There are 40 senate members of the 192nd General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The goals and leadership of one senator, Democrat John Velis, will yield sizable benefits toward furthering Westfield, Mass.’s educational and workforce-related status. His extensive experience in the armed forces and his bipartisan political approach will enact the longevity of growth in the city of Westfield. I had the opportunity to sit down with Senator Velis to learn the story he wants to tell and acquire his perspective on politics in Massachusetts.
Senator Velis is a U.S. state legislator and has been a member of the Democratic party of the Massachusetts Senate since 2020. Moreover, he is currently the Chairman of the Veterans in Federal Affairs Committee, representing 11 districts and towns including Agawam, Mass., Holyoke Mass., and Chicopee Mass. Furthermore, he has a detailed military background, having been deployed to South Korea and Stuttgart, Germany for annual training. From 2012 to 2013, Senator Velis was deployed in Afghanistan, which was under the control of the Taliban insurgency organization and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GERROA).
“I was in Afghanistan with the United States Army,” Senator Velis said, “and during that time period, one of my jobs was to go out in all of these villages and districts and conduct KLEs, key leader engagements, and one of the things that I became intimately aware of is that people literally hated each other and had been killing each other for hundreds of years based on tribal, ethnic, and religious differences. It dawned on me as I was talking to them as a Junior Captain in the Army, I realized that so much of the message that I was saying to them and trying to get them to embrace was something that we cannot even claim back here in America.’’ The KLEs in Afghanistan instigated his desire to run for office in the U.S. and to embrace his bipartisan change.
When Senator Velis first started running for the seat in the Senate, one of the great qualities that he brought to the table was compromise. “When someone knocks on your door and says, ‘I believe both a Democrat and a Republican can come together and can solve problems if they just put aside this gang mentality of our two parties and work together,’ anything is possible,” Senator Velis said boldly. “If I knock on the door of someone whom I consider to be a staunch Republican and when I say that both a Democrat and a Republican are capable of a good idea, they are taken aback by that because they are used to the other party saying they are useless and can offer nothing good, and I would tell them about my experience in Afghanistan of bringing all these people together who have killed what would be their version of the opposite political party.’’
In addition, the most substantial ambition which Senator Velis has been trying to achieve is to disseminate the message that both Republicans and Democrats are capable of wonders if they set their differences aside. “The biggest threat to America is ourselves and our fundamental unwillingness to speak to ‘the other,’” he noted. The “other” that Mr. Velis refers to is the Republican party of the U.S. Therefore, the lack of cooperation between Republicans and Democrats alike has led to issues in workforce development.
“Some of my real big issues are workforce development,” he stated. “We have a skills gap in Massachusetts. We just do not have enough people to fill jobs, and we do not have enough people who possess the requisite skills to fill those jobs.’’ Senator Velis proceeded on how the issues of workforce development can be rectified. “We need to do a much better job in our education system,” he said, “preparing students for what the job market of the next economy is going to look like.’’ He plans to centralize his focus on a miniature economic development bill currently on the table in his city.
Lastly, the nucleus of Senator Velis’s message on how people can become involved on the state-wide level involves supporting the government so that all people can contribute to their nation. “My last deployment to Afghanistan was in 2018, and in Afghanistan, parliamentary elections ended up happening,’’ he began in a serene voice. “I tell this story to people back home who say ‘I am not going to vote, there is no importance to voting, it does not make a difference anyway,’ and one of my jobs was to talk to Afghans about the importance of getting involved and participating in your country.’’
As I listened to Senator Velis speak, I could feel the strain of emotion in his voice. “When we were trying to get all these Afghans to go vote in their parliamentary elections, they would ask us ‘How can I vote if, on my way to the poll, I could get kidnapped? How could I vote when, after I vote, I have to have a piece of ink on my voting finger and maybe get my finger cut off? I could get kidnapped,’’ Senator Velis said, his voice gradually escalating. “And we said, ‘It is the most important thing in the world. We need you to vote so you can participate in your own country. And millions of people in that election went out and voted, even with those risks.’’
Senator Velis’s campaign, his ambitions, and his sovereign philosophy that both a Democrat and Republican can work together to procure benefits toward the nation will greatly benefit the people and the environment of Westfield, Mass. In the end, whether it be through his ample military experience or his bipartisan approach as a politician, Senator John Velis is a leader who guides by example.
