The death of Richard Rocco Sr. — businessman, entrepreneur, devoted father and grandfather — brings to an end a long, satisfying, and enjoyable life spent here.
To a person, those we spoke with about Mr. Rocco all expressed the same things about him: “great guy,” “salt of the earth,” “smart as could be,” and all agreed, “he loved Everett.”
Also agreed, “I never heard him say a bad word about anyone.”
He was a Double Eagle, attending Boston College High School and Boston College.
He did many things during a long life.
He worked briefly for the family business but left to make his own mark.
In neighboring Chelsea, since the inception of receivership when its last four mayors were arrested, indicted, tried and convicted of crimes as well as six police officers who met the same fate, the city government has sworn, “never again.”
Receivership ended in Chelsea many years ago but the city government has remained adamant – no member of the city council, the police and fire departments and city hall employ- ees can be convicted felons or those who are sexual offenders with their names on the state sex offenders list, can serve in public office or as a member of the city workforce.
In Everett, this rule does not reply. There is a different mindset here where the mayor employs a number of convicted felons who are working city jobs, who somehow are given the OK by the Human Resources Department.
Everett Public Schools opening off campus is a reckoning.
Parents know this. Teachers understand this. Administrators of the school system view this as an earthquake in public school education.
It is the same for college presidents and students all over the nation.
The pandemic’s power to alter the course of educational history as well as economic history is something playing out all around us during this fall of our discontent.
Whether you believe in the dangers of the virus or not, the stark reality is that everything having to do with education right now across the land is in a state of extraordinary change.
The same way most of Boston’s skyscrapers are empty of employees now working at home or outside of the city has changed the future for many businesses, and the owners of the buildings, and for the owners of the mortgages on those buildings.
It is no different for cities and towns paying huge money for new schools when the schools are now, and at least until November, empty of students.
Teaching remotely is the new normal.
If you believe in science and the need for the virus to be snuffed out for the greater benefit of everyone or if you believe a virus running amuck among us is OK, one thing is certain – the schools being empty on opening day 2020 is the beginning of a new era.
Something like 4,000 mail in ballots were counted on Primary Day last week.
Mail-in ballot far outnumbered those votes cast at precinct stations.
They were, by all accounts, counted flawlessly with City Clerk Sergio Cornelio and Assistant City Clerk David Ragucci presiding over the tally with the members of the Everett Election commission and its staff.
It goes to show during this era when the president is running about trying to cast question on the nation’s ability to count a vote when much of it is mailed in that Everett could serve as a worthy example of just how it’s done the right way.
The death of Ambassador Walter Carrington about two weeks ago at the age of 90 brought to an end a remarkable life, of this extraordinary man, who grew up long before the civil rights movement who came of age in this city, and who rose to the heights on the back of hard work, the power of his great personality, and due to the development of a powerful intellect.
The late Ambassador Walter Carrington.
He was among a handful of black men and women living in this city when he came of age.
The city accepted Walter Carrington, not because he was black, but rather, because he was the real thing even as a young man starting out in his life.
He came to be a notable civil rights leader and always noted his beliefs were forged growing up in Everett and then at Harvard University, where he was one of four black students in his class.
As a younger man rising in civil rights circles, he became friends with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
He once debated Malcolm X when he was an undergraduate at Harvard.
He graduated from Harvard Law School.
Ambassador Carrington’s work in Africa became his enduring legacy as the Ambassador to Senegal appointed by President Jimmy Carter and then later, as President Clinton’s ambassador to Nigeria.
