The people of Northampton shouldn’t be belittled as naïve for urging the city to adequately fund schools. That’s why I was surprised to hear two School Committee members mention “some people” as believing the city had a hidden “pot of gold.” And recently, a city councilor referred to an adequate budget as “rainbows and unicorns.”

Proponents of an adequate budget aren’t leprechauns ignorant of “the realities” that the “adults in the room” need to keep lecturing them about with sighs and barely concealed eye rolls. They are advocates, willing to question the assumptions, the pieties, and the politics behind “the realities.”

Don’t schools teach children about brave people who persisted even when they were told “no?” Or maybe this sort of class will need to be cut and replaced with “Teach Yourself Reading, First Grader,” and “Math, Schmath, Why a Phone Calculator Is All You Need.”

And isn’t Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra, just like us “leprechauns,” going to be a persistent advocate for our city when she asks Smith College for a more meaningful contribution to Northampton? Certainly, she’s prepared to do whatever it takes to get desperately needed funding for our schools. Maybe she’ll need to (gently) challenge their “financial realities,” or invite them to “live their values.”

And when she hears, “Mayor, we wish we had a pot of gold to help your students, but we just don’t,” she’s definitely not going to slink away murmuring “thanks anyway.” She’s going to “fight” for resources, just in nicer clothes and using PowerPoint instead of homemade signs. It may not work out perfectly for her, (or for the leprechauns) but no one should be criticized for being persistent. Because that’s what people do when they absolutely need to find gold.

Cathy McNally

Northampton