My western Massachusetts brethren and sistren, I post to you today as a man who has reached the limits of his tolerance. It doesn't take too much Berkshire Sense to recognize that things have to change. It's no great revelation that people take the Northwest Corner of our Commonwealth for granted. We who roam the Wooded Paths of our region are at a geographic and demographic disadvantage relative to the denser population loci that exist closer to the Hub of the Universe.
When I attend meetings at which state legislators responsible for crafting and recommending the direction of economic stimulus legislation for our entire Commonwealth make a point of noting that they are in Berkshire County for the first time in their lives, I become incensed.
How can anyone presume to know what our state needs when they are woefully ignorant of anything that exists beyond the limits of their experience, an experience bounded for decades by route 495?
When I travel to Boston for meetings and professional events, and people ask where I've come from, and they profess to be shocked that I came "all that way," I become enraged*.
Pointing out that I left North Adams at 5:30 a.m. to make an 8:30 meeting in Boston (or Waltham, or Cambridge, or Salem), and other people left Natick at 7:00 for the same meeting, and we get there at the same damn time, doesn't help. I'm invariably confronted by blank looks. People just don't want to let go of the idea that the lands of the Berkshires aren't really all that hinter.
[I mean, come the @#$% on. It's not as though getting to Boston requires me to hitch up my team a fortnight before my appointment just to be sure I'll get there on time. I don't need to take care lest I be set upon by bandits on the lonely road outside of Orange. Sure, I might need to take the Post Road to get where I'm going, but I'm confident there will be no shortage of Dunkies to sustain me should I happen to get parched or famished along the way.]
When I read jackass comments on blog posts about how it might be tough to get Bostonians to North Adams, I become radicalized.
What in the hell is so tough about getting in the car, getting on one road, and following it for two and a half hours? The picturesque rural thing on Route 2 not your cup of tea? Take the Pike. It's going to add 20-30 minutes to the trip, but you'll really zip along, and there's rest stops and everything along the way, just in case you can't last too long without seeing signs for McDonald's and all the other trappings of civilization to which you're accustomed.
And really, folks, trust and fear not. We have electricity and flush toilets and cable TV and supermarkets stocked with all manner of prepackaged, overly processed foodstuffs.
We have art out here. And culture. And higher education.
We have at least two venues for outlet shopping within an hour's drive of where I'm sitting typing this message. I'm told it's possible to play a halfway decent round of golf out here, should that happen to be your cup of tea.
The beer out here is comparatively cheap. Cocktails are less cheap, but still below market, if a Cosmo is more your speed. We've got good coffee and terrific pizza (although you have to go to Williamstown to get the really good stuff). Just be aware that things out here shut down a lot earlier than you're used to.
What is it going to take to get through to you people? Do we need to start a movement? Do we need to organize? Do we need t-shirts before you'll take us seriously? God help me, do we need...an acronym? Because if that's what it takes to get your attention, I'll damn well give you an acronym.
I hereby announce the formation of WEstern MAssachusetts Total Territorial Equity Regiment.
That's right: WE MATTER
You want to set economic policy for the state? WE MATTER
You want to bring together people from across the state to share ideas and develop common solutions? WE MATTER
You want to build a statewide network to address population loss, and job creation? WE MATTER
You want to get opinionated progressives from across the state working together? WE MATTER
There are, of course, people across the state who get it. We have a governor who knows that Massachusetts doesn't end at 495, or Worcester, or Springfield. We have a legislative delegation that works hard on our behalf. We have people who have come to the Berkshires from other places across the state, who have their eyes opened, and who tell people what this area has to offer.
They know what I have always known. They know what none of us can ever afford to forget. WE MATTER
*To be fair, this one cuts both ways. When I travel to to Boston for meetings and professional events, and I can count the number of people from the Berkshires on one hand, and still have fingers left over, then I have to admit that there are times when we're our own worst enemies out here.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
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15 comments:
As I was saying to Wes but seems more topical here: If only New York and Vermont weren’t even more screwed up politically than Massachusetts (i.e., filled with left-wing statists and rente-seekers), the Berkshires could move to secede from Massachusetts and join one of those states, to then have a capital which is either closer (Albany) or more tied to the rural and geographic character of the Berkshires (Montpelier).
Not that it would likely succeed, but even a locally popular attempt would get the area some attention in Boston and elsewhere — maybe even approval for my pet project, a giant windmill tower on Mount Greylock, built over a 50,000 square foot casino, served by a cable tram from Adams.
Wait a minute! I live in WESTERN Massachusetts??? Hold on, back up a minute . . .
Oops, once again I posted as Amy because she had logged in.
Amen and amen. (I see you read the comment sco of .08 Acres left on my site.)
There are, according to Mapquest, FIVE state capitals closer to us than Boston at 158.69 miles:
(1) Albany (48.82)
(2) Hartford (99.64)
(3) Concord (115.41)
(4) Providence (152.19)
(5) Montpelier (158.09 - barely, and that's going clear over to Brattleboro instead of up 7 to 100)
We have a good delegation on Beacon Hill, but they are outnumbered by the "Worcester is SO FAR AWAY!" caucus. I hope Gov. Patrick remembers us out here.
A dear friend, who grew up in Dorchester and currently lives in Natick, told the story of being in college and being asked what people from Massachusetts are called. She said "Bostonians."
(She has since married someone from Springfield, so her perspective has changed substantially.)
WF
(who still wants to host a Mass. prog blogs conference at MASS MoCA)
David:
Secession seems like an extreme response. Me, I figure we just need to seize the Quabbin, and start negotiating from there...
Wes: Yes, I read the comment from that individual. For all it was the proverbial last straw, it seemed somehow impolite to vent my spleen on your site.
Your "Bostonians" story reminds me of summers I spent on the Maryland coast when I was in middle school. On several occasions, people would ask me where I was from. When I said Massachusetts, I invariably heard some variation on "Is that anywhere near Boston?"/"That's part of Boston isn't it?"
"what people from Massachusetts are called".
Massholes
Most inner circle people are used to spending 2 1/2 hours in a car every weekend - they do it to get to the Cape, to Lake Winnipesaukee and to the lower beaches of Maine.
They don't come out here because someone once told them that there are New Yorkers here -- not beer drinking, pizza eating New Yorkers, but Chardonnay swilling, brie eating New Yorkers who like to read books and go to museums and dance concerts on their vacation.
For many middle class Bostonians, that sounds like one of Dante's circles of hell, they go on vacation to get away from those types in the People's Republic of Cambridge, not to spend more time with them.
If you want them to come here (and I'm not all that sure that we do) then build them something they want (casino anyone?).
- this post is really by me, Amy.
Left-wing statists? You don't know Vermont like you think you do. My wife works there, and if anything, the left is primarily left-libertarian.
And is "rent-seekers" the new buzzword on the right? I've seen it suddenly appear on some right-leaning sights recently. Some Lost Writings of Hayek recently reappear or something? Did I miss a memo?
WF
Tom - I was in the DC area recently and had a similar experience. I even explicitly said "far northwestern Massachusetts" and people asked me if I liked living in the Boston area.
WF
Amy:
I've never much cared for that particular nickname. Not sure I have any better suggestion. I prefer Massachusites, but I don't see it gaining that much currency. Otherwise, I'm not sure. Massters? Baystards? Help me out here.
Do you realize that by road, Provincetown is nearly as far from Boston as Pittsfield? OK, so that doesn't really matter -- the argument is still valid, but it is something to think about.
Maybe we distant folk like being left alone in some ways....
Let's put this in terms of what we can call The Spock Directive: "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."
This makes sense, unless you are the few. In that case you're like, "What now? My needs are outweighed?"
Lookit: according to the smilin' foiks at Census USA, the projected July 2006 population of the Commonwealth of Masster Baysters is 6,437,193. Berkshire County residents comprise 131,117 of that number: TWO PERCENT.
So what do you expect when you're the furthest out and the entire county (946 square miles) has about as many people as Lowell (14.5 square miles)?
Berkshire County doesn't need recognition by idiots that think everything in the 413 area code is a 15 minute drive from Springfield. Life's too short to let the idiots incense you, or force you to come up with inferiority-complex-ridden acronyms.
Let go the angst, Tom. It's OK. Frankly, I'm not positive that MORE government intervention here is a good thing. I'd be more psyched to work with private industry while the politicians run out of gas between Exits 3 and 2 on the Pike.
The Berkshires is comparable to Michigan's Upper Peninsula as far as relevance to the majority of the state.
What I have found is that most metropolitan city/burb residents from any major urban area never look beyond their outer rings for their reference points. When I lived in Detroit, a 90 minute trip to the capital, Lansing, was a big deal. When I lived in Tacoma, people were aghast that I would drive and hour to ocean to buy fresh crab.
Most urban Americans seem to be insular creatures. They might travel a few miles to check out the "other" Home Depot in the next suburb over. They'll drive 2 hours in bumper-to-bumper traffic to get the outlet malls on the opposite side of city.
But if you tell them about this great little shop 100 miles away, they will have to "make plans" for a "trip."
We do matter. And we should never let Beacon Hill forget that. But don't say it too loudly or soon they'll have make Rte 2 a 4 lane hwy over the mountain.
Wes,
That's "rente" not "rent" -- I hadn't noticed it used anywhere recently; I took economics in 1983. The term is sometimes used now to distinguish it from "rent," of which it is a subset implying governmental creation of the payments. (See David Ricardo.)
The left-libertarian term certainly applies to Vermont and guns (and hypodermics, as I recall); I had not noticed much opposition to the welfare state there, but am ready to stand corrected.
I believe we are called "Bay Staters." Of course, this is another denigration of our status in the Berkshires as mountain folk (hillbillies?).
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