“WHAT HAPPENS TO a dream deferred?” asks Langston Hughes in his timeless poem, Harlem. “Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun; or fester like a sore and then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over—like a sugary sweet. Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode?”
Thousands of frontline workers, patients, and advocates had their dreams dashed, economic security threatened, and their plans for the future interrupted with the closure of Carney Hospital and Nashoba Valley Medical Center on August 31. Now residents wait in bewilderment to see what happens next.
There are a few ways this could go…