Last week I went on State View on Quincy Access Television. Mark Crosby and we chatted about what is happening in the Senate, the office, and elsewhere.

Last week I went on Community Chat on Abington Community Access. Host Kevin Tocci and I covered the Governor's budget, what’s recently passed in the Senate, and more.

With Ukraine in the news and on our minds today, I would like to share a story about a new friend I made last spring. Olena was visiting the United States through a program offered by the American Councils for International Education, and for several weeks she worked in my office, attending legislative briefings and advocacy meetings along with staff members. Given the nature of her visit, we all made it a point to discuss state government and policy with her, but the conver

I voted “present” today in the roll call for the election of a Senate President because changes are needed. We have had significantly fewer roll calls, routinely missed deadlines, failed to adopt joint rules, waived rules, passed bills beyond the end of formal sessions with limited opportunities for members to participate fully, and have often been at odds with our partners in the House of Representatives. We have been less transparent and less connected with what the residen

I am humbled and honored to be here with you. I haven’t done this before, so I was not sure what to say, or even how to say it. I googled graduation speeches and learned that it is good to tell a joke, and so I ran that by my wife Jeanne, and she said “Don’t, you’re not funny.” So rather than try to be funny, let me tell you about a few people I have met. A little over two years ago, I was on a Greek Island, about 7 miles off the coast of Turkey, volunteering at the Moria Ref

Sadly, what happened in Georgia is all too predictable, and happens all too often. Some people are full of hate and rage, cut-off from those who could help, and connected more so to those who prod, promote, and exploit that hate and rage. And then there is the easy access to a gun, and that predictable outcome becomes the actual outcome. People die, because they are like those whom some hate and rage against, and because they happen to be in the place where the gun is pointed

Yesterday, the legislature passed S.2963, An Act relative to Justice, Equity and Accountability in Law Enforcement in the Commonwealth. This bill, which addresses issues of racial justice and police reform in Massachusetts, has been negotiated in Conference Committee for the past four months and reflects a compromise between previously passed House and Senate versions. I believe that the text of Senate Bill 2963 is a step forward for our state, for our communities of color, a

Thank you to all those who reached out about Senate Bill 2800, the Reform, Shift + Build Act. This bill has prompted many necessary discussions about racial justice and the role of law enforcement in the Commonwealth, including communications from hundreds of constituents. I appreciate the numerous and productive conversations I’ve had over the past week, which have reinforced the deeply personal aspects of this bill.  Let me first state that I truly appreciate the work done

One day a while ago while having lunch in Quincy, I barely noticed at first the diversity of the people eating at the restaurant. When I did notice, I marveled at it. I thought how far we have come since the Quincy of my youth. I remember in the mid-1970s, new classmates at my elementary school. They were part of what was known as “white flight”, i.e. white people fleeing Boston because of the integration of the public schools, because of busing. I saw the terrible images on

As I filmed short videos a few weeks ago for remote Memorial Day ceremonies, I talked about how I hoped we would look back at this Memorial Day, which came while we were in the grip of a pandemic, and see it as the time when elected officials put politics aside, and as a time when all of us came together as a Nation and truly honored those that had paid the ultimate sacrifice for our country. After filming those videos, those messages of hope, I heard the Majority Leader of

Last week the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, Mitch McConnell, said that President Obama “should’ve kept his mouth shut,” and that he was “classless” in speaking out. President Trump tweeted that Mitt Romney, a United States Senator, former Governor of Massachusetts, and former Republican presidential nominee, was a “LOSER!”. Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, called President Trump, “morbidly obese,” knowing it would bother him.

I wrote the below after walking through Boston seven years ago, two days after the Boston Marathon bombings. I walked through Boston a couple of weeks ago late one evening, escaping the constant news of the coronavirus. Finding myself all alone on the streets of the City was eerie, but as I walked I felt the same sense of hope and pride in the people of Boston, and in those all across the Commonwealth, as I had seven years ago. “My Boston” 4/17/13 I have held back from speaki

And He Danced Again. I welcomed 2020 at the Kara Tepe Refugee Camp in Moria, on the island of Lesbos, in Greece, within eye’s sight of Turkey. I was in a yurt with other volunteers from Movement on the Ground, and with residents of the Camp. I remembered the previous New Year’s Eve, when I had joined volunteers and residents at Kara Tepe to cook a makeshift soup. I remembered a young man who danced in the cramped kitchen with his friends, and danced later in the yurt as the N

I am not exactly sure what it’s called. I am not even sure how to spell it. My wife calls it a shmuta. In our family, it is the satin-like edge to a childhood blanket, worn from years of being twisted by and run between the fingers of one of my sons. I remember once vacuuming my son’s room, sucking up a piece of cloth from under his bed. It was one of his shmutas. I unwound it from the vacuum head, and put the dirty thing in the barrel, later that night telling my son what ha

Three Kings Three Kings of the Hill, The Olive Grove, Moria Refugee Camp, Lesbos, Greece, January 2020 The dump truck raised its bed, and clean, bright gray gravel spilled into a pile below. The driver lowered the dump bed and drove away. Then they came. Young boys, anxious to climb on the stones, but holding back after being told “no.” Three boys especially eyed the pile of stones. I could tell right away that the smallest was, as my mother would say, “full of it.” “It” bein

I had just finished a 6:00 a.m. Saturday morning census of residents, the last task of my two weeks volunteering at Moria Refugee Camp on the Island of Lesbos, Greece. I paused to take a picture looking out over Zone 6 of the camp, as the sun was first climbing into the sky. It was a beautiful sight. How could there be such a view, I wondered, in a place so often referred to as “Hell on Earth”, the worst refugee camp in the world? I turned to climb the steps and walk away fro

About a year ago I posted the following about a rainy day in the Moria Refugee Camp on the island of Lesbos, Greece: “When the rain let up a bit, we started again distributing the thermal underwear. As I walked up a hill, to my left, I noticed a young woman peeking through the opening of her tent. She cradled a young baby in her arms, and the baby looked like he was breastfeeding. A moment later she raised the baby’s head in her arms, and you could see his round face and big

Whether he is commuting to and from the State House, meeting with constituents in the district, or traveling with his wife and three boys, Senator Keenan always has his camera ready. To see pictures and to check out more photos, follow @senjohnfkeenan on Instagram.

January 2, 2019 After a long day in the Moria Refugee Camp on Lesvos, our group went for dinner at a restaurant in Mytilene. It’s owned by a Syrian refugee who spent time in the Moria Camp. After months, he was able to travel in Greece, and ultimately could have gone to France. He chose to stay on Lesvos and open his Syrian restaurant, the first on the island. He was a doctor in Syria, and his wife and children are still there. After dinner, we were joined by two young men in

I have spent the last week on the island of Lesvos, Greece, working in the Moria and Kara Tepe refugee camps. Below are some reflections and thoughts. Monday, December 31, 2019 We cooked and we danced. As we cooked together, the meal preparation was interrupted several times by spontaneous dance to the Arabic music playing in the narrow, crowded community kitchen. As I helped cleanup, the resident who had spent so much time peeling potatoes and cooking french fries in a pan b