On Monday, August 4th, Senator John Kerry visited the town of North Adams to discuss the issues with his constituents. At the restaurant Taylor's Fine Dining, the Senator was eloquently introduced by North Adams Mayor John Barrett, along with State Representative Daniel E. Bosley. Greeted by a large group of local democratic voters, Kerry spoke mainly of health care and the energy crisis, two issues that the residents of North Adams seemed to be very interested in and care deeply about. He also showed his strong support for presidential candidate Barack Obama, indicating that with him as our next president, great positive change to the government and the country would result.

    

 

 

       Photo: A beautiful hillside view from North Adams. 

 

 

 

 

 

With the Mayor close behind, Senator Kerry shook hands, greeted residents, and stopped into local small businesses on North Adams' bustling Main Street. As reported by The North Adams Transcript, 

While in North Adams, Kerry visited Moulton's General Store on Main Street, where he asked manager Laurie Moulton about the business and what the store carried."It was nice he took time out of his busy schedule to come to North Adams and find out what's going on in our end of the state," she said.

John Kerry also visited The Mohawk Theatre, a historic theatre built in 1938 that he and Ted Kennedy have been securing funding for. He learned about North Adams' aritist community when he visted the North Adams Artists' Co-op Gallery, spoke with local artists, and viewed their impressive art collections. 

 

 

 

 

       Photo: Senator Kerry meets with artists at North Adams' Co-op Gallery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

At Taylor's Fine Dining, Senator Kerry spoke to constituents about the necessity of achieving a strong democratic majority in the Senate, the future of Massachusetts jobs being in fields such as nanotechnology and green energy products, and rights for workers.  "What we need to do is restore the rights of the people who work hard to make this country what it is," he said, as quoted by The North Adams Transcript. 

 

 

 

 

 

        Photo: John Kerry greets voters at Taylor's Fine Dining in North Adams. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

       Photo: Kerry candidly gives his speech from atop a chair at the North Adams restaurant. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Upon meeting with Boxcar Media LLC owner Osmin Alvarez, it became clear that energy costs and health care were the two ideas that were on everyone's minds. Acting as a good representative of the creative side of Massachusetts' economy, the small business is experiencing financial burdens due to high energy costs and health care benefits, as expressed by Alvarez. While the business wants to grow and succeed, these factors are begining to inhibit this. With energy costs on the rise, the company is finding it difficult to afford to hire and retain workers. Also, their inability to provide large health care benefits, due to high costs, is deterring workers. Kerry responded that he has recently filed a health care bill to help companies cover their employees, and ensured that with Obama as president, there would be much health camuch debated issue of oil drilling, according to iberkshires.

As for energy, Kerry said it was time the oil companies were brought to heel.

"Last quarter, Exxon reported almost $12 billion in profit, which is a larger profit that any American company in history has ever reported," he said. "The idea that we couldn't take a component of that to buffer the American economy is simply unexceptable."
He later scoffed at the idea that offshore drilling would alleviate the current energy crisis, calling it a "phony argument" because millions of acres could already be drilled.
"Our future is not in drilling more of that black stuff ... the future is moving the world to something other than fossil fuels," Kerry told a gathering of Democrats at Taylor's Fine Dining.
He predicted that "three or four Google equivalents" in energy production would happen in the coming years.

He stressed that big oil companies desperately needed a reality check, and that the response to the energy crisis is not to drill more, but to utilise alternate sources of energy. According to local NBC network Channel 13, Kerry was concise and matter-of-fact on the much debated subject of offshore oil drilling.

"There are 68 million acres of available leases right now that are already permitted, that they're not drilling. Forty million of them are offshore today and they're not using them. So this is a phony argument," Kerry said.
During a tour of downtown North Adams, the senator was very clear about his view of the offshore drilling issue.
"America only has three percent of the world's oil reserves. We can go offshore and we can't affect the price of oil and we can't affect our independence. I think it's phony, phony, phony governance. They're trying to mislead people and pretend they're going to affect your gas price. They're not going to do that and they're avoiding doing the things we really need to do, which is put money into alternative and renewable fuels and research," Kerry insisted.

In response to recent concern over skyrocketing heating oil prices, John Kerry also stated that additional funding for LIHEAP was needed immediately, given the rising costs of energy, and the fact that Republicans are refusing to provide more funding for the program that would help low income families to heat their homes in the winter.

John Kerry cleared up many issues for North Adams residents on Monday. Talking to both small business owners and working residents, he explained what is being done to provide people with better health care benefits, and the direction the country should be taking in alleviating the current energy crisis. But his bottom line was clear: the best way for the country to carry out  lasting reform would be if Barack Obama were elected president. And Kerry was very optimistic that this would indeed be the case. By providing needed facts and a sense of hope to North Adams residents, Kerry stressed that great change would soon be on the horizon. This was one of many "Kerry On Your Corner" visits John kerry will be making to voters in towns around the state.

 

  Photo: John Kerry talks to North Adams residents outside a store on Main Street.