As I get older, I actively try not to get angry, as it’s so often such a draining, non-productive activity.

But as someone who has become angry throughout his life – perhaps too much – it’s sometimes an emotion that is difficult to avoid.

I have to admit I became angry about two very important stories in our region with one similarity: government doesn’t seem to care very much.

The status of the Roderick Ireland Courthouse in Springfield continues to be infuriating. In 2013 I did a story about the terrible conditions in that building that were causing people to become seriously ill.

And, when I wrote that story, these conditions had been present for quite some time.

What has been done? Precious little. Yes, the state came in to do some remediation, but the conditions returned and are worse. Congressman Richard Neal is now putting pressure on the state by asking the Department of Labor to do an analysis of the building and its problems. Thank you for that.

Chris Lisinski of the State House News Service recently reported, “Asked if the courthouse should be shut down and if he was discussing state aid, [Gov. Charlie] Baker said his team is aware of the issues but did not answer directly. ‘We spent a lot of time with the Trial Court on the building and absolutely appreciate the issues and concerns the people who work there have, which is why we required our own people, when they went through the work of replacing most of the ventilation and duct work in the building, we told them, you need to take pictures of everything that’s there as you do the work and you need to take pictures of everything you replace,’ Baker replied. ‘We required them to put air quality monitoring infrastructure in place as they did that work so there would be a very transparent, comprehensive process for dealing with the questions people had around air quality. The Trial Court is the owner-operator of the building, but obviously, we share many of the concerns that people who work in that building have about that building’s ability to provide a safe and appropriate place for them to work.’”

For years, people have spoken about the need for a new courthouse, but it has received little traction. Why is that? This courthouse is one of the busiest in the state. With the health issues, how can the Trial Court system keep up with its case load?
Perhaps people in power just don’t care?

What would happen if a courthouse serving Boston had an incident in which raw sewage was bursting through a ceiling? Governor, would you tend to be a little bit more proactive if that happened?

Here’s is the other news story that thoroughly angered me: the effort to close down the Veterans Administration (VA) medical center in Leeds.

Thousands of people use the services there, and according to the proposal Chris Maza reported last week, the plan is to close that facility and move many of its services elsewhere, including Newington, CT.

It’s not that we have a decreasing number of veterans who need these health services. Thanks to the more recent conflicts, we have plenty of vets who have earned that right to health care.
So instead of providing more programming and more capacity, the goal is to diffuse those services, so they are more difficult to access.

Thank you for your service, indeed.

These criticisms are not directed at one political party. This isn’t about Democrats and Republicans. The problems with the courthouse were certainly around when Deval Patrick was governor.
Instead, this is about the role of government. What is expected in the contract between people who pay taxes and the government that is supposed to provide services?

With the VA, the issue is non-partisan. This isn’t about political party. Who are these people who are making these decisions and do they understand about that contract between people who served in the military?

When I am afforded the opportunity to speak to any of the gubernatorial candidates, I will certainly be asking them about both subjects. And I’m going to toss in a question about whatever happened to the MassDOT study about eliminating the I-91 viaduct that was being formed when the viaduct was being repaired.

In the meantime, I’ve got to calm down. I’m an old man and this can’t be good for me. Smokey Joe’s Cigar Lounge take me away!