Transcription

When and why did you decide to go into politics?

 He decided to go into politics when he was the president of the Iron Union. He thought he was going to run it but he needed legal consultation. For this reason, he went to law school to get my degree so he could make the legal decisions knowing exactly what to expect from a legal perspective. He worked as an intern at Dupont and Morris for 30 hours. While in school at Boston College law school, he was required to do 20 hours of pro bono work. He worked with families in public housing. Things he worked with included elderly residents who couldn’t walk well having to climb several flights of stairs, families with asbestos on the pipes, overcrowding in the apartments. The families of the public housing he worked with suggested that he run for State Representative so he could get paid for the work he was already doing for them.

How has your previous career affected your political beliefs or agenda?

 He was an engineering student. This led him to be very detailed oriented. For my career he need to understand and rad bills because “laws are blueprints for society.” He went to law school so he could better understand how laws are made and how they work. He believed that lawmakers constitutes harmony. Laws are the core of society and for people to create them, they have first to know and understand them.

If No/ Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

 He saw himself still in politics, but he wants to run for something bigger if the opportunity arises,  because he believes in the job he is doing, and he loves helping people. It was a great feeling of accomplishment knowing that he could make a difference in society.

What do you consider to be your greatest political achievement?

Congressman Lynch consistently states that when a rash of teen suicides hit South Boston throughout the 1990s--specifically most of them relating to heroin and Oxycontin abuse--he aided in the creation of Cushing House, which is a well-utilized facility for drug rehabilitation directly targeting teenagers. Furthermore, Congressman Lynch’s involvement with the launching of a charter school in South Boston deserves the high ranking it receives when Congressman Lynch ranks his career accomplishments. The charter school, now called Boston Collegiate Charter School, has helped provide top-quality education to students who otherwise would not have had access to that level of education. These two accomplishments--the creation of Cushing House and BCCS--have had a direct, positive impact on the congressman’s community and because of that, he’s very proud of them.

How do you think the Olympics can fit into South Boston?

 He likes the idea of having the Olympics in Boston and specifically said that he has a concern with one of the fourth pre identified construction sites in the Waterfront, which includes the 10,000 dorms in UMass and he said it would be a great idea because then the dorms will pass to the students in the University. The other site he agrees on is the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, and the Boston Harbor for sailing. The only site he did not agree on was the temporary stadium in Widett Circle because he said that there is a meat factory and the workers would be displaced. A 60,000 stadium cannot be temporary and it will end up being a permanent stadium.

On a more serious note, what is the Federal government going to do about the rampant heroin epidemic that is ravaging the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the Northeast as a whole? CBS news reported on April 1st (http://boston.cbslocal.com/2015/04/01/217-suspected-massachusetts-heroin-overdose-deaths-this-year/) that in the first 3 months of 2015 the Commonwealth had 217 confirmed overdose deaths, and that is excluding the state’s three largest cities of Boston, Worcester, and Springfield. Surely the gruesome toll is nearly 400 or more. Is this number acceptable?

The Congressman is quite concerned with the drug epidemic sweeping through the communities of his district and his state, and he advocates a multi-faceted approach to tackle the root of the problem. First and foremost he feels that education is the key and that we need to educate everybody about the dangers of these drugs. Students, parents, teachers, medical professionals educate everybody, hopefully if the population more fully understands opiate addiction then less at risk individuals will develop an opiate addiction. The second prong of the Congressman’s approach is to develop treatment programs to act as a “safety net” for those who fall through the cracks and develop an addiction. Whether through the utilization of medications such as suboxone and methadone, therapy, or residential treatment programs there needs to be something to support the people who were missed in the first wave to educate. The third phase of Congressman Lynch’s solution is diversion, whether it be the diversion of petty drug offenders into programs such as the Total Immersion Project, where they learn life skills instead of going to prison where they are inadvertently transformed from a sick person, a drug addict, into a hardened criminal with a full repertoire of criminal skills. Lastly there is taking up the fight with the producers of these drugs. Congressman Lynch has fought with the pharmaceuticals industry for the better part of the past decade trying to ban drugs such as oxycontin, however the industries large and well funded lobby ever-present on capitol hill has proven to be a powerful adversary and profits continue to soar to record highs.