7 Dirty Words Whoever Succeeds Tania Fernandes Anderson On The Boston City Council Should Avoid

There’s something desperate and sad about soon-to-be-former city councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson’s kickback scheme..According to the indictment and her recent agreement to plead guilty, she took $7,000 in cash in one of the gender-neutral bathrooms of Boston City Hall from a relative she’d put on the payroll and gotten the city to give an improbable $13,000 bonus on a $65,000 base salary.The most offensive thing here isn’t the money, which the city government would have squandered anyway.It’s the poorness of the plan.She had to suspect that someone at City Hall would notice the unusual bonus.She had to realize that if the (other) recipient of the money didn’t stay stone-silent, then lots of people would find out about it.She had to understand that prosecutors love open-and-shut public corruption cases, which make them look good before their bosses -- and future voters, should they run for public office themselves.So why’d she do it?Fernandes Anderson is in a one-income family. Her husband is in prison for first degree murder. She got hit with a $5,000 fine from the State Ethics Commission for other hiring relatives to her city councilor staff.And of course, Boston was expensive to live in even before Joe Biden became president, and it only got worse after he did.So how do you make ends meet on $103,500 a year?According to the feds, Fernandes Anderson hid income from a side business from the Internal Revenue Service.But that wasn’t enough. It’s helpful to save on taxes. But in this world you need cash.And so she resorted to a crazy scheme to have the city pay much more money to her staffer and have her staffer withdraw cash from her bank account equivalent to about 54 percent of the extra money and give it to her.And now she’s about to resign from the city council before she goes to prison.To the left-wing mainstream media, Fernandes Anderson was a collection of “firsts” on the Boston City Council – the first Muslim, the first person born in Africa, the first person from Cape Verde, the first former illegal immigrant.But much more important than any of those: She was a bad city councilor.Here are a few of her un-greatest hits:In March 2024, she sponsored a resolution that claimed Muslim students live in “a largely white-Christian-dominated society,” pointlessly stoking divisions.In January 2024, she failed to take the oath of office while city councilors were being sworn in at the beginning of a new term, undermining respect for rules, the law, the state constitution, and the federal constitution.In January 2023, she supported a measure designed to harass crisis pregnancy centers, which offer free products and services to pregnant women in need.These are bad ideas.So is her “comprehensive action plan” for District 7 of the city of Boston, which largely consists of Roxbury.It contains seven deadly terms that Fernandes Anderson’s successor on the Boston City Council should avoid: 1. “sustainable” If this word meant “live within your means,” it would be fine.But it actually means “make it more expensive to get from point A to point B, unless you’re connected.”Many people in Roxbury are poor. Most poor people aren’t connected. They need life to be easier, not harder. 2. “inclusive”If this word meant “Can’t we all just get along?” it would be all right.But it actually means “drag queens.”Poor people don’t need drag queens. 3. “Environmental justice”If this term means anything – which is doubtful – it ought to be about making streets and air cleaner and more healthful.But it actually means “shakedown.”Poor people don’t need more transfer payments. They need more opportunities. 4. GreenIf this word meant “the color you get when you mix blue and yellow,” it would be great.But it actually means “socialism.”Poor people don’t need the government to control the means of producing things. That makes everybody poorer. 5. “systemic racism”This term has no good alternative uses. It just means “getting what you want without having to persuade anyone it’s a good idea.”Poor people need good ideas. They don’t need irrational power grabs. 6. “dismantling”If this term meant simply “take to pieces,” then its appropriateness would depend on context.But it actually means “tear down history and culture,” and replace it with junk.Poor people don’t need tried-and-true institutions torn down. They need helpful structures that have been proven to work. 7. DiversityIf this word meant “different strokes for different folks,” it’d be all right.But it actually means “protected classes.”Poor people don’t need anyone to abolish merit in favor of accidental features. They need everyone, no matter who they are or what they look like or where they come from, to value hard work, honesty, and character – and apply them.

7 Dirty Words Whoever Succeeds Tania Fernandes Anderson On The Boston City Council Should Avoid

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