Yankee Tirade

Economic Development

The Joint Committee On Economic Development And Emerging Technologies is the legislative group attempting to bring change to the Commonwealth.

There are only two Republicans on this Committee. Senator Bruce Tarr and Representative Richard Ross.

If change is to happen the Party of Lincoln needs to be more involved. From the internet to gambling this is where those issues will be decided and the Republican Party can not afford to neglect this body.

Elizabeth Poirier

Many claim that the Party of Lincoln in the Commonwealth is just and old boys club hold over from the past, not the case.

Elizabeth Poirier is a Republican from North Attleboro.

The future of the two party checks and balances needed in Massachusetts must come from women officials as well. One of the issues of the Steering Committee is privatization of the MWRA.

Chris Swift’s Civilian Experience

Since I spent most of my time in the reserve components of the military many people ask me what is my background in.

When I first left active duty in 1993 I worked for a water utility that in Arizona that was owned by a land development firm. There was massive building and expansion at that time and we worked with the engineers and developers quite a bit. I started out reading meters and fixing pipe on the distribution network. I ended up being the youngest state administrator for cross connection control in Arizona at 25, or so I have been told and working at the treatment plant in two years.

I moved back east and got on with a land development company again that contracted out management services for water utilities as well in Central Massachusetts. Again I was the administrator of the CCC program and was a project manager for various functions of the utility. I did get involved in some of the regulatory activity and helped prevent a Commonwealth Regulation from being changed. In addition to those duties I was involved in chemical cost analysis and a corrosion control study.

I decided to change careers and took a job in the Securities industry in domestic and offshore mutual funds. I performed trades for market timers and reviewed and attempted to correct retail and institutional shareholder issues.

I then went to a internet securities company that specialized in working with day trades so I could get my series 7 license. I reviewed stock, bond, options and mutual fund trades.

I then moved onto more conventional banking and worked with unsecured loans for cosmetic surgery and eventually moved into the retail mortgage business. I then moved into supplying leasing and financing for mid level companies beyond the the 2 year start up phase.

My Military Experience

Chris Swift’s Military Background:

1986-1988 Massachusetts Army National Guard

1989-1993 United States Marine Corps

1993-1995 United States Army Reserve

1995-1996
2001-2002 Vermont Army National Guard

Veterans Organizations I have been in:

VFW Ashland, Massachusetts

American Legion Mesa, Arizona and Massachusetts Member at Large

Marine Corps League Zephyrhills, Florida and Member at Large

Amvets Brandon, Florida

Disabled American Veterans Zephyrhills, Florida Lifetime Member

Built To Last

I just read Built To Last by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras and really enjoyed it. The book was a study of what makes companies what they are. The selected companies studied all had counterparts that they were compared to that initially started out doing the same function.

Highly recommend this book and it is an easy read.

So I shall list the Yankee Tirade Complete Vision.

Core Ideology

Core Values:Honesty, Belief in America and Leadership By Example.

Purpose: To inform the public.

Envisioned Future

Envisioned BHAG: To have a Charity Horse Show to support Homeless Veterans and to form a facility for women veterans in Massachusetts.

Vivid Description: To keep aware the general public on issues relating to homeless veterans through editorial, historical reference and public events. This should always be the focus of the site and its goal of keeping America’s promise to it service members. Only through team work can this objective be met and continually monitored to ensure it is not allowed to fall from the public attention.

The Governor’s Council

The Executive or Governor’s Council of Massachusetts is another asset the Party of Lincoln needs to examine and set its sights on.

A little known organization it is a popularly elected group to assist the Governor in a variety of decisions in the Commonwealth. One of the National Lancers made an attempt at it a few years back but ran as an Independent.

This group has long been ignored, and that should change.

Governor’s Troop - Carlisle PA

On Cavalry Rd in Carlisle, PA is a Sherman Tank with a plaque on it. I decided to stop and look at it real quick during lunch and discovered it was from Pennsylvania’s Governor’s Troop as well as the Gobin Guards.

I did not know that the Philidelphia Troop was not the Governors Escort, but I guess it does not really matter.

I talked briefly to a soldier preparing a cook out at the monument and found out what the Gobin Guards are. It is a veterans group for former members of the 108th Field Artillery.

Boston VA space for rent…

Peake said there may be opportunities to lease out vacant land and buildings at the four Massachusetts campuses for housing, assisted-living facilities, and retirement communities for veterans.

This was in the Boston Globe today in reference to the decision not to close any of the 4 campuses of the VA in the Greater Boston area. This is a good starting point, but there is still much work to be done.

Hmmmm….

I was at Carlilse Barrack’s Military History Institute at lunchtime and decided to take the trail with the Army History Exhibits. My favorite is the World War One Trench.

While there I got the phone call I have gotten too often. It always starts with “its a funny story …”

I know when I hear this the next sentence has restraining order in it. And it did.

It was from a childhood friend who still lives in Boston. We are well into mid life here and this nonsense still continues in the Bay State at an alarming pace. There comes a time when the judicial system needs to tell people to act like adults and solve their own problems.

Review of Mayflower by Liam Sullivan

I’ve never been to interested in reading up on the Plymouth Colony mostly because the true history is all to often shrouded in myth. Stories of Plymouth Rock, the first Thanksgiving, religious freedom, and the start of American overshadow the truth. The latter is especially true since even before I lived near Jamestown for several years I was aware that it and several other Virginia settlements preceded Plymouth (not to mention St. Augustine, FL and the California missions). The other thing that bugs me about popular history of the colonial era - for both Plymouth and Jamestown - is that the story seems to cover the 1620’s and then jump 150 years ahead to the Revolution. If we’re lucky they might pick up the story in the 1690’s with the Salem Witch Trials. What happened to the colony during the time when the second and third generations of English settlers (and those born here) were making their mark on New England?

Despite it’s title, Mayflower (2006) by Nathaniel Philbrick tells the story of the Plymouth colony from its origins among the English Separatists living in Leiden, Holland to King Phillip’s War in the 1670’s. While not comprehensive, this is a thorough history of the Plymouth Colony’s first half-century. Along the way the truths of some of the myths are put in context, but the real story is much more interesting. Plymouth survived through complex and changing alliances among the Piligrims and various native tribes in New England. Old histories generally characterize the Indians as savages, newer histories shift the blame to imperialist Europeans, but Mayflower refreshingly characterizes both English and Indian as humans, flawed but making the best of things in uneasy times. Also interesting is the often overlooked story of the Plymouth Pilgrims relations with other colonies including the rowdy merrymakers of Merrymount, the larger and more prosperous Massachusetts Bay Colony, and even the Dutch in New Netherland.

The real heart of the story comes in the chapters about King Phillip’s War. If there’s a major fault in this book it is that Philbrick really seems to have wanted to write just about the war and all the chapters preceding it, while good, feel almost like a long preamble. The war is a complex conflict with alliances forming that pit Indian versus Indian, English hostilities against non-combatant tribes inadvertently forcing those tribes into the war, and noble deeds and atrocities performed by each side. The war had a considerable cost both in lives (the death rate considerable higher than later American wars) and psychologically as the English and Indians never were able to live together again in New England. Central to the story of King Phillip’s War is Benjamin Church, whom Philbrick characterizes as the first frontiersman - someone who fought Indians, yes, but respected them and adopted their practices along the way. In Church, Philbrick sees the creation of an American identity for the next two centuries.

Mayflower is a good popular history and an easy read. I learned a lot and recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about the time period.