Full disclosure: I’m a candidate for one of the positions for which a write-in campaign is being conducted.
I would welcome the kind of participation by the Tribe in Town governance that we had when I first moved to Mashpee 15 years ago.
I only wish that the members who are running for public office had used the means available to all to get their names on the ballot. Their write-in campaign shows a lack of respect to those of us who did the work of collecting signatures and to the Town Clerk’s office which administers the elections.
That being said, we saw the same disregard for process on the part of members of the Tribe at Town Meeting this week. It became clear to me that neither the Tribal leadership nor the Town elected officials had discussed these Articles together, let alone arrived at an agreement, either pro or con.
I respect Marie Stone and her contributions to both the Wampanoag and Mashpee communities, and I’m sympathetic to the history of First Nations in the United States. Further, I believe that the Town’s better than average record of successful land stewardship is due in large part to the influence of the Tribe.
Still, as much as we may disagree on occasion with our leadership, I believe we have an obligation to work with them on matters affecting all of us who live here. That’s especially true with emotional subjects like land ownership.
For that reason, I think that Town Meeting was wise to defeat Article 21 and to postpone Article 22. Let’s hope that by October, we have consensus on management of the 500 acres and by the way, the relevance of the IGA to similar matters in the future.
Comment in today’s CCTimes.com