A Wrap-up of Day Two

Sunday closed with a general assembly where members of the Executive Board and the Department Commander of the American Legion visited with Boys State, and a welcoming address was provided by Fr. Mark Cregan, President of Stonehill College.

While Saturday is a day where Boys Staters are eased into the program, Sunday - day two - is where students get elbow-deep into Boys State business, as the Sunday schedule may reflect.

Cities and towns began the day in municipal meeting, where candidates for municipal offices (moderator and selectmen in towns; mayor and city council in cities) asked their town and citymates to sign nomination papers. Candidates who were able to obtain enough signatures were placed on a ballot for voting later in the day.

Following the early municipal meeting, Boys Staters broke into their party caucus, where each county delegation nominated candidates for State Constitutional office,and United States Senate. Caucuses then broke down further into municipal delegations, where candidates where nominated for House of Representatives and State Senate.

Later in the morning, Boys State heard General Education lectures about municipal government. Boys State towns listened to Charles Stevens, Boys State 1984. "Chuck" is a former West Boylston selectman and presently works as an attorney. Citizens of cities listened to our own Lawrence DiCara. Larry still holds the distinction of being the youngest person ever elected to the Boston City Council. He is now a partner with the law firm of Nixon Peabody, and has returned to Boys State each year since 1966.

After lunch, municipalities reconvene. Ballots having been printed, each candidate for municipal office gave a speech to his city or town and voting took place immediately thereafter. Once all the votes were tallied by election officials, city and town governments were installed, counselors step back, and the business of building and operating a municipality began for each Boys Stater.

Sunday was also the first day of elective courses - law, government, and economics. In the law class, Boys Staters heard an historical context for the Bill of Rights, and how that body of law came into being - part of the groundwork for classes later in the week. On Monday, the law class will be introduced to criminal law, while the economics class will begin its stock market game, and the government class will hear from Mr. DiCara drawing from his many years in politics and government.



After recreation period, Nationalist and Federalist party conventions convened and heard speeches from candidates for attorney general, auditor, secretary of state, and treasurer. Speeches for governor, lt. governor, and U.S. Senate will be presented on Monday, and pre-primary voting will take place immediately after breakfast on Tuesday morning.

The days was capped-off with a general assembly and then a break from the schedule, giving students an opportunity to watch the Celtics-Lakers games.