RichardHowe.com – Voices from Lowell & Beyond

L’Etoile – A Star on Prince Street, Chapter 3

Two years ago, Louise Peloquin began sharing excerpts from L’Etoile, a French-language newspaper published in Lowell from 1886 to 1957. At my urging, she has agreed to compile some of her previous posts with added contextual information into a book manuscript to be called, L’Etoile: A Star on Prince Street. Starting this week, Louise will present draft chapters from the book in serial form here on the blog. Today, we have another installment.

****

L’Etoile – A Star on Prince Street

Chapter 3 – A Vision for L’Etoile

By Louise Peloquin

Louis-A. Biron and Paul Chaput had a vision for L’Etoile. Here is the newspaper’s first editorial after they acquired it in 1910.

[original French]

« L’Etoile

Journal Quotidien, Publié par L’Etoile Publishing Company

Abonnement, $3.00 Par Année

Vendredi, 7 octobre 1910

L’Etoile

Nous reprenons aujourd’hui la publication de L’Etoile, interrompue pour les raisons que l’on sait et sur lesquelles nous ne voyons pas la nécessité de revenir.

Nous allons prendre de la vieille Etoile, c’est-à-dire celle de ses fondateurs, ce qui nous paraît être digne d’être conservé, pour rejeter les méthodes et les principes qui ne s’accordent pas avec la conception que nous nous sommes formée du journalisme dans nos centres franco-américains.

L’Etoile des anciens jours a été un ardent et sincère défenseur de la cause franco-américaine ; nous suivrons cette même voie, mais nous userons de beaucoup de circonspection et de modération, évitant soigneusement de mettre inutilement le feu aux poudres.

Nous relaterons les événements, nous jugerons les actes avec une entière impartialité, sans aucun parti pris. Nous pensons que c’est là le besoin de l’heure présente dans notre ville. Nous préférons être une cause d’entente et de bon vouloir les uns envers les autres qu’un brandon de discorde, comme trop de journaux, mal inspirés, sont portés à le devenir.

Enfin, nous espérons faire un journal irréprochable, contrôlant le plus possible les nouvelles que nous publierons, choisissant nos reproductions avec soin. Cela devrait suffire pour nous mériter l’estime et la confiance du public. Il ne conviendrait pas d’ailleurs de parler de nos principes ou de faire une profession de foi; nous laissons à nos lecteurs le soin de nous juger à l’œuvre. »

[English translation]

“L’Etoile

Daily Newspaper  Published by L’Etoile Publishing Company

Subscription, $3.00 Per Year.

Friday, October 7, 1910

L’Etoile

Today, we are taking over the publication of L’Etoile, interrupted for the reasons we know and on which we shall not come back.

We shall take from the old Etoile, that-is-to-say that of its founders, what appears to us to be worthy of conserving, in order to reject the methods and the principles which are not in accordance with the conception we have formed of journalism in our Franco-American centers.

L’Etoile of former days was an ardent and sincere defender of the Franco-American cause; we shall follow this same path but we shall use a lot of circumspection and moderation, carefully avoiding needlessly adding fuel to the fire.

We shall relate events, we shall judge acts with complete impartiality, without any bias. We think that therein lies the present need in our city. We prefer to be a cause of entente and of good will with one another than to be a bone of contention, as too many ill-inspired newspapers are inclined to become.

Finally, we hope to make an irreproachable newspaper, supervising, as much as possible, the news we shall publish, choosing our reproductions with care. That should suffice for us to merit the esteem and the confidence of the public. It would not be suitable, in any case, to speak of our principles or to make a profession of faith; we leave to our readers the task of judging us by our work.”

     Interviewed in 1994 by a Sorbonne student pursuing research on L’Etoile, Biron’s third and youngest child Marthe, who had worked at her father’s newspaper covering daily news, writing features, editorials and a variety of tasks, recounted:

“My father was committed to the survival of the language, the culture, the Franco-American identity. However, he encouraged biculturalism because, according to him, one must not remain a stranger in the country where one has chosen to live…. The newspapers greatly encouraged the immigrants who wished to remain to request citizenship in order to enable them to influence their milieu, to use their talents and to have all of the privileges granted to citizens…. The study of English was also encouraged to allow them to run for local elections, to succeed in business and to communicate with other groups….

The newspaper was his mission. However, he had taken certain precautions to guarantee that it would not be his main source of livelihood. That gave him more independence of thought because no one could buy his opinion.”

     It is important to note that L’Etoile Publishing Company offered a wide range of printing services which we will present in chapter 5 about the newspaper’s financial livelihood.

L’Etoile’s vocation was to serve the local and regional community as a school, a platform and a beacon as evidenced in the speech guest speaker Louis-A. Biron delivered at a New England Foreign Language Newspaper Association annual convention in the 1940’s. L’Etoile was a NEFLNA member.

In a world where concern about misinformation, disinformation and fake news is widespread, it is interesting to read about how a Lowell-based newspaperman described the press some eighty years ago. Here are excerpts from the original French version followed by the English translation.

« La presse…représente l’école et la tribune…. Chaque jour, elle nous donne soit une leçon de morale ou d’histoire ; elle nous parle d’un pays, de ses habitants et de leurs moeurs. Sa mission est parfois aussi délicate que difficile. Comme l’histoire, elle doit relater les faits sans toutefois blesser les susceptibilités. Il lui faut cependant parler, il faut que les événements aient leur cours, elle ne peut rien si ce n’est aider le lecteur à démêler le bon grain de l’ivraie…. Elle doit être exempte de toute souillure….

J’ai dit aussi qu’elle représente une tribune. C’est en effet un orateur muet qui, au moyen de la plume, se fait entendre par le monde entier…. Le temps dissipe quelque peu les paroles de l’école, mais, comme emportées par le vent, les idées semées par la presse ne sauraient si vite disparaître….

La presse, mesdames et messieurs, est devenue un guide indispensable. Sans elle, nous sommes dans l’obscurité, l’ennemi est à nos portes et nous l’ignorons….

La presse…est la vie du peuple comme du commerce. Les peuples vivent les uns avec les autres par l’échange de leurs produits, mais encore plus par l’échange de leurs idées.

La presse nous met en relation avec l’étranger et n’est-ce pas que la lumière jaillit à travers le choc des idées? Je dirai plus encore, c’est un élément moralisateur. Elle exalte la valeur et flétrit le mal…. Elle est l’ami du peuple comme l’élément le plus nécessaire à la civilisation et au progrès matériel et intellectuel du monde entier.

Aujourd’hui, elle nous parle d’actions héroïques, demain il s’agira peut-être de choses plus sombres mais toujours elle aura quelque chose à vous dire. C’est un tableau représentant l’humanité sur tous ses côtés. Il lui est impossible toutefois de combler tous les désirs, de satisfaire tous les goûts.

Il en est de même de ce que nous voyons dans la nature, ce qui pour l’un est un sujet d’ennui est pour l’autre l’objet d’une méditation salutaire….

Nous devons vivre pour la vérité, chercher la vérité…. La mission de la presse est noble, malgré les difficultés qu’elle rencontre. »

[English translation]

« The press represents school and a platform…. Each day, it gives either a moral or a historical lesson. It speaks to us about a country, its inhabitants and their customs. At times, its mission is as delicate as it is difficult. Like history, it must relate the facts without wounding susceptibilities. However, it must speak. It is necessary for events to run their course. The press can do nothing but help the reader separate the wheat from the chaff…. It must be untainted.

I have also said that it represents a platform. It is actually a silent orator who, by the pen, makes itself heard throughout the entire world….

Time somewhat dissipates the words of school. But, as if blown by the wind, the ideas sown by the press do not so quickly disappear….

The press, ladies and gentlemen, has become an indispensable guide. Without it we find ourselves in darkness. The enemy is at our door and we are unaware….

The press… is the life of the people just as it is the life of trade. People live together by exchanging products and services. But they live even more fully by exchanging ideas.

The press establishes a connection with people we do not know and, does not light spring from bringing ideas face-to-face? I would go even further. The press is a moralizing agent. It exalts value and weakens evil…. It is the people’s friend as well as the most necessary ingredient of civilization and of the world’s material and intellectual progress.

Today it speaks to you about heroic actions, tomorrow perhaps about more somber things. But it will always have something to tell you. It is a tableau representing all facets of humanity. However, it is impossible for it to fulfil all desires and to satisfy all tastes.

We see the same in nature. What is, for one, a subject of boredom is, for another, one for salutary meditation…..

We must live for truth, search for truth….The mission of the press is noble despite the difficulties encountered.”

Lowell Politics: August 30, 2026

One of the reasons the history of Lowell is so fascinating is that you can take almost any issue of national importance and see how it played out in this city. Looking at a global issue in a local context makes it easier to relate to what was or is at stake.

For example, in the decades before the American Civil War, Lowell’s entire reason for existence was the production of cloth made from cotton harvested by enslaved people in the American south. Consequently, it was in the city’s economic interest to at least remain quiet about slavery in the United States. Yet Lowell also became a leader in the abolitionist movement. To read of the consequences of the Fugitive Slave Act in a textbook is one thing; to hear how people who previously lived in your neighborhood struggled with the law enhances your understanding of it.

At this Tuesday’s Lowell City Council meeting, we caught a glimpse of this dynamic again at work. Two emerging flashpoints in American politics – data centers and the surveillance state – were both discussed by the council.

The topic of data centers arose in a Division of Planning and Development response to motions filed by Councilor Rita Mercier (in July) and Councilors Belinda Juran and Kim Scott (in March) asking for the status of zoning changes intended to regulate data centers.

According to the DPD response, the city commenced a comprehensive review of its entire zoning ordinance 13 months ago with the assistance of a consultant, Community Scale LLC, which had experience with data centers from earlier work with the city of Everett. A steering committee composed mostly of city employees and officials was created to oversee the process and has met several times. This fall there will be community outreach events, neighborhood group meetings, and an online comment form to gather community input. (The much-publicized June 29, 2026, meeting on data centers at the Butler School was part of this.) The city and its consultants are also reviewing how other communities have regulated data centers ranging from outright bans to detailed regulations that seek to limit adverse impacts.

Finally, DPD hopes to “develop two regulatory options for consideration by the City Council” and that these are expected to be initially presented to the council this October with final action coming by the end of January 2027.

On the surface, this discussion was noncontroversial, but I sense a disconnect of expectations. There has been a longstanding need to overhaul and update the city’s zoning code. That’s a big undertaking and it was likely difficult for DPD to get council backing to do it since it would require a lengthy, disciplined strategic commitment whereas the council tends to be reactionary and operates on a week-to-week basis. However, rising neighborhood animosity towards the big Markley data center triggered a council reaction. Hence council interest in changing the zoning to stop data center expansion. Following the management principle of “don’t let a crisis go to waste” it looks like DPD used the data center furor as a wedge to get the council to look comprehensively at zoning.

However, I’m not sure the council is interested in a comprehensive look at zoning but instead seeks patchwork solutions to whatever complaints constituents bring to them this week, be it data centers, ADUs, or something else.

Then the neighbors around the Markley facility who are plagued by noisy diesel generators and other quality of life issues, want their complaints remedied immediately which is something a zoning change would be hard pressed to do since new zoning rules typically don’t apply retroactively.

But opposition to data centers transcends the neighbors living around the existing facility. Across the United States, we’re seeing widespread voter opposition to data centers. You know that’s the case because politicians from both parties who once supported data centers have pivoted to radical opposition to them.

I think this opposition is only partly grounded in concerns about the data centers themselves. The harm they cause to the quality of life of those living around them; to the electrical grid; to the water supply; and to the environment, all are factors. However, a bigger concern is artificial intelligence itself, both as a technology that will take people’s jobs but more importantly perhaps as a mechanism to further enrich and empower the billionaire class that owns and controls them to the detriment of ordinary citizens everywhere. I suspect that concern exists among the citizens of Lowell and is growing.

At the start of this newsletter, I mentioned that the council addressed two issues of national importance with one being data centers. The other, which came to the council almost by accident, involves the surveillance state in the form of invasive security cameras.

Among the usual claims for property damage and requests for handicap parking signs on the Petitions section of the August 25, 2026, council agenda was a petition by a resident to “address City council regarding AI police state camera system discussion.”

I’ve mentioned before that I don’t watch council meetings live but catch the replay on YouTube the next day. One of the reasons I do that is so I can fast forward through citizen petitions which are either routine or present issues that don’t make much sense to me.

However, contrary to my past practice, I watched this entire segment and, more significantly, agreed with everything the petitioner had to say. The petitioner delivers his remarks at 2:30:40 of the YouTube transcript of the meeting, however, he also submitted his proposed remarks to the city clerk as his petition and is therefore online as part of the agenda packed, so I’ll quote some of what was written in that document:

I am here today to discuss the Al Flock cameras that have been installed all around Lowell. . .

. . . I am not necessarily against the use of police cameras in high crime areas. The Lowell police has been using them for a few decades now. You may have seen them in parking lots outside of stores with the flashing blue lights on them. These camera systems are called CCTVs, or “Closed Circuit Television”, meaning that the video is being recorded and saved on local hard drives stored in the Lowell police station. When footage is needed, they can log into the local server and pull video when needed. It’s exactly how security cameras work in a bank or a store.

These Al Flock cameras are different; they’re always on and always watching. These cameras have the power to recognize license plates, car models, faces, driving routines, clothing, ethnicity, etc. Anything that you can determine with your eyes, it can as well.

These cameras have the ability to take in all this information about you, track your every move, stalk you, and build a virtual profile of you, and store it on Big Brothers computer. What can these profiles be used for?

Flock is a private, multi-billion-dollar company whose systems collect and store footage in data centers (hence the rise in demand by tech companies to have these centers built in your area). Tech giants do not make all their money from selling hardware or subscription services. They make their money from storing and selling data.  . .

This is just the corporate business side of things. With Al and drone weapons, as well as government tyranny on the horizon, who knows what evil these cameras can lead to. . .

The petitioner ended by asking the council to (1) end the contract with Flock and remove all its cameras; and (2) let the people of Lowell decide if they want to be surveilled by a private company.

Flock Group Inc. which does business as Flock Safety, was founded in 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia. It is a privately held company that manufactures surveillance hardware and software. The company is valued at $7.5 billion, operates in 5,000 communities in 49 states and performs 20 billion scans of vehicles in the US each month. One of its primary initial funders was the billionaire Peter Thiel, who is co-founder of Palantir Technologies, a company that provides artificial intelligence and facial recognition systems to US security agencies and the military.

Flock has been much in the news lately and not in a good way. On August 28, 2026, the Lowell Sun reported that a Stow, Massachusetts, police officer resigned just before a disciplinary hearing in which he was accused of using the Flock Safety system multiple times “for no legitimate law enforcement reason.”

The same day, Wired magazine ran a story headline, “A Georgia Cop Used Flock to Track 2 Other Cops: His Ex and Her Friend.” The offending (now former) police officer used the Flock automatic license plate reader at least 56 times to track another officer with whom he had had an affair. He also used the system 29 times to track the vehicle of a third officer who was spending time with the former romantic partner. According to Wired, “. . . many [police] officers have instant access to Flock, a powerful, informative and invasive tool for tracking people’s locations. Across the country, there have been at least 45 documented incidents of police officers misusing Flock in order to look up or track current or former romantic partners.”

At Tuesday’s Lowell City Council meeting, after the petitioner spoke, councilors questioned Lowell Police Chief Greg Hudon who said that the Lowell Police Department has 25 Flock cameras around the city (and that DPD has Flock cameras intended to catch people illegally dumping). Chief Hudon said that the concerns expressed by the petitioner were well-founded, but the Lowell Police have procedures in place to limit Flock access to legitimate law enforcement purposes and an audit trail that helps ensure that’s the case. The Chief then emphasized how effective a crime-fighting tool these cameras are.

I think the Chief and most of the council were addressing concerns about rogue police officers tracking ex-spouses whereas the issue is much bigger than that. Councilor Juran understood the concern of the petitioner (and others, including me) when she said the problem was the aggregation of data collected by these cameras that would be used by others. She said that the use of the system by Lowell Police Officers was “the tip of the iceberg” and that Flock is using information collected by the cameras to identify people and potentially sharing that with others.

Chief Hudon replied that the Lowell Police have opted not to share data from the cameras, however, unless the system in Lowell is physically isolated from the Flock Company, the company and its technicians would still have access to the data notwithstanding any limits set by the Lowell user. With that access, who knows who else the data is being shared with.

Councilor Juran then moved to refer the matter to the public safety subcommittee for further discussion, but Mayor Gitschier suggested it might be best to hold that discussion in executive session since it might disclose strategies for fighting crime. The city solicitor said it would be more appropriate to do it in an executive session of the entire council rather than just the subcommittee, so that’s what is going to happen.

Councilor Juran’s concerns, like those of the petitioner, are well-founded and widely documented. For example, Wired has also reported that regulators in Illinois discovered last August that Flock had violated state law by running a now-paused pilot program that handed Customs and Border Protection access to cameras in the state. The magazine also reported that a police officer in Texas searched more than 83,000 Flock cameras across the country last year while searching for a woman who had a self-administered abortion.

The modern surveillance state has been with us for years now. If you search online for a new pair of sneakers, for the next 72 hours you are bombarded with ads for sneakers from every website and platform you visit. For the most part, it’s easy to dismiss this as the price we pay for internet access.

However, two things have combined to dial up the “I’m very concern about this” meter. First is the maturation and widespread deployment of artificial intelligence. Previously, there might be a lot of data about me floating around, but it would take someone a lot of time, effort and money to piece it together in a way that could be injurious to me. But AI changes everything. The super computers filling the data centers everyone is protesting can search, sort and combine billions of bytes of information in seconds and erase any expectation we have for privacy in our lives.

That those AI companies are owned by the same billionaires who crowded the front row in the U.S. Capitol rotunda on January 20, 2025, for President Trump’s inauguration only elevates those concerns. I’m fully convinced that the DOGE miscreants who burrowed into the Social Security Administration and Health & Human Services data bases walked away with digital copies of everyone’s financial and medical histories and also that that data is now being used in nefarious ways by the tech sector but also by a government that has shown its willingness to use every means available to punish its opponents and those whose race or gender don’t fit the regime’s narrowly defined norms. I’m sure Chief Hudon spoke in good faith when he said Lowell restricts outside access to the data collected by city surveillance cameras but believing that requires one to think the best of the AI companies and the billionaires who own them which is a leap of credibility that defies everything we’ve seen over the past 20 months. Since our elected representatives at the national level have been neutered (or worse) by the campaign cash flowing from these same billionaires, there is no hope for top-down protection from Congress. Consequently, it’s up to individuals in communities to speak out against this as part of a bottom-up effort to combat the growing authoritarianism we face. I’m not anti AI, but AI is just a tool that can be used for good or evil and right now, the balance is tipping the wrong way, so when it comes to data centers and surveillance cameras, I think the right path at the community level is to slam on the brakes.

****

Tuesday’s council meeting lasted 3 hours and 30 minutes, so other issues were covered and discussed, but I’ll halt my council coverage right now.

There will be no council meeting this Tuesday, which is also the day of the state primary election. In next Sunday’s newsletter, I’ll report on the results of the voting.

****

This week in Seen & Heard, I reviewed a great book that provided a British view of the American Revolution; reminisced about the glory days of local sports TV recounted in an article about Bob Lobel and Mike Lynch; reviewed the classic novel, The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton; and noted the obituary of Bill Rasmussen, a co-founder of ESPN.

****

I’ll be leading several Lowell history tours in the coming weeks for anyone who is interested:

Saturday, September 12, 2026, at 10am – Walking tour of the Tyler Park Historic District. The tour is free with no registration required. Just meet at the park. This tour is part of the Friends of Tyler Park “Autumn Market.” (For GPS purposes, Tyler Park’s address is 748 Westford Street.)

Saturday, September 26 & Sunday, September 27, 2026, both at 10am – Walking tour of Lowell Cemetery. The tour takes 90 minutes and begins at the Lawrence Street entrance to the cemetery. It is free and requires no registration. The same tour is offered on both days.

Saturday, October 17, 2026 – “Secrets of Lowell Cemetery” tour which is part of the of the Poe in Lowell Festival. Edgar Allan Poe came to Lowell at least three times to lecture but also to spend time with a female friend who is buried in Lowell Cemetery. Learn their story and the stories of others involved in their orbit. This tour is free and begins at the Knapp Avenue entrance of the cemetery (77 Knapp Avenue).

‘Summertime Blues’ by Poet Bill O’Connell

Bill O’Connell is a past contributor to this blog. He is the author of the poetry collections When We Were All Still Alive and Sakonnet Point. His forthcoming book Tarifa Moon (Lost Valley Press) includes poems drawn from recent European travel along with family and neighborhood stories. He lives in central Massachusetts and is a graduate of U Mass Lowell.

Summertime Blues

by Bill O’Connell

There ain’t no cure

for the summertime blues

–Eddie Cochran

The eczema on my forearm migrates

from one arm to the other.

Stiff neck-chords shift

left to right nightly.

My body is fucking with me —

playing mind-games: guess

what will fail

next: one ear

half-deaf, sciatica

when I least expect it.

Then there’s the 24/7

news: trying to outwit

Trump with my

liberal mind — by the end of the day

I’m exhausted, put on

the Red Sox and hope on hope

a ball leaves the yard

with the crack of a bat

and soars above the light towers

and the crowd’s roar

into the dark-city nothing

between the Park

and the Mass Pike.

Some Economic Policy Ideas

Lowell resident Joe Smith, a longtime observer of city and national finances, shared the following with me. I’m posting it here with an invitation to readers to share their feedback on the comment section of the blog.

Some Economic Policy Ideas

By Joe Smith (with some help from AI)

I was experimenting with feeding some economic policy ideas to AI and ended up with a partial report.

Too many “economic growth” concepts are zero sum, where some win, others lose, with the winners usually the rich and connected.  Good example would be Trump’s bitcoin involvement, or his pay-to-play announcements.

One other issue I put to AI was the raise of full retirement age for Social Security pushed by Republicans.  Since life expectancy in the US is quite dependent on wealth (low 70s for the poor end, mid/upper 80s for the wealthy end), raising the full retirement age is a significantly higher percentage loss on lifetime collections at the poor end.  Conversely, removing the payroll tax cap hits the high end.

I think it comes down to developing economic policies with the following goals.

* reduce federal deficits

* reduce inflation

* reduce income disparity

* only reward true economic growth investments

I don’t feel the Democratic Party has done enough to formulate a coherent economic plan, and that will lessen their win opportunities this November, to our detriment.

The AI response to these prompts

Progressive Alternatives: Shifting the Burden to Revenue

By choosing your proposed revenue-raising options—eliminating the payroll tax cap and equalizing capital gains taxes—the government can completely eliminate the deficit without cutting benefits or lifting the retirement age.

The table below illustrates how these policies interact with inflation, the deficit, and life-expectancy equity:

A Supplemental Proposal

I then asked to add a policy whereby upon death, the step-up cost basis would be limited to a deceased’s remaining estate tax exemption, and any excess would be taxed in the year of death, whether sold or not.  AI estimated about a $200 billion 10-year deficit reduction (moderate), but a significant reduction in income inequality.

So, the collective recommendation is:

1) eliminate payroll tax cap

2) equalize capital gains and labor tax rates

3) limit step-up basis at death to remaining estate tax exemption, and force payment of taxes that year.

Most proposals for taxing are to provide other ways to spend it, and that does nothing to curb inflation.