On July 17, 2023, I texted you:

I’d like to meet with Jason Sidman as soon as possible.

You and he, I’m told, are friendly.

I went by the grow facility last week, left my card, and haven’t heard from him.

Your quick reply:

I’m friendly with everyone? (followed by a smiling and winking face emoji)

I will try to reach him.

The next day, you texted:

I think he is out of the country. He flies back tomorrow.

On July 19th, you and I meet for coffee.

I tell you all about my idea of opening a cannabis shop with Matthew’s wife’s unused license that it seemed she might have taken money for in exchange for not opening.

I tell you how this business idea will not only disrupt the conventional norms of capitalism by giving away all of its profits away (specifically to those experiencing poverty in Littleton) but also will do right by its employees by always paying twice the prevailing minimum wage.

I also say something along the lines of “With the obscene profits in cannabis, each of the 326 households in town that receives SNAP benefits could receive $10.00 a day every day, 365 days a year. Although an extra $3,650.00 a year might not be much to you and me,”—(Note: this presumptive statement of mine was made well before I had any notion of your entanglements with Jason and David)—“it would be life-changing for those people who live right here in town who don’t have enough to meet their basic needs.”

Then I loaned you one of my several copies of POVERTY, BY AMERICA, which you promised to read and return.

Two weeks later, on August 1st, I texted:

Can you get me into a room with either David Giannetta or Jason Sidman?

If you read my post from yesterday, you know I’m having trouble.

On August 2nd, you texted:

I will work on Jason and David.

Chuck, I had no idea that you and Jason were/are actually friends when I asked you to help me get in touch with him. Naively, I saw you as simply the “go-to guy” for all things cannabis-related in town that came before the Select Board and might be helpful in the effort to abolish poverty for Littletonians.

My impression of you changed on August 3rd, when a member of our shared community who had just read my July 31st post told me this:

Jason and Chuck are friends.

When my husband and I were vacationing with Chuck and Maureen, we all went out on Jason’s boat with him for an afternoon on the water.

This “afternoon on the water” on Sidman’s boat happened after your (uncontested) election to the Select Board in 2015.

This “afternoon on the water” on Sidman’s boat happened after you took an interest in all things cannabis on behalf of the Select Board, and by extension, on behalf of the voters who had no other choice but you in 2015.

This “afternoon on the water” on Sidman’s boat puts you in the unenviable position of spending leisure time around someone with great wealth who, at the time, either wanted to get a lucrative license to grow cannabis in Littleton or had already secured it via his November 3, 2016 HCA with Littleton.

I’m curious, was this “afternoon on the water” an incentive to enter into that HCA or a “thank you.”

Stick or a carrot, Chuck?

TTYS,

Jkb