Breeders

Woah! There is way too much ugliness on display on this page! We need to get a grip! Many of us are hurting and scared, but this is a time to try to think clearly about how to find our way out of this mess, a time to remember we're all in this together.

Think about what you're saying when you blame the "breeders".

You were a child once - not so different from "them". You grew up protected by police and firefighters, a public sanitation department, a public health department and a water department. You probably went to publicly-funded schools and programs, got around on school and city busses, and maybe went to the city's parks, museums or swimming pools. The very air is breathable because of state and Federal regulations.

Your parents may have benefited from minimum wage laws and unions. If they borrowed or invested they were protected by all kinds of regulations, and when they shopped, by all kinds of inspectors.

Worcester is a city of immigrants. All of this was built by immigrants, who came here and had babies and raised their children here. And every immigrant group had higher birth rates at first. That was OK. People have children. They grow up - with the help of their communities.

We worked together, and as new groups arrived we drew them in and showed them the ropes and made them part of the process. There were fights and struggles, but we got over them.
And we joined together in electing governments to meet our common needs.

We never forgot that the children are our future. Not just the ones who looked and talked like us. All of them. We haven't completely forgotten yet. We all still brake for a child - any child.

Now we are in a great crisis and things are going haywire. Anyone who's not scared isn't paying attention . But we can get through this - if we just remember that we're all in it together, that we need to look out for each other - all of us - and that the children are still our future - all of them.