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Gloucester will yield no quarter in fight over fisherman
By adamg on Sat, 09/12/2009 - 11:15am
Good Morning Gloucester sounds a call to arms to get Gloucesterites to rise up and fight the US Mint's decision not to put their fisherman on the next Massachusetts quarter. They're starting a petition drive, even:
... Enough is enough. We don't get our fair share of school funding, they build huge research facilities in Woods Hole on the South Shore, they castrate our fishermen and consolidate our fishing industry through regulations, they force our harbor to remain in a DPA "for the good of the Commonwealth" while we get no benefits from it, and when it's finally time to for us to get a little positive recognition- voted on by over 4 to 1 by the people and on a voting system put forth from the state itself, we get bumped in favor of a building in Lowell. A building that could be placed anywhere. The Man at the Wheel is uniquely Gloucester, Uniquely Massachusetts.
We're sick and tired and we're not gonna take it anymore.
Free tagging:
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Comments
apply to designate it a
apply to designate it a federal landmark then.
I feel bad for them, then I realize they totally disregarded the rules.... and now they're outraged?
I sympathize with Gloucester, but....
...they don't seem to understand the nature of the program (national park, monuments, etc.):
http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/NSQuartersProg...
How does Gloucester present a case that their statue falls into the same sort of category as the other sites being depicted?
Not really Gloucester's fault
Earlier in the year, there were lots of press releases and articles such as this one, encouraging people to vote online for any Massachusetts site that is on the National Register of Historic Places. That even included places like the Somerville Theatre in Davis Square.
Perhaps the Governor's office, which sponsored the online vote and issued the press releases, misunderstood the federal guidelines?
Take a look at the list and
Take a look at the list and you will see that there are many sites on the list not under the control of the Feds.
Almost everything listed in Cambridge. The Beacon Hill historic district. Worcester Common and City Hall. Quincy Market. The list just keeps going on and on. Did the Governor not understand the rules? Was he just trying to suck up to as many people as he could and just assume that whichever site won would just roll over when the Feds announced the real rules behind the coin.
Either way the Governor owes Gloucester big time and this will seriously hurt his numbers up in that area.
On the other hand I think the pro-Fisherman people can do themselves a big favor and stop going after Lowell, which did nothing wrong here. There is not need to throw stones at Lowell, throw them at the person who created this mess, the Governor.
Perhaps the rules were written broad enough...
...to ensure every state could come up with at least 4 candidates. I can't find the original set of official rules -- to see if this offered a set of priorities for evaluating the suitability of proposed sites.
I do note that the number one state suggestion was NOT at all guaranteed to be the final selection (why list three alternates otherwise).
I guess it is true that you
I guess it is true that you would have a just in case alternative but I presume the original intent was , yet again, a way of sucking up to as many areas as possible. Just look at that list, I am amazed that there are so many mentioned in Cambridge alone!
I guess the problem is that the number 1 pick was number 1 by a huge margin. Also it is not getting the quarter because now the mint is saying it was never eligible to begin with. That is like allowing a man into the Miss America pagent only to take the crown away when he wins because he was never eligible. Why let something in a contest they are banned from winning by the rules?
"Woods Hole on the South
"Woods Hole on the South Shore"
Not quite the South Shore, for if it were, Gloucester would be on the East Shore... Woods Hole is on Cape Cod.