The View From Prospect Hill for October 5

Patronage has suddenly become a naughty word in this city. It detracts from the growth of Somerville, places unqualified political hacks in leadership positions and lines the pockets of undeserving citizens. At least that is what people say when you dare to utter the dreaded nine letter word.
Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone has repeatedly been criticized for handing over the reins of Assembly Square development to the people who ran his first mayoral campaign. Critics say such patronage is holding the city back from becoming a world class destination. 
But this new movement to discredit the so-called spoils system is the mist which rises skyward before one’s eyes and while it may become thick enough to make a cloud and look scarlet and silver and gilt edged in the sunlight, it will yet be the cloud to blind good political vision.
That means the observer who says patronage has no place in politics is a Jonah, or an abandoned dog without parents which will cry for a while and then die. It means we count ourselves too smart to associate with ’em.
Honest we’d rather be the minor league branch of a mediocre newspaper company – put that on record! – than associate with anyone who doesn’t understand the virtues and goodwill that make up the foundations of patronage. We strain to understand the citizen who chooses to stand for nothing but a dream, a regular dewy mist.
Rise above the mist and look for the earth. You can see it but keep on looking. The sun comes out and drives the mist away and you see the solid bedrock of Democracy and the sands of patronage sticking close to the ground. That’s where you will see us, with feet firmly planted to the earth waving away the clouds of the dreamers.