Author Archive

1987 City Election

Below is a narrative account of the 1987 City Election and related events that occurred during that two-year term. To see the order of finish and vote totals of the candidates, visit our 1987 City Election page.  On November 3, 1987, voters reelected incumbents Richard Howe, Brian Martin, Robert Kennedy…

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1989 Lowell English-Only Referendum

1989 Lowell English-Only Referendum By Charles Gargiulo In 1989, the “English-Only” Referendum was an initiative put on the ballot and championed by George Kouloheras to stoke the same white nativist populism we see fueling Trumpism today. It was in large response to the political gains made by the city’s Latino…

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Washington’s Birthday in Lowell

George Washington was born on February 22, 1732, at his parents’ estate on the south bank of the Potomac River in northeast Virginia. Congress made the day a Federal holiday in 1879 and nearly one hundred years later in the Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1971, Congress changed the name…

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William Clark and Abraham Lincoln

Friday’s Lowell Sun had a story by Emma Murphy (“Does pocketwatch put Lowellian at Lincoln’s death bed?”) about Jonathan Ladd, a Civil War soldier from Lowell who may have been present in the room where Abraham Lincoln died on April 15, 1865. I’m quoted in the story saying I was…

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Cartoons by Nicholas Whitmore

“Alice laughed. ‘There’s no use trying,’ she said. ‘One can’t believe impossible things.’ I daresay you haven’t had much practice,’ said the Queen. ‘When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. There goes…

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1989 City Election – English Only Referendum

Here’s a report on the 1989 Lowell City Election which included an “English only” referendum which prevailed by a wide margin. To see the individual candidate vote totals, please see our new 1989 City Election page. On November 7, 1989, voters reelected council incumbents Bud Caulfield, Robert Kennedy, Kathleen Kelley,…

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Boarding School Blues, chapter 5

Boarding School Blues By Louise Peloquin  Chapter 5: Arrival Maman parked the car in front of the stairs saying, “I should have driven up the back way. It has access to the basement so unloading your bags would have been less troublesome. But why not take the main entrance after…

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Review of President Obama Memoir

“A Promised Land” by Barack Obama Review by Richard Howe A recent Op-Ed by psychologist Adam Grant introduced me to the concept of “motivational interviewing” (“The Science of Reasoning With Unreasonable People,” New York Times, January 31, 2021). Set in the context of arguing about vaccinations with a committed anti-vaccer,…

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1970 State Election

From time to time we will post the results of past city and state election. These will be added to our “Elections and Results” page for ease of retrieval. Today, the 1970 State Election. 1970 STATE ELECTION U.S. Senate – Edward M. Kennedy. In the general election, Democratic incumbent Edward…

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