Postponment of Constitutional Convention

May 11th. 2006
Sent to but not published in the Boston Globe

To the Editor:
With stunning disregard for the convenience of some of their constituents, the Legislature announced the postponement of the Constitutional Convention (Boston Globe, B section, May 11th.) which should have begun at 1.00 pm on Wednesday.
They paid no attention to the fact that both the supporters and opponents of many of the measures on their agenda had been preparing for this day. Supporters and opponents had spent time and money in lobbying their contacts to put pressure on the members of the Senate and House to vote one way or the other. Many of them timed their efforts to peak just before the Constitutional Convention was to meet.
This effort is all for naught and the effort will have to be repeated in early July when the Constitutional Convention is supposed to meet again. (But given their past performance, this too is an uncertainty.)
A schedule, publicized by the Legislature is, in these days of open, responsible government, a contract between the legislators and the people that they represent. The Legislators of the Commonwealth have broken that contract. I hope they will not do so again.