Hijacked Format

Hijacked Format


It sounds as if Patricia Wild has never been to a town meeting. (Wild: "Stand up, speak out (but maybe not for so long?)" Cambridge Chronicle/Somerville Journal, April 6, 2006) Arlington and Lexington still use the town meeting format for their legislative governmental division. Contrary to the misuse of that notion by the ACLU, politicians, and Wild's observations, Town Meeting is run according to Robert's Rules of Order. John Worden is the Arlington Town Moderator who is elected to run the Town Meetings.
Democracy is anything but chaotic in Cambridge. The current third-term Mayor, a liberal Democrat, enforces only one rule, the three minute public comment rule. People can comment only on items on the agenda. Mayor Reeves cuts off public comment of protected speech by persons whose speech he dislikes.
Wild, a cheerleader for the former Somerville Mayor, reports that U.S. Rep. Capuano fights for constitutional rights. Huh? Democrats attack Bush for every abuse. But Capuano remains silent about the greatest abuses -- 19 known and 20 more suspected homicides by FBI agents in his district.
Appearing on CCTV Capuano stated his goal as U.S. Rep. was to get seniority. That requires doing as little as possible so as not to offend anyone.
If spying is an issue there is more surveillance by city and state police than by the FBI or Homeland Security. In Massachusetts the police are run by liberal Democrats. Jarrett Barrios is the Chairman of the State Public Safety Committee. What bill has he introduced to curb abuses by police? He boasts of his Homeland Security experience. Does Bush control what the state legislature does?
Would Democrats abuse the right to privacy? Did Robert Kennedy authorize placing a bug under the bed of Martin Luther King so that J. Edgar Hoover would not reveal John Kennedy's sexual exploits in the White House? Is the Pope Catholic?
Limousine liberal columnists and the ACLU present selective facts. They ignore all of the abuses by Democrats and talk only about the evil the Republicans do. Is it any wonder why so few people read newspapers and why fewer vote? Why not get real or start paying attention?
--
Roy Bercaw, Editor ENOUGH ROOM

Wild: Stand up, speak out (but maybe not for so long?)
Cambridge Chronicle/Somerville Journal
By Patricia Wild
Thursday, April 6, 2006

One of the unexpected joys of being a library trustee is attending statewide
events and spending time with my counterparts from all over Massachusetts, most
of whom hail from the Bay State's smaller communities. Often, when talking to
small town trustees, the subject of town meetings comes up. As in "At our
PowerPoint presentation about the library at town meeting last year ..." Hearing
about these town meetings, especially when library trustees convinced their
communities to change something, do something new and exciting, to spend more
money on library services, I must admit to a certain envy: How authentically New
England. What a great way for a community to collectively make decisions.
So when I received an e-mail inviting me to an "Emergency Town Meeting,"
even though it was to be held in Cambridge, I decided to go. After all, the
featured speaker for this gathering, sponsored by the American Civil Liberties
Union of Massachusetts, was none other than Somerville's very own Congressman,
Mike Capuano. Held at the First Church (Congregational) on Garden Street, the
March 27 town meeting was attended by more than 250 gray-haired, sensible-shoed,
outspoken, activist types. They'd come to this emergency town meeting to talk
about domestic spying, torture, Bush's presidential powers, real and perceived;
restoration of the rule of law. Most of the crowd was old enough to remember the
McCarthy Witch Hunt, Watergate and the Iran/Contra Scandal; they were "mad as
hell and not taking it any more."
Just like a real town meeting (or so I imagine), the March 27 affair was
sweetly chaotic: The microphones didn't work. Technica l dif ficulties meant that
a planned video couldn't be shown; the ACLU organizers had to revamp the program
at the last minute. People kept interrupting or shouted out criticisms: "This is
boring!" one silver-haired woman yelled during the panel discussion. During the
question-and-answer period, a long line formed behind a functional mike; anyone
could speak for as long as he or she wanted. So the crowd was occasionally
subjected to long-winded harangues or off-the-wall comments or rambling
speeches. [...]
Patricia Wild lives in Somerville and is a regular columnist for the
Chronicle's sister paper the Somerville Journal.