Not my Father's Somerville

 The Patch recently asked how we felt about the mayor of Somerville’s decree, that he would be henceforth lording it over the citizens who pay his salary, tying the hands of the Somerville police while declaring a virtual free-for-all for criminals and illegal aliens in Somerville, what some want to call “a Sanctuary City” in the name of justice for all.

 My Dad grew up near Union Square in Somerville the youngest of five children of Irish immigrants.  His mother died when he was seven and his older sister, Mame, took over the maternal duties for her four brothers. My grandparents had a reputation for hospitality and a visitor to their two-family house would always be offered a bite to eat and something for their thirst. That was Irish tradition.

 When a shipload of Irish immigrants came in to Boston, I was told my grandmother who came here as a newlywed would go down to the ship, look for faces from home and bring them back to her house if they needed a place to land their first night in America.

 My Dad as a little boy remembers sometimes waking up with strange children in his bed. At some point, while deep asleep, he was gently turned crossways so that a couple of tiny pilgrims could fit along side him.

 I have no memory of Grandpa Noonan who died when I was three and all I know is that he was very kind and gentle, gracious to visitors and that he worked on the “El” or the elevated trains which ran roughly above where the Orange Line runs today and eventually was able to buy a two-family house near Union Square.

 Some of us can remember the dark and thunderous noise of the El over Canal Street that was torn down in the ‘80’s to make way for modernization and the Big Dig.

 Living now in Medford after raising our family out in Worcester County, I sometimes use the Orange Line and as I ride from Wellington past Sullivan Station I try to imagine what my Grandpa would have done on the El. Would he have announced the stops in an Irish brogue? This would have been quite familiar to most of the passengers since the El served the Irish neighborhoods? 

 Riding on the trains these days I usually hear an incomprehensible announcement in English, I presume, but with a thick accent that I can’t quite unravel. Since I’m kind of new to the T, having moved in from the boonies, I look around to see if others are having trouble understanding the announcement. Virtually everyone is engrossed in their smart phone or have earphones wired to something and look lost in their audio/digital world. There is no eye contact at all. I squint at the map signage which is not large enough to be read from my vantage point hoping I have not missed my stop.

On the return trip I look excitedly out the windows like a little kid, watching the rapid changes in the landscape. There was the coming and going of the horse extravaganza, Cavalia, the construction site of the new high rise apartments and high-end shopping outlets opening in Assembly Row near my stop, Wellington Station.

 Just over the Mystic River from Somerville is Medford, a city where once a proud sailing ship building center thrived.  In recent decades Medford has been known as a haven for crime families which kept a kind of order on the street as in the North End and East Boston, but that is changing as more and more immigrants arrive.

 On the eve of our Memorial Day celebration Mayor Joseph Curatone of neighboring Somerville decreed total amnesty and protection for illegals and, as he’s seen Governor Patrick and President Obama do, tried his hand at bypassing the US Constitution and Rule of Law which countless numbers have given their lives and limbs to protect; whose memories we were celebrating.

 The assaults are coming “Fast and Furious” upon our freedoms as the legislature debates a Gun Law that aims to limit the Second Amendment, while Mayor Bloomberg rallies mayors and Harvard grads to further disarm the populace. Ironically and sadly the graduating students are up in arms about sexual assault on campus.

 We are living in cities with scores of Level 2 and Level 3 sex offenders, yet the current regime pushes for no accountability for illegals and more gun control for law abiding citizens; meanwhile a home invasion and brutal rape recently took place in neighboring Arlington.

 How do I feel about mayors and legislators tying the hands of police officers and frustrating our freedoms? Annie get yer gun!

 When lawlessness is the law of the land from the top down ("illegals are not illegal in Massachusetts" says Atty. Gen. Martha Coakley) it is no time to disarm law abiding citizens.

 Chris Noonan Funnell  free lance columnist