Antoine Coleman
What a great impression the city’s Veterans Affairs Agent Antoine Coleman made at the Everett High School graduation with his remakrs.
They were short and they were sweet but they were well delivered. Just as attorneys claim you cannot fool a jury, Coleman’s truthful comments delivered with savoie faire resonated with the large crowd of students family and friends in front of him.
He urged the kids to always proudly say when asked where they are from: “I’m from Everett, Massachusetts.”
The EHS graduate, a Marine veteran and college graduate looked and sounded very much the role model to the graduating students.
He is very likely a talented guy going places.
For now, the city is blessed with a classy, articulate veterans agent – who follows in the footsteps of his processor, Jean Christiano.
Mike Mangan handing out diplomas With Samantha Lambert
Mike Mangan did a nice job handing out diplomas. That he was on the stage and is a member of the school committee is a testament to Mangan’s staying power at city hall.
Mangan has dodged many bullets during a long career but has settled in nicely as a member of the school committee.
He was joined by popular School Committeewoman Samantha Lambert handing out the diplomas – and for both of them – what a fitting honor as they care about the kids.
Saving the day
If you pass the long lines of Everett folks standing in line at the Connolly Center for free food from week to week you may not connect if you have no food insecurity. But if you have food insecurity, if your check is not big enough and you need an extra boost, the free food line is as important as life itself.
The recent debt limit bill that was passed to make sure the nation didn’t default included language that forces welfare recipients to work more to maintain their welfare benefits.
Many post COVID programs have been dropped and federal college loans will once again be charging interest to about 20 million Americans instead of being wiped out.
Saving money at the expense of the nation’s poorest people is bad policy. Spending money we don’t have as a nation is bad policy. How to bridge the gap between those two places? No one knows the way.
Restoring a cannon
It isn’t every day that a restored Civil War cannon turns up in Everett.
The Facilities Maintenance Department of the city re-installed a Civil War cannon that was completely restored recently at Glenwood Cemetery.
If you are a history buff, you should go take a look.
Unbelievably enough, Civil War cannon of
the type restored could shoot a projectile up to two miles and could inflict damage on troops and buildings at greater distances than ever before.
Remember, this is 1862.
Cannons like the one restored could shoot a variety of different ammunition.
Case shot was an anti-personnel projectile, meaning it was used against soldiers. It was a hollow shell filled with scraps of metal called shrapnel. Once fired at an approaching formation, the shell could explode in mid-air, spreading the shrapnel across a large radius. As the enemy got closer, gunners would switch to canister or grapeshot. The crew would load the gun with a coffee can-sized container filled with small metal balls. Once fired, the can would disintegrate, spread- ing the balls outward in a fan, essentially like a shotgun.
RFP going out
The school committee has voted to put out an RFP seeking a consultant to aid the committee in finding a replacement for Superintendent of Schools Priya Tahiliani.
None of the six school committee members who voted for the measure commented as to why they wanted to replace or felt the necessity to replace Tahiliani.
In previous actions, all six had agreed with evaluations that she has done a good job.