Dear Hecate:
I called my Rep like you told me to and asked her to communicate directly with the Speaker and the Chair of Ways and Means to express her personal committment on our amendment to earmark some substance abuse dollars to our community programs. She told me that she, along with other Reps -- maybe as many as 40 or so -- were meeting with the Speaker and Ways and Means tomorrow (Thursday) about the local aid, and until she got a commitment on adding substantial dollars to local aid she didn't want to bring up any other issues. I told her I was really disappointed. Any ideas for how I can get her to refocus her priorities.
Molly
Hecate says :
I wouldn't be surprised if there were more than 40 Reps in that meeting because the amount and distribution of Local Aid affects each and every city, town and regional school district in Massachusetts AND the final number will be announced at every town meeting, every city council and in all the local media markets. There is no other more important measure of a Reps performance that how he or she "delivers" for the district. Everything else they work for, earmarking for your local program, jumpstarting a new early education initiative, comes in second.
So wait a few days -- maybe over the weekend to ask your Rep again.
Hecate suspects that House Leadership will announce they have found a way to increase the dollars and fiddle with the formulas in ways that will make most Members happy enough to immediatly instruct their staffs to do a press release announcing that she/he had succeeded in using her/his considerable clout to protect the district from disasterous cut in local aid.
And then they'll have some time and political capital left to attend to other local matters-- like yours.
Who is Hecate?
Hecate is a Greek Goddess who served as a guide and coach at the crossroads of Hades, where after crossing the River Styx, Greek souls found themselves facing three choices: the Elysian Fields, abode of the great and heroic; the Fields of Asphodel, for all who had led a blameless but ordinary life; or to Tartarus, a sunless land of punishment for criminals.
Hecate's best known role in Greek mythology was guiding Persephone, the goddess of spring, on her annual journeys between Hades and Earth. In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Hecate is portrayed as a nurturing and protective guide for Persephone on those annual journeys.
