Here are some brief thoughts on recent happenings in Franklin County and the North Quabbin region.
Readers got a lesson in internet guile with the story about the vaccination slots at a Mohawk Trail Regional School clinic that immediately disappeared, scarfed up by a bot. Picture Pac-Man, eating up all those precious appointments.
A bot — short for robot and also called an internet bot — is a computer program that simulates a human activity, like “chatting” with you about an item you are thinking about buying online. (No, that’s not some kindly person on the other end of that chat box.) There are good bots, bad bots and everything in-between. Good bots help you make a dinner reservation online or automatically add an appointment to your calendar. Bad bots buy up all the popular concert and sporting event tickets for scalping. (That’s illegal.) They succeed by automating a sequence of actions — over and over again, faster than you or me — to accomplish a task.
In this recent case close to home, a bot filled up all the slots at a local coronavirus vaccine clinic, assigning them to people in the eastern part of the state before Franklin County residents had a chance to sign up. Luckily, alert officials figured out what was happening and canceled all appointments for that day. Their solution? Take the clinics private, rather than statewide.
Phoebe Walker, Franklin Regional Council of Governments’ director of community services, said, “We didn’t work hard for four months to make sure everyone could get vaccinated in Franklin County if they want to, just to find out no one can get in.” It’s still hard to get a vaccine shot (visit frcog.org), but at least our local officials have leveled the playing field.
As our thoughts turn to gardening, a story last week about “food forests” invites readers to take a wider perspective on our backyard plots. Food forests — perennial gardens that focus on fruit and nut trees or fruiting shrubs — counteract the twin threats of climate change and food insecurity, according to presenters Matlock and Eliza Caldwell.
“It’s a gift to future generations,” said Eliza Caldwell.
Matlock Caldwell introduced his project, “A Town of a Thousand Gardens,” which aims to bring food forests and community gardens to his hometown in Connecticut.
Now imagine a thousand backyard pollinator gardens, a project championed by Greening Greenfield, in which each backyard is a refreshment stand for bees and other pollinators as they go about their important business. (Visit greeninggreenfieldma.org for planting suggestions.)
From food forests to pollinator-friendly plants, our backyard gardens collectively can be a string of pearls that attract pollinators and support a healthy ecosystem. Think about that as you browse those garden catalogs and make your choices.
As the hue and cry of “Defund the police” resounded nationally last summer, much of the impetus was driven by officers treating a mental health complaint as criminal behavior. One proposed solution was to shift some of that funding to social services.
In Greenfield, the city seems to have achieved the same end with the creation of a community resource officer position to make important connections, including with vulnerable populations and social service agencies. “We want to treat people fairly, be even more transparent,” said Police Chief Robert Haigh Jr.
His inspired choice for the new position is Officer Laura Gordon, aka Donut’s handler (with Deputy Chief William Gordon). St. Bernards Donut and Clarence are the popular ambassadors of the furry kind on the Greenfield Police force. Officer Gordon already works with agencies including ServiceNet, the Salvation Army and Clinical and Support Options. She said she’s excited about what they’ve been doing to provide services to the people of Greenfield who need them most.
“Our jobs are so much more than going out and making an arrest,” Gordon said. That’s a sentiment that should satisfy police reform advocates everywhere.