I’m in the minority who didn’t vote for Deval Patrick and, given his track record in the first nine weeks in office, think my judgment was right.
Whether or not you agree with the finer points, Governor Patrick managed to stir up a lot of contention with a number of decisions to do with personal style: the lease of an expensive car, the hiring of a political supporter as his wife’s chief of staff, an “improper intervention” in a financial deal involving Ameriquest Mortgage, on whose board the governor served.
This week, he got involved in a federal matter concerning the arrest and possible deportation of some 300 illegal workers in New Bedford, people who worked under horrendous conditions but were nonetheless in violation of this country’s laws.
One cannot help but wonder if the governor would personally intervene in a case involving an ordinary citizen who was arrested for criminal activity and whose children were relegated to the not especially tender mercies of the DSS, especially if that citizen wasn’t represented by a powerful and well-funded lobby, as seems to be the case with illegal aliens.
Now, the governor has announced that he will cut back on his work schedule to take care of his 55 year old wife, who was hospitalized this weekend for “depression and exhaustion”.
Contrast this with an excerpt from the March 12 issue of Newsweek about a note that Robert Kennedy wrote on the day of JFK’s funeral to his oldest daughter, Kathleen, then 12 years old.
In the note, Kennedy reminds his daughter of the “special responsibility” she had as the oldest of the Kennedy grandchildren. “Be kind to others and work for your country,” he wrote, “Love, Daddy”.
As Lisa Miller of Newsweek explained, “Kathleen Kennedy Townsend grew up in (the) kind of…family…that…put country and duty above personal pain”.
That seems to be a lesson that Deval Patrick, the favored son of the world of big corporations, hasn’t learned. As many of us suspected, Patrick hasn’t figured out that there is a difference between the privileges accorded to senior members of a for-profit business, and the self-sacrifice that the public deserves from a public servant.
I am sure that everyone wishes Diane Patrick a speedy recovery from whatever ails her. If a child were hospitalized, then most of us would understand the human need of any parent to be by that child’s bedside.
The fact of the matter is, Diane Patrick is not a child, an invalid, or a frail elder; she’s an otherwise healthy adult woman, the governor’s wife, and a partner in a prestigious Boston law firm, Ropes and Gray.
This being the case, we can rest assured that every available resource will be brought to bear on her behalf without the need for her husband’s bedside attention.
Depression is a serious illness, but it is treatable. Exhaustion is not life-threatening. Both of Mrs. Patrick’s diagnoses are manageable conditions. They do not require the kind of 24×7 family involvement as treatment for cancer, or the life-or-death decisions that often accompany critical injuries.
After only nine weeks, I for one am already tired of Deval Patrick’s predictable pattern of self-indulgence.
With this latest turn in the still nascent Patrick administration, Massachusetts’ first couple has an opportunity to set an example.
Governor Patrick should show that he is capable of putting his job responsibilities above his own agenda, whether personal or philosophical, the same as most of us who pay his salary do.