Paying respects in central Mass

[miu]

And what purpose would it serve to put his funeral on the front page of the Globe? The people who loved and miss him were at the funeral. And word of the funeral did get around to many.

Well my boyfriend did tell me last night that the funeral was talked a lot about on the radio. He listens to NPR. I agree that the young man's death was tragic, but I don't think that every time one of our soldiers die over there, it needs to be front page news. But be assured their sacrifice is noted, but it was their choice to sign up, and of the soldiers I've talked to, they did it more for the hefty signup bonuses and career/academic opportunities than being purely patriotic and protective of our country. At least they have a well paying tax free income in these days of our high numbers of recession/depression job layoffs. Unfortunately, if we could pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan tomorrow, that would mean even larger number of people out of work. And at least the soldiers today are getting much better recognition than the soldiers that came home from the Vietnam War and not getting spat on by the public. Both wars were/are not popular with the public. We'd love to be not at war and our servicemen and women being home and a safe on our soil.

And btw, I think that our police and fire dept. staff should be given more appreciation and recognition too.

Here's yet another Globe article on the funeral. Maybe it's only an update, but the photgraph is different. And the article says that this was Leominster's first fallen soldier since the Vietnam War, so that is why so many of the residents were touched emotionally. In the Metro Boston area, perhaps we are a little more thick skinned about this sort of thing because we've had more soldiers killed in the Iraq War.

A city bids farewell to fallen soldier - The Boston Globe

And Massachusetts has lost about 79 soldiers in Iraq.

To date, over 79 soldiers whose home of record at the Department of Defense was Massachusetts have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. Of those, 31 were parents. Their 51 children are eligible.

MSL Fund: What We Do (http://www.mslfund.org/pages/whatwedo.htm - broken link)

[Hatless Wonder]

I grew up in Fitchburg, right next to Leominster. The housing boom has turned it into a bedroom community, but it's still a small town in a lot of ways. Funerals are major social events, and Fort Devens (which closed in 1997) was about 10 miles away.

The Boston Globe generally ignores life outside 495. The Sentinel is a pretty bad paper (at least it was when I left Fitchburg), but it's local.

[miu]

Part of keeping the costs down on putting out a newspaper is by keeping the amount of paper used to a minimum. What they charge per newspaper edition is a fixed price. As someone that is 50 years old and grew up with the Globe and enjoyed reading the Sunday edition of the NYT, I will be very sad when these papers fold.

Also, if you have a problem with the placement of the story in the Globe paper, write or email a letter to the editors. Getting feedback, good and bad helps the paper be more what you'd like it to be.

I'm sorry that the Iraq war is unpopular. And it was fine for Obama to campaign against Hillary by saying that he wouldn't have voted for the war. And Osama had nothing to do with Iraq, and there were no weapons of mass destruction hidden there. I don't think that us being in Iraq is protecting our American freedoms. However, I will agree that Saddam Hussein was a despicable tyrant that needed to be removed from power. I will also say that regardless of the appropriateness of the war, our soldiers are doing the best job possible. But our own soldiers are no angels either as some of our female soldiers are suffering from sexual harassment and assaults from their male counterparts. And I think that fighting the war in Vietnam was a lot scarier and more dangerous than what our soldiers are going through now in Iraq.

But RIP Army Private Jonathan Roberge.

[miu]

Originally Posted by Hatless Wonder

The Boston Globe generally ignores life outside 495. The Sentinel is a pretty bad paper (at least it was when I left Fitchburg), but it's local.

It's not just the Globe, but it's a common and valid complaint that Western Massachusetts doesn't get the same amount of attention from our State House either. However, the majority of the state's population, jobs and money flow is centered around the Metro Boston area.

[LeavingMA]

Originally Posted by Hatless Wonder

I grew up in Fitchburg, right next to Leominster. The housing boom has turned it into a bedroom community, but it's still a small town in a lot of ways. Funerals are major social events, and Fort Devens (which closed in 1997) was about 10 miles away.

The Boston Globe generally ignores life outside 495. The Sentinel is a pretty bad paper (at least it was when I left Fitchburg), but it's local.

I agree completely. Leominster and Fitchburg are only 40 miles outside of MA, but they might as well be in another state. Central and Western MA get completely left out or very little coverage from the Boston newspapers or the Boston news. If your Western MA than you should just join NY, CT, or VT, because forget about getting any money or support. Almost all the money in MA goes to the metro Boston area.

A few communities out here attempted to get a waiver from the state regarding the ice-storm back in December, but they state declined it and said they had to do their 180 days. I would stake quite a bit that if the ice-storm had hit the metro Boston area and areas such as Newton, Wellesly, and Weston...those communities would not have to make up the days.

I was very glad to see my hometown of Leominster come out and support one of their own. Even if it did get very little recognition by the media in this state...at least the people in the surrounding towns and in the community were thankful for his support and stood by the family as much as possible.

[clevedark]

But don't you think that most of the money in MA *comes* from the metro Boston area?

[miu]

And the majority of the Boston Globe readership is in the metro Boston area. Otherwise, every town has a pretty decent community paper. I turn to the Newton Tab to read my city's news, not the Boston Globe. And I wouldn't expect the Boston Globe to cover the Newton news either. I expect the Boston Globe to give me coverage of Boston, the Boston metro area, state politics and international news. The newspaper is NOT called the Massachusetts Globe, it's called the Boston Globe...

There is no reason to bash the Boston Globe over their lack of coverage of events outside the metro Boston area. And I see no complaints that CNN news didn't cover Roberge's death and funeral.

For the people of Leominster, this was their first war casualty since the Vietnam War. He was one of their own, and that's why his passing meant so much to THEM.

[LeavingMA]

Originally Posted by clevedark

But don't you think that most of the money in MA *comes* from the metro Boston area?

I agree that a lot of the money comes from the Boston area, but don't forget their is still other parts of the state. People forget that Worcester is the 2nd largest city by population in New England. Other than the complete waste that went along with the big dig, they could have taken some of that money and fixed roads throughout Massachusetts.

You pretty much get treated like a second class citizen if you live out in Central and Western MA. Don't forget, we pay our taxes also out here and I don't need to see them go to waste in Boston all the time. Other states have more than one significant city, I don't understand why we can't up here.

I think all anyone is saying regarding the death of Roberge is that if it was a death of someone around the metro Boston area it would have gotten a lot more coverage.