October 2, 2008 — vol. 44, no 8
Letters to the Editor
It’s the “silly season”
I can take a punch better than most and have taken more than my share lately. I know it’s neither possible nor wise to try to respond to every story, even if untrue, but there are some so offensive that a response is absolutely mandatory. Such is the case with two recent articles by Boston Globe columnists Joan Vennochi and Adrian Walker accusing me of not playing by party rules and being racially divisive. It is clear the folks at the Globe don’t particularly like me. But these columns represent a new low.
As to the Democratic Party rules I’ve supposedly broken, there is absolutely nothing in those rules that prohibits me from running on stickers as a Democrat in the Nov. 4 election. It’s curious that this issue is raised now and had never been raised before. Not even when Joe Moakley ran as an Independent against Louise Day Hicks after she won the Democratic Primary for Congress.
I am a lifelong Democrat and have always played by the rules.
About that racially divisive claim: My entire life, public and private, has been unwavering in its focus and action on inclusion. In my 16 years in elected office I have never wavered on my responsibility to reach out to and represent every person in my district.
Adrian Walker’s column was particularly bizarre because he was physically present at the Prince Hall rally and heard firsthand my statement about how important it was to me that Asian, Latino, Cape Verdean, African American and many white voters supported me. Given my solid record of successes and accomplishments, I don’t have to rely on my race. My work is the strongest argument as to why I am the better candidate.
Further, despite what has been erroneously reported many times in the Globe, I am not a convicted felon; I have never been charged or convicted of tax evasion; I never wore an ankle bracelet; and I never used campaign money for personal benefit.
Because of its size and reputation, the Globe gets to write untruths that are too often unchallenged. We are seeing similar stories nationally against my candidate for president. I think we may have now entered into what Sen. Barack Obama referred to in the past as “the silly season.”
Dianne Wilkerson, Senator
Second Suffolk District
| Oct 2 0:41am by Time to move on [65.96.164.120] | |
"I ... have always played by the rules." If that were true, Sen. Wilkerson wouldn't be in the kind of trouble she's in now. |
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| Oct 1 23:30pm by ltgl01 [76.118.39.8] | |
I think it's great that the Senator has spoken and addressed the lies being spread about her in the media. She has every right to defend herself and we have every right to support her in the race. The smear tactics and accusations are way beyond the scope of anything reasonable. We should be able to address our differences without the insults and racial animosity. |
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| Oct 1 19:11pm by Mrs. Smith [72.70.86.18] | |
I am so glad that Sen. Wilkerson has spoken about the negative she has been receiving in the mainstream media. Its a shame how the Globe and its writers get away with printed bias stories about Wilkerson. Let it be known that many people see the malice behind the stories that are written about Wilkerson. Its about time someone has called them out on it. |
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| Oct 1 19:06pm by Jaime Bautista [24.63.220.187] | |
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Since the Bay State Banner is in bed with Sen. Wilkerson, my letter did not get publish but her did. So here it is for everyone to see and comment.
It was very disturbing to read Senator Diane Wilkerson and her supporters' comments on her primary lost to Sonia Chang Diaz (Bay State Banner. September 25, 2008 "Wilkerson Considers Another Run". Sen. Wilkerson treats her defeat as a major disaster for her district. Excuse me part of her district, dissing the rest of the district as the wine and brie crowd. Give me a break as former president Bill Clinton would say.
Senator Wilkerson has cultivated a permutation of the entitlement mentality. Many voters in the district were able to discern this and find it off-putting. The senator seems to feel entitled to the Democratic nomination for the Second Suffolk District and having been denied it she now sends a message to her supporters that divides Afro American and Hispanic voters from the rest of the district.
Adrian Walker, a Boston Globe columnist summarrized this well in his opinion piece "A Divisive Message," (Boston Globe, September 26, 2008) when he said "more troubling, though, is the casual acceptance of a campaign that has splits blacks and Latinos from everyone else." Divide and conquer has always been a political tool during primaries and elections. This time it may not work. As Mr. Walker said "Boston isn't just black and white anymore, and neither is its politics."
To say that Sonia Chang Diaz is not a person of color incapable of representing the Second Suffolk District is an insult to history, particular that of the civil rights movement where people of all colors marched together. As Boston becomes more multicultural Senator Wilkerson is engaging in "cultural racism" by believing that only "pure blacks" could represent the Second Suffolk District. This, of course, is absurd as everyone knows. As WEB Dubois noted " the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line." We shouldn't make the problem of the twenty first. In this century are we still going to hold people back because of their multicultural heritage. It seem to some of the early opposition to Barack Obama. Let's hope we get past this myopic and self destructive behavior.
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