Senator Eldridge Honors the Legacy of Margaret Miley
Longtime neighbor and advocate remembered for her role in advancing economic justice policies and strengthening the South Acton community
From Senator Eldridge’s speech at Margaret Miley’s Celebration of Life on August 16th:
I want to say to how deeply saddened I am about Margaret’s passing. I am grateful to Margaret, and the Miley - Shanley family, for asking me to say a few words today. My heart continues to go out to Harry, Colin and Fiona, to Margeret’s siblings and their families, her close friends, and particularly the South Acton Martin - Maple neighborhood and residents.
Margaret wanted me to talk about her work, and our work together. For me, Margaret was this amazing combination of being a mentor on asset development policy, a strong partner on moving legislation forward to help low-income families, and her amazing brainpower fueling a broad movement about getting government back to helping working people. And for those not as familiar, the asset development movement is basically the belief that the main problem that poor people have has nothing to do with culture or values, but rather simply that they do not have enough money. It’s a growing national movement that by giving poor people more money, that they will make the right decisions, and prosper.
However, before I ever knew anything about asset development, I knew Margaret Miley as a neighbor down the street, as a strong voice and gatherer for the people of South Acton. Now I know today it may sound a little silly to think of South Acton as being anything more than a particular part of a fairly well-off town. But growing up in South Acton on Stow Street a few decades ago, there was a sense that South Acton, being a bit more rural, with more modest homes and apartments, technically being on the “wrong side of the tracks,” was an often overlooked neighborhood. With the summer gatherings at her and Harry’s home on Maple Street, Margaret was a convener, and an organizer. She was someone who saw that until the residents of South Acton became more organized, the status quo would remain. Alongside other South Acton residents, but perhaps a bit more strategically, Margaret was part of successful battles for the neighborhood finally getting a sewer system, greater investments in the roads, sidewalks, rail trails and waterways in South Acton, and the epic battle for a new South Acton train station that saw the community beat the odds and persuade the MBTA to accept the neighborhood’s vision for the station.
Margaret did all of those things not just with a pragmatic set of actions, but with joy, and love for her community. A summer potluck in the Miley - Shanley yard, a neighborhood coffee in their house, or a fundraiser was always a lot of fun. It was those values - community organizing, telling people’s stories, lifting up the important facts, and knowing when and where to apply political pressure - that was the essence of what Margaret brought to any movement for progress. And you could tell how Margaret took pure joy in fighting for the underdog, with the firm belief that if people were organized, they could make a difference. At the State House, it’s remarkable how easy it is to arrive on Beacon Hill as a legislator, and not know exactly how to move forward. Fortunately, early in my career as a State Representative, I received a call from Margaret about a bill idea - to create an Asset Development Commission. It didn’t seem like a revolutionary idea, but I should have known that Margaret already had a vision for how this commission could dramatically change lives.
A simple fact - that almost 40% of Massachusetts residents are a month’s salary away from not being able to pay household bills, go to the doctor, or put food on the table - was the foundation for which a group of dedicated anti-poverty advocates developed policies to help low and moderate income families acquire the assets so that when times were tough, they would not fall into losing their homes, face bankruptcy, or suffer from financial distress. As the founder and director of the MIDAS Collaborative, Margaret was already supporting non-profits, housing authorities, and community organizations finding ways to match working families’ savings, providing financial stability. With these matched savings, families were able to buy their first home, start a small business, or send their kids to college. When the Legislature passed the bill and established the Asset Development Commission, Margaret wasn’t just a commission member - but a driver behind the commission’s work. Using her skills as an organizer, an economist, and her fierce sense of urgency, Margaret worked to shine a light on the economic injustices deeply born into American society that we needed to eradicate.
It is often said on Beacon Hill that the Legislature creates commissions instead of creating the change. But the Asset Development Commission did not collect dust on some State House office shelf. The commission’s recommendations - expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit, eliminating asset limits for poor people, bringing financial literacy into the schools, and establishing matched savings accounts - all became law over the past several years. The commission was no doubt an incredible group effort by just the right stakeholders to move legislators to embrace these policy recommendations. But it was Margaret’s unique skills that took a 100-page 2009 report and transformed it into a living document that has helped lift up hundreds of thousands of Massachusetts residents from poverty, increase their financial independence, and give them hope that their children could do better than they had. It’s still a report that is cited, and that policymakers rely upon today.
Having firmly established the MIDAS Collaborative, and beginning to face her first health challenge, Margaret joined the Cooperative Development Institute, a nonprofit agency supporting the establishment and operation of consumer- and employee-owned businesses and housing throughout New England. Using that same set of skills and determination, Margaret quickly became part of CDI’s growing footprint in New England. One of the projects that I worked with CDI and Margaret on was the 10-year effort to open the Assabet Co-Op Market in Maynard - only the second food co-op existing at the time. Margaret was also instrumental in helping the tenants of mobile home parks across Massachusetts buy their often neglected property from absentee landlords, and run the housing communities themselves, including a mobile home park in my district. To see the pride in my constituents’ faces, to no longer be subject to annual rent increases, now being able to make improvements in their little community, decided by themselves, democratically, was incredibly powerful.
As Margaret wrote in a CDI Op-ED a few years ago, co-ops were having a moment - a growing people-powered movement to bring a greater sense of little d democracy into businesses and housing, not to mention greater affordability and community control. Today in the Legislature, I have several bills pending around supporting housing cooperatives that would not exist if not for Margaret’s wisdom, guidance, and bright ideas. Anyone engaged in policy advocacy, in fighting for change in your community, knows that it is often a frustrating, confusing process that takes many years, requiring a strong sense of strategy and commitment, and the right political skills. For helping working families and the poor, the reality is that there are not many advocates for this segment of our society. Margaret was one of the rare people who was fighting for working families, and had all of the skills to make a difference. And the truth is, if you really, really want to create change, it is a full-time, life long, all encompassing, blood sweat and tears battle. Up against corporate power, an economic system that punishes working people for trying to improve their lives, and a society that often blames poor people for their condition, Margaret fought the good fight.
I know that if I was in the trenches facing a tough challenge, whether in South Acton, Beacon Hill, an anti-poverty conference, or even on social media, there was no one I would want more to be by my side than Margaret Miley. I want to close with two quotes that speak to what I will always remember and appreciate about Margaret, and her unique sense of qualities. From Conan O’Brien: “All I ask of you is one thing: please don’t be cynical. I hate cynicism — it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.” And from the 20th century Irish revolutionary, soldier and politician Michael Collins: “It is not to political leaders our people must look, but to themselves. Leaders are but individuals, and individuals are imperfect, liable to error and weakness. The strength of the nation will be the strength of the spirit of the whole people.”
Thank you, Margaret, for caring about a whole swath of people that many people do not think about. For caring so much about your neighborhood. And for taking the love you had for your family and your friends, and sharing it in many struggles for social justice, family stability and a dignified life for all. I miss you very much.”
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