March 1, 2024 By Lily Barrett

Fernald School’s troubling story remains untold – The Barrett Report, March 2024

Sites like the Fernald School in Waltham served as both home and school for people with intellectual disabilities, who weren’t asked their consent even when they were capable of expressing it. Sadly, Fernald also served as a site for medical experiments involving things like the effects of radiation on human beings, experiments that today are widely seen as gross violations of human rights.

With respect to Massachusetts citizens with developmental and mental health challenges, and as regards our improved respect for human rights and humane treatment, the past can be a guide, but only if we truly know it. A bill I’ve sponsored would open state records on Fernald and other institutions after 75 years — a move that would allow researchers and families to learn the stories of those who lived at places like Fernald.

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Dropped in yesterday to the amazing @ConcordMuseum to check out the permanent exhibits. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s library, intact. Henry David Thoreau’s writing desk. (Mind if I sit here for a moment to compose this post? Why, yes, we do!) Hour-by-hour dashboard depicting each nearby town’s participation in the events of April 19, 1775. Susan Foster Jones, Director of Education and Visitor Experience; @MatthewBoger, Member, Museum Board of Governors; and Amanda Lahikainen, Executive Director, walked me through one of the best small museums in the entire country.

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Open post by senatormikebarrett with ID 18045705263834514

Dropped in yesterday to the amazing @ConcordMuseum to check out the permanent exhibits. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s library, intact. Henry David Thoreau’s writing desk. (Mind if I sit here for a moment to compose this post? Why, yes, we do!) Hour-by-hour dashboard depicting each nearby town’s participation in the events of April 19, 1775. Susan Foster Jones, Director of Education and Visitor Experience; @MatthewBoger, Member, Museum Board of Governors; and Amanda Lahikainen, Executive Director, walked me through one of the best small museums in the entire country.

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Last night in Lincoln, Kathy Madison of Lincoln Witness presented the hair-raising documentary ICE Air to a crowd impressed by the journalism but horrified about the revelations: ICE deportation flights crisscrossing the U.S. to keep immigrants in constant transit and near-constant hiding, away from their families and the lawyers responsible for helping them. To its indelible discredit, nearby Hanscom Airport is a major node in ICE’s network.

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Open post by senatormikebarrett with ID 17910364491545059

Last night in Lincoln, Kathy Madison of Lincoln Witness presented the hair-raising documentary ICE Air to a crowd impressed by the journalism but horrified about the revelations: ICE deportation flights crisscrossing the U.S. to keep immigrants in constant transit and near-constant hiding, away from their families and the lawyers responsible for helping them. To its indelible discredit, nearby Hanscom Airport is a major node in ICE’s network.

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The report comes at a critical moment for the future of the Gas System Enhancement Program, or GSEP. Lawmakers created the program in 2014 to improve public safety and reduce planet-warming emissions from leaks. Yet even as spending has ballooned to roughly $800 million in 2024, paid for by customers’ monthly bills, opponents say it has not delivered on its promised benefits.

Now, state lawmakers are negotiating a sweeping energy bill that could determine the fate of the program. The Senate has sought to phase out GSEP, a move that Senator Michael Barrett said could save customers as much as $1.46 billion over the next 10 years.

“We’ve paid too much, but at least we wanted to believe that we were safer,” Barrett said. “Now it turns out that we’ve paid too much, and we did not make our people any safer than they would have been.”

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The report comes at a critical moment for the future of the Gas System Enhancement Program, or GSEP. Lawmakers created the program in 2014 to improve public safety and reduce planet-warming emissions from leaks. Yet even as spending has ballooned to roughly $800 million in 2024, paid for by customers’ monthly bills, opponents say it has not delivered on its promised benefits.Now, state lawmakers are negotiating a sweeping energy bill that could determine the fate of the program. The Senate has sought to phase out GSEP, a move that Senator Michael Barrett said could save customers as much as $1.46 billion over the next 10 years. “We’ve paid too much, but at least we wanted to believe that we were safer,” Barrett said. “Now it turns out that we’ve paid too much, and we did not make our people any safer than they would have been.”

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Fernald School’s troubling story remains untold – The Barrett Report, March 2024

senatormikebarrett

Senator Mike Barrett

Mike Barrett

State Senator | Democrat | 3rd Middlesex District MA

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