As some of you may know, our representatives in the Massachusetts State House voted on Feb. 24 whether to amend the joint rules to ensure more transparency to the public. The amendment, if you’re not familiar with it, would have made joint committee votes and testimony publicly available on the State House’s website.
With only 36 yes votes, the amendment did not pass. I’m disappointed, and frankly, you should be too.
So what I’m telling you to do is not just to ask but to demand better. We as Massachusetts residents deserve to know what’s going on in our State House.
The public is much a part of the democratic process as those who represent us. If you haven’t gotten involved yet, now is the time.
Act on Mass, a movement of which I am a part of, is spearheading the call for transparency in Massachusetts, and has helped push the joint committee amendment as well as two others. Find out who your state representative is and contact them, whether that be through calls, emails, or flooding their social media. Tell them that their constituents want them to support the transparency amendment. Tell them to step up and make good on their promises to properly represent their districts.
It’s likely that your representative will make claims about the good they are doing for their community. Keep going. A solid yes to the transparency amendment from the representative is the goal.
Disrupting a status quo can be daunting, but if there’s one thing the events of the last year have taught us, it’s that any situation can change in an instant. If these transparency amendments passed in the State House, many bills that have been in committee for years could finally pass. I can only imagine the good that could be done for the community. I have faith that the population of Massachusetts can rise up and demand our representatives work for us and not the other way around.
If we fight the good fight, we can get these amendments passed. History will look back on us, and say we did right.
Maddie Raymond is a resident of Goshen.