Finneran: Stocking Stuffers
Friday, December 27, 2019
Tom Finneran
The stinker: Real Clear Sports has an article about the Oakland Raiders upcoming move to Las Vegas and the debt that the City of Oakland is stuck with. That debt is 65 million dollars. The history here is illustrative of doing business with money-grubbing whores.
The team had already moved once from Oakland to Los Angeles, demonstrating that their brand of “loyalty” was based solely upon the Benjamins. After about ten years in Los Angeles, the team returned to Oakland, but only after that very poor city took on about 223 million dollars in additional debt, all of it designed to make a few very rich guys even richer. And now those slick lying owners slink off to Las Vegas, with more plunder on their mind.
The whole episode stinks to the high heavens. The team stinks. The owners stink. The league stinks. The press stinks for not raising the roof in constant editorial denunciation. And the municipal officials who fell for the economic malarkey peddled by the whores do not escape responsibility. At the current schedule of payments, the 65 million dollars owed by the City will grow to 75 million dollars. That would pay for a lot of cops, a lot of teachers, and a lot of schoolbooks, all of which are in desperate shortage in Oakland.
And former City Councilman Ignacio De la Fuente is quoted as saying he thinks that Oakland got a “good deal”. I’m sorry Councilman, but you are wrong. Try to learn to say the word “NO”. Say it over and over and over again. NO, NO, NO, NO, NO. Not now, not ever.
The “shield” has no shame. There is absolutely no excuse for this looting and pillage and plunder. Shame upon them, eternal shame.
The higher ground #1:
Once upon a time many years ago, the City of Halifax Nova Scotia experienced a terrible explosion and the severe destruction of a large part of that beautiful city. The City of Boston responded immediately and generously to the tragedy, sending doctors, nurses, and volunteers with food, water, and medicine in a noble humanitarian attempt to save lives and to help heal the suffering citizens of Halifax.
In response and some years later, those grateful citizens of Halifax initiated a wonderful Christmas tradition of sending a massive Christmas tree to Boston each December. Boston in turn places the tree on the Common and has a tree lighting and Christmas concert which is open to the public. The history behind the exchange and the continuation of the event show humanity at its best. May it long continue.
And, an insider’s tip from our honeymoon about Halifax and Nova Scotia---the people are wonderful, the scenery is gorgeous, the water is warm, and the food is great. So is the golf. Enough said. Go.
Higher ground #2:
Planned reading for 2020 includes a) The Federalist Papers, b) the Bible, and c) Shakespeare.
My rationale for these selections---one can never get enough of the Bard, the Bible speaks for itself, and with the lunacy of the 2020 election season about to be fully unleashed, the Federalist Papers will be an oasis of reflection and sanity.
From my family to yours…………Merry Christmas and best wishes for a happy and healthy New Year.
Tom Finneran is the former Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, served as the head the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, and was a longstanding radio voice in Boston radio.
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