of Boston’s streets night and day. These are, sadly, just to name a few.

Law enforcement is vital to the central nervous system of this city, and a crucial voice at the table.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t have one.

The Boston City Council votes on the Boston Police Department budget, makes declarations and proclamations and protestations about neighborhood policing and safety, but none of the councilors knows what it’s like to work those streets as a police officer.

Enter Jose Ruiz.

The City Council candidate for District 5 has been in the BPD for 29 years. He can speak from experience of what’s needed to make communities safe, because he’s seen what happens when they’re not. And not from the vantage point of a press conference, or day-after statement at City Hall, but as a first responder at the scene of a crisis.

We need this wisdom and lived experience now more than ever. Even sections of the city not known for gun violence have been disrupted by demonstrations and riots in recent years, from outside agitators to home-grown protests. The rancor over the terrorist attacks in Israel has spurred a heightened sense of vigilance, particularly in public spaces.

While the council had a heated discussion last week regarding the Israel-Hamas war, police set up a barricade at the entrance to City Hall.

And no plan for Mass and Cass is possible without a BPD component, requiring officers to work in a dangerous, often violent area most people try to avoid.

None of this is abstract. Policing is boots on the ground, real-life, real-world efforts to keep Boston safe and communities strong.

We need a police veteran like Ruiz to add depth and breadth to the council.

The progressive agenda holds that crime can be solved not so much by going after criminals, but by strengthening the foundations of neighborhoods. Ruiz has that covered.

Uplifting communities has been a key part of Ruiz’ contributions to Boston. He organized the largest city-wide youth baseball and softball league, including life skills presentations for players. He doesn’t talk about giving back – he does it.

The elections on Nov. 7 will come and go. After the dust has settled, there will still be criminals trafficking in drugs and illegal firearms, there will still be murders committed with ghost guns, predators stalking the vulnerable, and any number of sudden, unexpected events that necessitate all hands on deck for local law enforcement.

These could be talking points for the city council, issues of debate swayed by agendas. Or, a new voice on the council could bring insight and expertise and ideas that have real-world resonance.

This is critical if Boston is to grow and thrive.

The city needs Jose Ruiz as councilor for District 5.

Its latest incarnation, the Hamas terrorist group, was particularly cunning as it spent some two years planning and training for its Oct. 7 slaughter of over 1,400 Israelis, leaving many more wounded and kidnapping hostages which it still holds. Men, women, children – all indiscriminate victims of the carnage, and all of it calculated.

But the immoral machinations didn’t stop there. Hamas was undoubtedly aware of rising the rising tide of antisemitism around the globe in recent years. As the Associated Press reported in April, antisemitism rose in the U.S. last year as political radicals gain mainstream popularity, according to a report released by Tel Aviv University’s Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry and the U.S.-based Anti-Defamation League.

The ADL found that the number of antisemitic incidents in the U.S. increased by more than 35% in the past year, from 2,721 in 2021 to 3,697 in 2022.

Hamas may not have had the statistics, but it knew that an attack against Israel would unleash the hounds of anti-Jewish hatred. It was right. From cheering mobs celebrating the slaughter to abhorrent cries of “gas the Jews” at a Sydney pro-Palestinian protest, Hamas tapped into the repugnant vein of antisemitism that has plagued the Jewish people for centuries.

Hamas also knew that the minute Israel defended itself, it would be slammed as the villain of the piece. Joe Biden, in an Oct. 15 interview with “60 Minutes,” noted that Hamas are “hiding behind the civilians,” including by placing their “headquarters where civilians are.” That isn’t by happenstance. Palestinians also suffer at the hands of Hamas.

That’s lost on the anti-Israel crowd.

Even images of the bloody aftermath of Hamas’ barbaric invasion did not sway the dark hearts of those who thought Hamas’ slaughter somehow justified.

And now, as posters of the innocent men, women and children held hostage by Hamas in Gaza have been put up in public places around the world, there are those who are tearing them down.

The signs are simple: “Kidnapped,” followed by the names and ages of those in captivity. There’s four-year-old Ariel, taken along with his infant brother Kfir and their mother Shiri Silberman-Bibas – this poster was torn down in London this week, the act caught on camera and reported by the Daily Mail.

It happened here as well, a dentist was caught ripping down such posters in Boston, she was also caught on camera.

That’s one of the bright spots in this hellscape – for all those who tear down posters of kidnapped children, there are those who film their acts and call them out. For all the trolls taking to social media to yet again spread bizarre conspiracy theories and slander, there are armies of people speaking out in support of the Jewish people.

For every mob chanting “gas the Jews” and similar curses, there are landmarks around the world lighting up with the colors of the Israeli flag in solidarity.

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

These are dark times for the Jewish people. Unfortunately, they’ve been here before. But this time they have allies unafraid to lend their support and voice. We doubt Hamas saw that coming.

As T history demonstrates, leadership has focused on post-accident bromides, apologies for unsolved problems, and endless promises to do better.

Eng is actually getting things done.

The latest example of his “see something, say something, fix something” approach came last week, when Eng revealed that T officials knew as far back as April 2021 that large swaths of Green Line Extension tracks were defective and too narrow – but the agency opened the lines anyway.

According to the GM, half of the Union Square branch and 80% of the Medford-Tufts branch require repairs only a week after the MBTA said it had cleared slow zones that forced trains to run at walking speeds in some areas.

That’s not surprising, given the T’s track record.

“We’re going to have the GLX Constructors re-gauge the track to bring it back to what the project called for. And once we have a plan in place, we’ll share that with the public. And the goal is to make sure that we do that in the least impactful way, the most efficient way and put this behind us,” Eng said.

This, we’re not used to.

Back in 2019, a safety review panel comprised of former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, former acting administrator of the Federal Transit Administration Carolyn Flowers and former New York City Transit President Carmen Bianco raked the MBTA over the coals following that year’s Red Line derailment disaster. They slammed the T for “deficiencies” in nearly every area of safety maintenance and practice.

“In almost every area we examined, deficiencies in policies, application of safety standards or industry best practices, and accountability were apparent,” the safety review panel wrote. “The foundation for safety is also not obvious as the agency has not identified or adopted a comprehensive vision, mission, values or set of strategies and goals to guide the agency’s actions to achieve a safe work environment and to deliver quality service.”

According to a summary of the panel’s report, investigators found  “the T’s approach to safety is questionable, which results in safety culture concerns.”

Passengers didn’t need a review panel to tell them this – they’d known for years as derailments and accidents mounted, along with signal issues and endless delays and out-of-service trains.

Riders wanted more, deserved more, expected more – but knew they were unlikely to get it from the entrenched culture at the MBTA.

Then Eng became the new sheriff in town. A month into his tenure, a woman was struck by a falling utility box at a Red Line station. Eng order all stations to be inspected, and within days, similar boxes were removed. He announced a major personnel shakeup last month,  restructuring the agency under four divisions  — operations, safety, capital, and administration — in the first major reorganization in roughly a decade.

We’ve written about the T’s troubles for years, and never been short of material. But Eng is shaping up to be truly stellar hire.

For this, kudos to Gov. Maura Healey.

The council is split between those who use their position to serve the people of Boston, and those who leverage the public podium to advance an agenda.

As the Nov. 7 election for At-Large seats looms, the Herald will be endorsing candidates who align with public service and policies that keep the city safe and growing.

First up, Councilor Erin Murphy.

Murphy, 53, has been a steady voice of support for the Boston Police Department and the vital work they do, Murphy was one of five on the council who voted in favor of grant funding for the Boston Regional Intelligence Center, first in September and again at the beginning of this month.

As Boston has been besieged by gun violence, especially this summer, it would seem that boosting the BPD’s intelligence arm with improved tech aimed at fighting crime, gangs and terrorism would be a shoo-in. It wasn’t, at least for five of the councilors. The seven who carried the motion, including Murphy, however, saw the opportunity to make our communities safer and took it.

Murphy was also against cutting the BPD budget by some $31M back in June. A common-sense move, but these days, espousing such views is swimming against the progressive tide.

We need such voices of reason at the table.

Murphy was also among a quartet of councilors who urged last month that a state of emergency be declared for the morass that is Mass and Cass. The Methadone Mile has devolved from a crisis into a humanitarian catastrophe, and substantive action remains elusive.

As the chaos continues, people suffer – from those caught in the throes of addiction to neighboring businesses and residents.

In August, Murphy proposed a property tax abatement to Newmarket-area businesses adversely affected by the open-air drug dealing and violence occurring around Melnea Cass Boulevard and Massachusetts Avenue, as the Herald reported.

“We know they’re struggling through none of their own doing, and we’ve failed them in not providing a safe environment,” Murphy said. “Many have been adversely impacted by the deteriorating conditions of the neighborhood that aren’t accurately reflected in their property tax valuation.”

It’s great to see a leader who views businesses abutting Mass and Cass as more than just collateral damage in the war on opioids.

In seeking that state of the emergency declaration, Murphy said that “The committee is hopeful that this hearing will illuminate for the people of Boston how their tax dollars are being spent to clean up this crisis in a humane, safe manner.”

There’s the rub – Mass and Cass, the BPD budget, city programs – it’s all paid for by taxpayers.

Murphy gets it.

The campaign season is awash in promises from candidates – they’ll be accountable, transparent, they’ll fight for constituents. The incumbents running for re-election have had ample time to show the city what they bring to the table. Or not.

Erin Murphy brings a solid record of working to make Boston better.

The Herald endorses Erin Murphy for City Councilor At-Large.

I am a proud Jew. And I am proud of my people.  But today, I am also greatly ashamed of many of my people.  Earlier last week hundreds of my Jewish brothers and sisters sat in the U.S. capital and demanded a “cease-fire” between Israel and Hamas.  To them, and to the rest of my Jewish brethren I must make the following plea:

I am tired of this. Wake up. This atrocity happens every 100 years. Whether pogroms, crusades, inquisitions, blood libels, the Holocaust, the Yom Kippur War, or the conflict with Hamas where 1,400 members of our family were raped, burned alive, kidnapped, and shot in mass executions, this is not new.

It has been the role of the Jews in the world to be murdered and then to get blamed for our own killing. This trauma has defined us.  We have holidays to mark them. But for the first time in modern history things are different. Jewish blood is no longer cheap. This was a slaughter of our people. It is happening in real time. It is the event that we experience every century, at least. This is the time to say stop. This is the time to say enough. Why can’t a Jew be proud?  I am proud to be strong. I am proud that murdering my people no longer results in a hall pass. I am proud that I have a state of Israel to stick up for me. That you don’t just go get to kill a bunch of Jews and get away with it. We are not sheep anymore. The loss of Palestinian life that will continue to grow is an absolute tragedy.  But this is entirely preventable by Hamas, and has been encouraged by those terrorist thugs.

I am proud — there is finally a consequence to massacring Jews.  For the first time, war is that consequence. Because when you do not fight back, murderous, slanderous libel just comes back 10-fold.

Passivity as Jews are slaughtered and the world looks on is no longer the norm. Because that is what it means to be a people who have the right of self-determination. You do not get to molest us freely anymore. True, we must hold our values that are undeniably morally superior to those of Hamas. But the answer to killing our people can no longer be silence. Because silence is unacceptable and appeasement is deadly. Wake up. Wake. Up. It is time to demand an end to these murderous thugs. Because appeasement and cease-fires only result in the deaths of more Israelis and Palestinians.

If you support the Palestinian cause and if you support the Israeli cause you must demand that this war be seen through to the rightful conclusion. Hamas must be completely destroyed.  Today, I am ashamed for those of my Jewish family who demand a ceasefire.  But I am also proud.  Because my life, and the lives of Jews, finally have value.  And we will be avenged.

AJ Edelman is an Israeli American Olympian and captain of the Israeli Bobsled Team-Edelman.  When not training and competing he can be found in Brookline. 

I assume this very effective public safety saying no longer applies in the City of Boston (“Mass and Cass crisis worsens,” 10/19).

The picture I saw when I opened the paper was of a man shooting heroin on a city street. This is the part that puzzles me when deciding what should be done with Mass and Cass.

I assume by looking at this picture that the City of Boston is saying it is OK to shoot heroin on a public street or does that just apply to Mass and Cass?

My father used to say when laws are ignored or no longer enforced, chaos will win and it will mark the beginning of the end and that is what is happening to what was once a beautiful city!

Everyone knows exactly what needs to be done but political posturing and non enforcement of laws is how we operate in the city now, thanks Michele!

Michael Westen

Malden

Shooting gallery

I am beyond disgusted with the situation at Mass and Cass, in which you continue to  publish pictures of the people shooting up.  Please, as customers we know what is going on out there. I do not think
anybody needs to see these pictures.  Thank you.

Nancy M. Bower

Parsonsfield, Me.

Foreign aid

Taxpayers should realize that the money our government sends in support of other countries to support conflicts with other countries are real dollars paid into our government through payroll and corporate taxes. This is the only source of federal money used to fund our schools, roads and a myriad of other government funded projects. Assuming these countries are in need of international support, why couldn’t this financial support be supplied in the form of a loan rather than an outright donation. Some of these countries have been around hundreds of years before our country was even founded and should be self sufficient by now.

Jack Moon

Ipswich

Evil of Hamas

If anyone doesn’t believe what Hamas did in Israel isn’t evil, time for them to see a shrink. Growing up and listening to my Dad talk about the atrocities the Nazis did to the Jewish nation during World War II made me sick to my stomach and I prayed something similar to that evil never happen in my lifetime. Killing innocent people is just wrong and whatever Israel needs to do to try stop Hamas, I back 100%.

Tony Meschini

Scituate

Migrant influx

Boo hoo, Governor Healey, I wonder if the southern border states share the pain we are suffering here in the capital of NIMBYism. Not one word was uttered by our state legislature and our congressional delegation for over two years until the illegal immigrant fiasco started having an impact here in Massachusetts. The upside of that is the fact that it kept Senator Warren rantless, and Senator Markey only opened his mouth to change feet. Now, according to Sen. Warren, she and Sen. Markey are working around the clock to resolve the conflict in the Middle East. She would never make it as a stand up comic.

John Lucente

Lexington

The Boston Herald is covering Mass & Cass issues that look like they are here to stay as long as there is no real leadership anywhere on this homeless encampment crisis. It seems to be growing along with the neglect of too many city officials to properly address the hows and whys. This encampment issue never gets close to being resolved. It is all blue smoke, mirrors, press releases and photo ops.

It has taken so long for city officials to notice the growth of mini homeless encampments across the city. The fact there has been a mini Mass & Cass right there by City Hall Plaza for over a year now and finally officials are seeing the metastasizing growth across the city?

Your recent piece on Clifford Park or what I called growing up ‘The  Prairie” – why had it taken the city so long to see this mini homeless encampment? I have seen this spillover grow over the past few years.

News that a 2-year-old may have been sleeping overnight down at this homeless encampment across from Boston Fire Headquarters is being treated as if it never happened before. I am sure kids have been sleeping down there with their parents. Does anyone think this 2-year-old is the first to have had a sleepover at Atkinson Street?

The drugs and violence down there off Southampton Street won’t go away until the large population calling the streets in that area go away. It is time to clear the whole area of tents. Then and only then can we see clearly the homeless looking for a jumpstart in life. We can’t find services or shelter in the middle of street chaos. Offer folks as much help as they need but don’t baby them either. We are all responsible for our lives, all of us. There is no excuse to  live in a tent on the street and wait for the cavalry to arrive. Doing the same thing over and over again means nothing  ever changes.

Allowing homeless encampments to spring up everywhere only makes matters worse. We keep waiting for politicians to fix things. Too many of them simply talk the talk. It is time to move beyond this waffling and move the needle toward progress. The issue of homelessness isn’t really just about finding housing, it’s about dealing with the broken lives of many of these people who live in the shadows of humanity. While we hesitate, the homeless encampments grow bigger and time marches on.

Sal Giarratani

East Boston

Gun control bill

Attaching gun-control legislation to the budget bill is a dishonest way of circumventing the true legislative process.  Massachusetts already has one of the most stringent laws on the books regarding gun safety and gun ownership.  Dave Wallace, executive director of the Gun Owners Action League said this Houdini-like approach to sneak gun legislation into law by attaching it to a final budget bill is wrong.  Criminals use illegal weapons.  Law abiding citizens are protected by the Constitution’s Second Amendment.  The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.  It’s time for honesty, legislators.

Donald Houghton

Quincy

It started with hiring her sister and son to City Hall positions, a conflict of interest violation, and worsened with her pushing for a $31M cut to the BPD this summer.

On Wednesday, she used a Boston City Council meeting to describe the Hamas terrorist organization as a “militant group” and characterized the attack that killed over 1,400 Israelis, among them women, children and babies, as a “military operation.”

This white-washing of Hamas’ atrocities in the guise of a “military operation” is shamefully popular among far-left progressives. The brutal killings, including the murders of children, women and the elderly are at best “unacceptable,” but Israel’s defense against such slaughter is deemed reprehensible.

As the Herald reported, the resolution filed by Fernandes Anderson calling for de-escalation and a cease-fire in Israel and “occupied Palestine” was in response to one filed earlier in the week by Councilor Michael Flaherty, who wanted to condemn “Hamas and their brutal terrorist acts against Israel.”

It’s inconceivable that a resolution to condemn terrorist acts would get pushback, but the progressive agenda is never at a loss for audacity.

In slamming Israel’s policies, Fernandes Anderson noted: “If you’re killing innocent children, in my eyes, you’re a terrorist. I don’t know what ethnicity you are, what religion you are. No matter what, you’re a terrorist. You’re a horrible person.”

We’ve seen the photos of children’s bedroom walls splattered with blood, seen the cribs soaked in it, and heard from those on the ground in Israel describe the scenes of horror after Hamas terrorists unleashed hell on Oct. 7. As the Israeli Defense Force told CNN, women, children, toddlers and elderly were “brutally butchered in an ISIS way of action.”

Did Fernandes Anderson miss the video of Shani Louk, the young German Israeli tattoo artist taken hostage by Hamas at the music festival? Footage showed the terrorists parading her near-naked body through the streets in the back of a pickup truck.

Hamas has executed other hostages. These acts more than tick off the boxes of what Fernandes Anderson considers terrorist behavior.

And when calling for a “cease-fire,” does that include the rockets launched by Hamas from Gaza? As NPR reported, more than 5,000 have been launched into Israel since the Hamas attacks began, according to the Israeli military. Or is the cease-fire just for Israel?

Though her comments were met with derision, Fernandes Anderson did get media juice out of the moment, and earned more cred with the chanting set.

At the end of the day, both resolutions were sent to the Committee of the Whole for a public hearing, after objections to a vote being taken Wednesday.

All par for the course for our city council. Resolutions and ideas, no matter how worthy, are too often hamstrung by far-left agendas.

As the Herald reported, the bill expands a list of banned firearms, adding most popular AR-15 styles to a list of “assault style weapons.” It would also require licensed concealed carry holders to secure permission before entering another’s home with a firearm and require additional training for license holders, among other points.

For law-abiding gun owners, it adds layers of compliance on top of the state’s already-strict firearms regulations.

For criminals, it means nothing.

After a pair of fatal shootings in Boston last week, Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden pointed out that the arrests of two repeat offenders on firearm charges are a “prime example” of how a core group of people drive the “illegal gun possession menace” in Boston.

Those repeat offenders were arrested after traffic stops just days before two more men lost their lives to gun violence in Dorchester and Mattapan on Friday afternoon and early Saturday morning.

“These cases also highlight the need for us as a society to recognize the concentration of guns among a core group of individuals — in this case, two repeat offenders — and to find ways to break the cycle, which so often leads to violence and tragedy,” Hayden said.

He noted the gun-related arrests were “cases where prior convictions and prior incarcerations have apparently done little to dissuade these individuals from repeating the offenses.”

That’s the problem – those who follow pre-existing gun laws will follow new ones. Those who don’t follow the law at all won’t start.

Criminals who carry unlicensed guns are highly unlikely to secure permission before entering another’s home with a firearm. Training happens on the street, when members of that “core group” discharge weapons during commission of a crime.

Those who obtain illegal guns, hide guns and fashion ghost guns to commit crimes don’t care about gun laws in the slightest. Yet they are the ones racking up the deadly numbers of shooting deaths.

It’s those deaths that have gun bill proponents concerned.

“The Massachusetts League of Women Voters supports HD.4607,” Art Desloges, speaking on behalf of the group, told the House Ways and Means Committee last week. “Statistically we have the lowest gun death rates nationwide, but gun violence archive reports 83 people killed by firearms in the Commonwealth through July of this year. We must get to zero. Even one person lost to gun violence is too many.”

True. That’s the sentiment echoed by those who’ve lost loved ones to gunfire in Boston, whose children fear walking to school, and who know that an act as simple as sitting on the front porch can be deadly if they are in the crossfire of a drive-by.

The gun bill won’t stop this, a key reason why the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association won’t support it. As the organization’s executive director Mark Leahy noted, the bill simply won’t reduce crime.

We need to get illegal guns off the streets to make our communities safe. Having law-abiding gun owners jump through more hoops doesn’t help the cause. Perhaps the Senate can clear the fog.

On Oct. 12 I viewed the reporting of one of the most horrible atrocities committed by Hamas on i24News from Israel.  A pregnant Israeli woman was found brutally murdered and her baby sliced from her womb and knifed.

Why has this unspeakable horror been widely unreported in the US media?

Ellie Hochenberg, anchor for i24 News Global Eye, was in tears as Yossi Landau described what his recovery team had witnessed. In the same broadcast, Hochenberg showed the photos of a burned Israeli baby and another baby with a sliced throat.  The Israeli government released the photos after media claimed the reports of slaughtered Israeli babies were “unverified.”

Make no mistake, Hamas is ISIS and celebrates in the darkest of monstrous murderous evil.

John Meinhold

Portsmouth, NH

Robbins got it right

I never thought it would happen. In fact, I believed that it would be a cold day in hell before I agreed with anything Jeff Robbins would write.  But, his “Echoes from the Holocaust,” (10/14), was on target.  Hamas’ attack on Israel was horrendous and Israel’s right to respond accordingly is required of a nation whose border was violated and innocents murdered.  The Biden administration has a history of appeasement for Iran and Hamas is and always has been a proxy force of Iran’s hate for Israel and America.

Donald Trump made it clear that he had Israel’s back.  He fortified Israel with weapons.  He recognized Jerusalem as the Israel’s capitol and moved the U.S. embassy there.  He froze billions of dollars of Iranian assets that are used to support terrorists like Hamas. And, he made it clear that any government that used a terrorist group as a proxy for terror would be held responsible for American deaths.  Now, we wait for Biden to further bungle a tepid response to his foreign policy of appeasement.

Donald Houghton

Quincy

Harvard statement

The Harvard president’s initial statement following the anti-Semitic declaration of 30 student groups was woefully inadequate and betrayed the academic political correctness that is justifiably criticized by those of us who do not dwell in her world. Her follow-up condemnation of the horrific terror attack by Hamas killers was forced on her by outraged alumni, and thus she is permanently stained by her ignorance and cowardly initial behavior. The proper response was that of alumnus Bill Ackman who robustly criticized the students and called for their names to be made public so that these bigots can be tracked after graduation and when seeking jobs.

Paul Bloustein

Cincinnati, Ohio

Students speak

Harvard’s response to its student factions’ blaming of Israel for Hamas’ slaughter of innocents has been merely to state that student groups do not speak for Harvard.

Well then, who does? Apparently the cat’s got the collective tongues of Harvard’s administrators. It is a shame.

Bob Finneran

Walpole

She, like many governors trying to manage the unceasing influx of migrants across their state borders, ran into a harsh reality: there is a bottom to the well.

Healey announced Monday that the state’s shelter system will fill by the end of the month. After that the Bay State will not be able to provide housing for families in need as required by law.

As she and other governors have learned, there are limits to the number of unhoused people and families that shelters can hold, a limit to the hotels and motels that can put up the overflow, and an eventual limit to the money available to cover the mounting costs of these efforts.

As the Herald reported, the Massachusetts shelter system won’t be able to help any further without intervention by the Biden Administration.

Good luck with that. New York City Mayor Eric Adams called for Biden to give it a leg up as migrants overwhelmed that city’s shelters, and criticized the lack of substantive action.

The result is a cold shoulder from the White House, although Adams did have a recent sit down with former President Bill Clinton, who shared his insights.

Healey pled her case: “For months now, we have been expanding shelter capacity at an unsustainable rate to meet rising demand. Despite the heroic work of public officials, shelter providers and the National Guard, we have reached a point where we can no longer safely or responsibly expand.”

Adams took similar action, limiting adult migrants to just 30 days in city-run facilities, according to the Associated Press.

Healey stressed that Massachusetts isn’t ending its right to shelter law, but said that after the end of the month families in need of shelter may have to wait for space to free. When asked if this was a warning to migrants that Massachusetts is full, the governor said that, at the very least, shelter will not be provided to anyone who arrives.

However, just because we roll up the welcome mat, doesn’t mean migrants will stay away.

For one, Texas, which  passed capacity long ago, announced late last month that it would continue busing migrants, The Hill reported.

“Texas border towns should not have to shoulder the burden of Biden’s open border policies,” Gov. Greg Abbott posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Texas will continue to send buses to sanctuary cities to provide relief to overrun border towns.”

Coupled with the ability to get a Massachusetts drivers license regardless of immigration status and Healey’s efforts to enable job training for migrants, and our state will continue to be a magnet.

We’re all border states now, and the realities of overcrowding and lack of shelter space are here to stay. Healey may rearrange the deck chairs and declare a waiting period for new arrivals, or issue statements that there simply isn’t room to spare, but as Texas learned, that won’t do much good.

Democratic governors can’t back Joe Biden and his porous border policies, especially now that they are facing the consequences. The challenge, and the task, is getting Biden to listen.

I am a Jew.

For many of us, this is the first time those words have held such deep and searing meaning that the heart feels an indescribable emptiness, a scorching, aching pain.

I am also an Israeli.  And today, no matter what viewpoint you hold, no matter what “side” you support, you too are an Israeli.  Because you are human.

We have looked evil in the face, and it has laughed at us as it thought it was destroying us.

We shall not turn away.  We shall watch the videos and testimony — to understand evil we must not avoid its ugly reality.  We will confront this evil and it shall be vanquished.

Good cannot be destroyed where humanity is present, it comes back ever stronger.  In health we call this hypertrophy.  In life, we call it Israel.

Today I am an Israeli.  And you are too.

AJ Edelman,

Olympian, Captain, Israeli Bobsled Team Edelman

Echoes from Holocaust

Mr. Robbins’ column “Echoes from the Holocaust,” (10/14, Boston Herald) is to be commended for pointing out the fallacies of self-styled progressives.

The horrors committed by Hamas on innocent Jews a week ago is morally reprehensible and a senseless act beyond any description. Their repeated atrocities against Israel clearly emphasizes the fact that Hamas is not interested in any peaceful solution with Israel nor in improving the plight of Palestinians’ daily life.

Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, simply put is a terrorist organization. It is a pretense on the part of Hamas to act as a legitimate spokesperson for Palestinians and their cause. Hamas is more interested in digging tunnels and building destructive weapons to annihilate Israel as opposed to uplifting the lives of Palestinians.

It is a sad spectacle to watch the demonstrations in our nation’s major metropolis ignoring this fundamental fact.

Student bodies of many elite academic institutions blindly condemn Israel and fail to distinguish the cause of Palestinians vis-à-vis Hamas. Leaders of the elite institutions failed in their “leadership” by not acting fast enough to condemn or discourage their student societies.

In times like this, silence is not an option. It is imperative to speak against the horrors being committed against humanity by terrorist organizations.

President Biden is absolutely correct when he told an audience that “silence is complicity. I want you to know, I refuse to be silent.”

Pichai Gopal

Braintree,

Hamas in Gaza

How Hamas took over the Gaza Strip,  I’m sure was through intimidation, fear and threats to the Palestinian people who live there. How Hamas did a 9/11 type strike on Israel was painfully sickening to see on television and read about. No doubt Hamas’ only mission is to kill Israel individuals, young, old, male or female, doesn’t matter.

Whoever is backing them is as bad or maybe worse. My feelings are, whatever Israel needs, the United States of America has got your back.

Tony Meschini

Scituate

Your recent opinion piece (“Collins: Expanding private jet capacity at Hanscom reckless idea,” 10/6) omitted some key facts about the value of business aviation at Hanscom Field and beyond.

The truth is, Hanscom Field is vital to the region’s economic and transportation systems, driving $6.7 billion in economic activity each year, and supporting approximately 20,000 jobs, including highly skilled technicians, maintenance workers, avionics specialists, hospitality providers, and a host of other area businesses based on the field and in the local community. The airfield is also ideally suited to disaster-relief flights and specialized medical transport – consider Medflight, based at Hanscom, which transports more than 6,000 critically ill patients annually.

Equally important – given the focus of your story on business aviation’s carbon footprint – readers weren’t told about the industry’s sharp focus on sustainability, having slashed emissions by 40% in just four decades, and a commitment to reach net-zero carbon emissions in the years to come. Progress is being made toward this goal right now – through investment in eco-friendly electric, hybrid and hydrogen power technologies, and the development of sustainable aviation fuels, which can reduce carbon emissions by up to 80%. In fact, MIT researchers recently announced their ground-breaking work to convert plant-based lignin into hydrocarbon molecules that could help make jet fuel 100% sustainable.

When it comes to the debate over business aviation, let’s get the facts on the table, with a focus on the real and meaningful actions being taken to support citizens, communities and carbon reduction.

Jeff DeMarey
President
Stonewall Insurance Group, Inc.

David L. Fetherston
Founder and General Manager
NexAir Avionics

Thomas W. Hurley
Executive Director
Massachusetts Airport Management Association

Don McPherson
Manager
Minute Man Airfield

Donald Staszko
Director of Operations
ProAirways

Mac Jones

Before all the Boston genius writers and talk show hosts run Mac out of town, they should check the annals of Patriot history. Many, or all of them never had a chance to watch Jim Plunkett. Jim was a Heisman Trophy winner from Stanford that was the Patriots top draft pick in the 70-71 season. He had a very good rookie season followed by three or four seasons running for his life as the Patriots quarterback, after it was decided that a quality offensive line wasn’t needed. He later went on to win two Super Bowls with the Oakland Raiders.

So, before we run Mac out of town let’s try to get him some good protection. One of my first suggestions would be to charge Trent Brown admission to the game or replace him with one of the statues that have been removed locally.

John Lucente

Lexington

Many who followed last weekend’s attacks on Israel by Hamas terrorists with cheers for the massacre and tacit blame for the victims are finding that out the hard way.

Take the elitist students of the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Groups who wrote a letter blaming Israel for the attacks and found themselves ridiculed as being “intellectually weak and morally repugnant.”

Their critics were being nice. The backlash mounted.

Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman called for the signatories to be named so that companies could make a point not to hire them. Other execs followed suit.

After their lesson in consequences, many students couldn’t remove their signatures from the letter fast enough. In this day and age, however, digital trails follow us all, as a truck which made its way around Harvard Square Thursday displaying the alleged names of those who signed the Harvard letter demonstrates.

The students who signed on to that letter, as well as Tufts students who issued a similar statement, have to own their actions.

So does a Black Lives Matter chapter in Chicago, now under fire for its social media post earlier this week.

The post on X, formerly Twitter, includes an image of a person paragliding with a Palestinian flag attached to its parachute with “I stand with Palestine” written beneath.

“That is all that is it!” it added.

As the New York Post reported, BLM Chicago also posted a number of cartoons depicting somebody expressing outrage over the attacks on Israel, while another lists talking points blaming Israel for the situation.

“This isn’t about Hamas — this is about Palestinians right to resist 75 years of Israeli settlers colonizing their native land,” one of the cartoons read.

It is about Hamas, as fellow X users reminded them.

“Unapologetically standing with butcherers and rapists,” author and former speechwriter Aviva Klompas tweeted.

“BLM Chicago, like many leftists, comes out in support of slaughtering innocent people they don’t like,” GOP commentator Robby Starbuck tweeted.

The Democratic Socialists of America are also feeling the fallout after the New York City chapter’s pro-Palestinian rally over the weekend. The group apologized, but refused to directly condemn the Hamas terrorists behind the slaughter. Some members are resigning.

The terrorist sympathizers and victim blamers are missing an important point: Americans don’t stand with them. According to The Hill, a recent The Economist/YouGov poll revealed more Americans sympathizing with Israelis than with Palestinians amid the conflict.

The amount of Americans who say that their sympathies lie more with Israel in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has grown from 31% to 42%, since March. The amount of Americans who said their sympathies lie with the Palestinians has dropped, from 13 to 9 percent.

Americans see pictures of a child’s bloodied bed in Israel after a Hamas raid, learn of children being beheaded and families slaughtered and know that this is an abomination.

You don’t have to go to Harvard to understand that.

The president believed that unfreezing $6 billion in assets to Iran, a nation that funds terrorists, wouldn’t have any negative repercussions.

The mounting death toll and tales of horror in Israel speak volumes to the contrary.

Biden, the $6 Billion Man, approved the August deal to unfreeze the assets in exchange for the release of five American prisoners. Under the terms of the deal, the money can only be used for humanitarian-related purposes, including purchasing food or other goods outside Iran for import, U.S. officials said.

As this administration has shown repeatedly, it doesn’t have a firm grasp of how money works.

Nikki Haley, former South Carolina governor and 2024 Republican presidential candidate, pointed out that allowing Iran access to those funds under any circumstances improves its budget situation, freeing up money that would be used to use elsewhere, Reuters reported,

“Let’s be honest with the American people and understand that Hamas knows, and Iran knows they’re moving money around as we speak, because they know $6 billion is going to be released. That’s the reality,” she said.

Republicans have called for the deal to be reversed, and Democrats are now scrambling to do disaster control.

Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), called on the Biden administration “at a minimum” to freeze the $6 billion in Iranian assets, according to the Hill.

“As American intelligence officials continue to investigate the terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas, we should review our options to hold Iran accountable for any support they may have provided,” he said. “At a minimum, we should immediately freeze the $6 billion in Iranian assets and explore other financial tools we have at our disposal.”

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) also called for the transfer of Iranian funds to be halted.

“I wasn’t supportive of the initial $6 billion transfer. We should absolutely freeze Iranian assets while we also consider additional statements,” he said Tuesday.

After mowing down Israelis at a concert, raping women and slaughtering families – including children – Hamas isn’t packing up their gear and going home.

Wiping Israel out of existence is their mission.

It’s all well and good to denounce the terrorist attacks as “sheer evil” and send military supplies to Israel, but supporting the only functional democracy in the Middle East relies on foresight and strategic thinking.

The U.S. is sifting through intel to figure out what happened, but a U.S. official told CNN, “Iran likely knew Hamas was planning operations against Israel, but without the precise timing or scope of what occurred. Although Iran has long supported Hamas with material and financial support, we have not currently seen anything to suggest Iran supported or was behind the attack.”

We know Iran supports Hamas, and yet Biden unfroze $6 billion in assets. The deal was to release five Americans, yet at least 22 U.S. citizens are confirmed to have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war, according to the State Department.

There is no spin for this, no blame to be shifted.

Biden has added yet another deadly debacle to the list.

You can order ahead to “create your own nutrition report,” for those pacing themselves. If you skip over to Annenberg Hall — the “Berg” to those in the know — you’ll land “Corn Niblets” and “Apple Cider Glazed Turnips,” so “Delish,” food services says.

It’s easier to critique others when your belly is full.

How else can you explain the grossly insensitive statement by the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Groups that read, in part: “We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all the unfolding violence.” Thirty-one groups signed on, including the Ivy League’s affiliate of Amnesty International.

The timing alone is unforgivable. Hamas terrorists have taken hostages and are threatening to execute them one at a time. Children, women and the elderly are part of this Medieval equation.

The atrocities that have already taken place could be even worse in the days to come. The Harvard elitists blaming Israel are just emboldening Hamas terrorists. What’s unfolding in the Gaza Strip and in Israel is war, not fodder for a term paper or a photo op.

U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Salem, was right to blast the Harvard students who now look heartless and crass.

“Terrorism is never justified nor someone else’s fault. As hundreds of Israelis and others, including several Americans, remain kidnapped, injured, or dead, the 31 Harvard organizations that signed a letter holding Israel ‘entirely responsible’ for Hamas’ barbarous terrorism should be condemned, as should Harvard leadership for whom silence is complicity,” he wrote in a release Monday evening.

Harvard President Claudine Gay waited until Tuesday to respond with a three-paragraph statement: “As the events of recent days continue to reverberate, let there be no doubt that I condemn the terrorist atrocities perpetrated by Hamas. Such inhumanity is abhorrent, whatever one’s individual views of the origins of longstanding conflicts in the region,” she said.

“Let me also state, on this matter as on others, that while our students have the right to speak for themselves, no student group — not even 30 student groups — speaks for Harvard University or its leadership.

“We will all be well served in such a difficult moment by rhetoric that aims to illuminate and not inflame. And I appeal to all of us in this community of learning to keep this in mind as our conversations continue,” she concluded.

It’s embarrassing to be in the same state as Harvard today. Another group at the Cambridge college is standing tall.

Harvard Hillel, in its statement, wrote members are “deeply pained that instead of finding solace and support among our Harvard community in the days following the bloodiest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, we encountered further hatred and anti-Semitism here in Cambridge.”

Skip the Apple Cider Glazed Turnips, kids. History will remember this moment and how Harvard did or did not rise to the occasion. So far, many of you are flunking due to a gross lack of humanity.

As I recently read two news stories in the Boston Herald, one by Joe Battenfeld (Sept. 30) and the second the day before by Gayla Cawley (Sept. 29), it seems clear that not much is getting accomplished  lately at Boston City Hall between the mayor and the city council. The city’s health department has been almost as useless when it comes to workable strategies or actual solutions.

Seems everybody keeps yelling at each other or into the wind. It’s the mayor versus the council. Everybody likes pointing fingers but nobody seems to be lending a hand at arriving at a decision that ends this ugly status quo. We cannot seem to move from words of which there are plenty into actions that bring solutions because the bottom line is we must end this forever homeless encampment which has already lasted far too long. We are not helping anyone down there in a tent or on a blanket whose life just continues in visible misery.

The cleanup of this area must begin. We cannot have people living like this whether they want to or not. If the city government has become helpless to act, how can we call ourselves a livable city?

Election time is coming up. Check out all the candidates on the ballot for city council, both citywide and district. Make good choices and hope things improve as quickly as possible. Government is our business. It will be as good as we want it or as bad as we allow it to be. Vote on Nov. 7 as if your city depends on your vote because it really does depend on all of us.

Sal Giarratani

East Boston

Our economy

I had to laugh when reading the opinion piece from Salena Zito of CNN. Middle class Americans like myself who don’t have trust funds or six-figure stock portfolios are continually amazed when we get told by people who DO have such financial advantage that the economy is fine.

Such persons are financially insulated from the consequences of the policies they espouse and put in place. That ignorance — and many other reasons — is why Trump is running away in the polls despite his numerous character flaws and legal problems.

Patrick Moore

Oxford

N.E. Patriots

The New England Patriots, after embarrassing losses to the Dallas Cowboys and a mediocre New Orleans Saints team, changes need to be made.  First, Bill O’Brien should be named the interim head coach. Second, Bob Kraft needs to fire Bill Belichick as both head coach and general manager. Matt Groh needs to be the new general manager because, unlike Belichick, he is in tune with how football is played and managed in the 21st century. Finally Mac jones is clearly NOT the answer at quarterback and neither are any of the two remaining quarterbacks on the team. Bailey Zappe should start against the Raiders then against the Bills. I would deactivate Mac Jones the next two weeks. And finally when the Patriots finish 4-13 and get a top ten pick they need to draft a new quarterback and also a head coach who can teach modern offensive football like Doug Pederson does with Trevor Lawrence in Jacksonville.

Paul J. Baranofsky

Waltham

Enough is enough. Our governor and legislators are placing blame on everyone: feds, hotel owners, police. They need to look themselves in the mirror and realize a good portion of the Massachusetts immigration issues are caused or exacerbated by their own actions, or lack of action.

They won’t change the right to shelter law (which was originally put in place for homeless citizens), have not even thought about creating Massachusetts’ own laws to limit immigration to LEGAL immigration. Instead, they offer illegal immigrants free housing, free medical, driver’s licenses, breaks on education and then they limit the information our RMV can give out to law enforcement!

Now they are kicking our service men and women out of hotels for housing for illegal immigrants, causing our schools to be overburdened and allowing children who are not completely vaccinated into the schools.

Where is the common sense!

I do not blame the immigrants – why wouldn’t they come?? Anyone in their situation would. I do blame our state AND federal government for allowing our borders to be overrun, for the increase in crime in our cities, towns and schools and for the undermining of our police and justice system.

Stop the blame game and use the laws we have or change them as needed to get control of our state back before it is too late! Then collaborate with other states to force the federal government to close our borders and bring back the immigration laws that worked.

Joan Gonfrade

Ashland

Building wall

I’m really trying to understand why President Joseph Robinette Biden’s first objective when he was inaugurated as president was to stop building the wall at our southern border. Now look what’s happening, an enormous number of immigrants on a daily basis crossing illegally in our country and on the border and then many being bused throughout different states for shelter. Now the burden of housing, feeding, healthcare and education is the responsible on towns or cities who get these immigrants with no plan on what to do going forward. Mr. President, question is, what is the master plan for these immigrants?

Tony Meschini

Scituate

Full disclosure

Maura Healey won’t tell us how much money is being spent housing illegal aliens in our state.  Treasurer Deb Goldberg won’t tell us why she kicked out Shannon O’Brien off the cannabis chairmanship post, while still allowing O’Brien to keep getting paid a salary north of $180,000 a year.  Not a bad deal to say the least. Climate honcho John Kerry won’t disclose how much his office spends globe-trotting around the world while his rich friends buy waterfront property. If the world will end in 9 more years because of a warming planet, it seems odd not to be buying mountain-top mansions while the average person drowns in rising oceans.  What’s with these Democrats?  Transparency is a joke and Democrats keep voting Democrats into office.

Donald Houghton

Quincy

“Well, that’s nice and very secretive. What are you hiding?” the reader added, alluding to the fact that no Republicans were invited to that huddle.

The governor needs to study the Massachusetts Constitution. The “body politic” (i.e., Governor, Legislature, etc.) must adhere to a solemn “social compact” working toward “the common good.” That’s just in the preamble, so Gov. Healey shouldn’t need to read much further.

It doesn’t say in times of trouble, consult with your party.

Article V (worth reading, governor) states in full: “All power residing originally in the people, and being derived from them, the several magistrates and officers of government, vested with authority, whether legislative, executive, or judicial, are their substitutes and agents, and are at all times accountable to them.”

This means, as we read it and I’m sure thousands of others do too, that Democrats, Republicans, independents, Libertarians, Green Party, Constitution Party all the way to the Pizza Party (go check it out, it’s a political designation) represent the people of this great state.

It is elitist for Gov. Healey to think only her party has the right to brainstorm about coping with the right-to-shelter law here in Massachusetts and the migrants and homeless leaning on that flawed passage.

Gov. Maura Healey, Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, House Speaker Ronald Mariano, Senate President Karen Spilka, and members of the state’s congressional delegation — all Democrats — were in on that virtual huddle, as the Herald reported. Aides to U.S. Reps. Seth Moulton and Jake Auchincloss as well as U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey confirmed their attendance.

Both top legislative Republicans — Minority Leaders Sen. Bruce Tarr and Rep. Brad Jones — in Massachusetts confirmed they did not receive an invite.

A source tells the Herald the migrant crisis has hit districts with hotels housing these newcomers very hard. Reps and senators are all trying to adjust while begging for leadership from the Corner Office.

So what does the governor do? She rallies her base. She seeks opinions from her party.

That brand of leadership, where you turn to like-minded supporters, has proven fatal for generations. You need dissenting voices, skeptics, and people who will challenge the status quo.

Not inviting Bruce Tarr and Brad Jones smacks of partisan politics and is precisely why Congress has an approval rating of 19%. Politicians forget they work for the taxpayers.

This is exactly what we feared would happen from electing a Democratic governor here in Massachusetts — one-party rule.

Gov. Healey has asked the state Legislature to approve $250 million in additional funding for the emergency shelter system on top of the $325 million that was included in the fiscal year 2024 budget. Taxpayers are footing this bill.

Gov. Healey needs to realize, as Article VI of the state Constitution says, that she cannot “obtain advantages, or particular and exclusive privileges, distinct from those of the community.”

Or, she will be a one-term governor.

It’s bad enough that Massachusetts foolishly decided to become a haven for every so called migrant by giving them shelter at taxpayers’ expense. But to slap our many brave and often injured veterans in the face by taking away some hotel reservations for the upcoming Army vs. Navy college football game is unforgivable and unacceptable. We need to take care of all veterans first in all things they should be getting after serving their country. Shame on Governor Healey for not telling the federal government to shove off and go to hell.

Paul J. Baranofsky

Waltham

McCarthy out

Re: “McCarthy becomes the first speaker ever to be ousted from the job in a House vote,” 10/3/2023.

The Biden administration, RINOs and Democrats have been put on notice.  The American people are thoroughly fed up with “leaders” who are more focused on funding Ukraine when we have suffering Americans in East Palestine, Ohio and Lahaina, Hawaii. They are done with “leaders” who are more obsessed with provoking wars thousands of miles of away all over the world in places such as China, Russia, Serbia and Georgia that may cause WWIII, but could care less about the civil war on our streets.  Americans cannot accept the fact that we are $32 trillion in debt via uncontrolled and irresponsible spending, and that we have a completely open, dysfunctional border allowing millions of unknown, undocumented and unscrutinized illegal immigrants in.

Americans are waking up. Ousting Kevin McCarthy as House speaker is a sign of many more good things to come as Americans take back their country and elect true patriotic leaders who will put America first!

Dr. Michael Pravica

Acton

Border wall

So Joe Biden’s handlers have turned a 180 and now say we need a border wall.  Make no mistake, the Obamaworld string-pullers that really run the White House are not concerned about the crime and poverty that has flooded Main Street America, they are indifferent to kids in West Side Chicago being kicked off soccer fields and veterans having their reservations in Mansfield, Massachusetts hotels cancelled to make room for the world’s poor – only when it became a political liability heading into an election year did these craven, Machiavellian swamp dwellers take notice.

Nick McNulty

Windham NH

Migrants in Massachusetts

Taxpayers of Massachusetts, our governor, after meeting with the state legislators and a portion of our Congressional delegation has decided that we have a migrant problem in our state. The same legislators that have known about this for two years finally admitted as much. A larger problem is that they have no one to blame, that is why no Republicans were invited to their awakening. No problem, just keep reelecting the same perpetrators.

John Lucente

Lexington

After nearly six million illegal border crossings since he assumed office, cities and states around the country overwhelmed with migrants seeking shelter, and an influx of new arrivals daily, Biden has had an epiphany: his border policy is a disaster.

He won’t admit as much, of course, in Biden’s worldview he’s a problem-solving, economy-rescuing, unifying leader who’s going to save us all from climate change.

Until he was tripped by the sandbag of reality.

Now the Biden Administration is using executive power to waive 26 federal laws in South Texas to allow border wall construction, according to reports.

This is the one thing Biden can truthfully say was “like that when he got here.” Former President Donald Trump was constructing such a wall, and Biden vowed on the 2020 campaign trail that “There will not be another foot of wall constructed on my administration.”

That pledge, it seems, was “transitory.”

“There is presently an acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the border of the United States in order to prevent unlawful entries into the United States in the project areas,” Alejandro Mayorkas, the DHS secretary, stated in Wednesday’s notice.

Border states could have told him that – and they did. Inundated states like Texas having been sending out an SOS only to have it fall on deaf ears. It took the dispersal of illegal migrants around the country, most notably to blue states, to have Democratic leaders acknowledge the debacle.

One of the most vocal critics has been New York City Mayor Eric Adams, whose “right to shelter” city is being crushed under the fiscal and physical strain of housing so many migrants.

As the New York Times reported, Adams told a town hall-style gathering in Manhattan last month “Let me tell you something New Yorkers, never in my life have I had a problem that I did not see an ending to — I don’t see an ending to this. This issue will destroy New York City.”

On Tuesday night, Adams went before a judge in a bid to suspend the city’s right to shelter status.

“With more than 122,700 asylum seekers having come through our intake system since the spring of 2022, and projected costs of over $12 billion for three years, it is abundantly clear that the status quo cannot continue,” Adams said in a statement.

Gov. Maura Healey knows where he’s coming from. Massachusetts is buckling under our own influx of migrants, spending some $45 million a month and scrambling to find shelters for all. The status quo can’t continue here, either.

Biden had a weak excuse for the border woes, accentuated with some stunning mental gymnastics.

“The money was appropriated for the border wall. I tried to get them (Congress) to reappropriate, to redirect that money. They didn’t. They wouldn’t,” Biden said, according to The Hill. “In the meantime, there’s nothing under the law other than they have to use the money for what it was appropriated for. I can’t stop that.”

Biden was asked whether he thought the border wall was effective. His response: “No.”

Biden logic at its finest.

Given that domestic visitor spending hit $22 billion in Massachusetts last year, you’d think the state would try to avoid alienating travelers.

But no, thanks to the unholy brew of Joe Biden’s border fiasco, our right to shelter status, and the state handing out drivers licenses to folks regardless of immigration status, migrants are drawn to the Bay State.

And there’s no end in sight.

As the Herald reported, a travel agent who handles hotel rooms for military families said at least 70 of his rooms at three hotels were “taken back” by the hotel management company because the state recently contracted to put newly arrived migrants there.

If you were an out-of-stater planning a getaway to Massachusetts, would you feel secure that the hotel rooms you’re reserving will be available when you get here, or will they too be “taken back” to make room for migrant families?

Rooms are not exactly cheap here, and the ability to nail down  reasonably priced accommodations is a key part of trip planning. Massachusetts just told tourists that a reservation doesn’t necessarily mean anything here.

Companies and organizations who might pick Massachusetts as a convention site have something new to consider: what if the block of rooms they reserve for attendees disappears close to their event date. What will they do then?

A recent post by the Armed Forces Press said the Army-Navy game has turned into a “cluster” because Massachusetts canceled hotel rooms “to give to migrants as a ‘right to shelter’ state.”

That is not the motto we want: Welcome to Massachusetts. Come for the history, stay for the “cluster.”

Gov. Maura Healey has declared a state of emergency because of the influx of migrants flooding into the Bay State looking for shelter. She has been aggressively pursuing contracts with hotel chains to put up the migrants, and blames the Biden administration and Congress for failing to act on a new immigration policy.

She’s right, but our right to shelter policy and the recent law easing access to drivers licenses are not helping.

Last month the Healey administration projected about 1,000 families, including locals who are experiencing homelessness and newly-arrived migrants, to enter Massachusetts’ emergency shelter system each month.

A spokesperson for the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities said there were 6,794 families in the shelter system as of Tuesday.

It’s only October – imagine where we’ll be in the spring, when visitors start flocking to Massachusetts to take in our landmarks, natural beauty and of course, stroll through historic sites. Consider the scene next summer, when the beaches and shore towns of Cape Cod beckon once more.

Will there be room at the inn for free-spending tourists?

The picture isn’t promising.