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