Cambridge MA: One-eyed King

Robert Winters is called "The Premier Observer of Cambridge Government."
Americans don't think logically. They do not think politically. Winters is a math instructor. (City Cable TV refers to him as Professor.) He thinks logically. He understands how the proportional voting system works. He is happy to explain it to anyone who will listen.
His web site consists mostly of government information for those unwilling or unable to find it on the city web pages.
He ridicules persons with disabilities. City officials and taxpayer funds address bullying in the schools. But officials ignore bullying by teachers, psychologists, police and politicians.
Winters is a teacher. To persons with disabilities he is an upper class cyber- bully thug. He is admired by academic elitists and self-centered politicians in Cambridge.
Winters says he "learned" about "The Final Report of the Cambridge Neighborhood Safety Task Force." issued on Nov. 19, 2007. [This report is not available online. It is reportedly available at the City Clerk's office.] 50 persons spent 14 months preparing it. Winters did not say that he read the report. At the City Council meeting on December 10, 2007 one councilor explained that some city residents rely on a 9-week city employment program as their only form of employment. It reveals how some residents think, but also what being "The Premier Observer of City Government" means.
For uninformed voters Winters' superficial reporting helps to understand one city issue. To some upper class residents of Cambridge, many of whom have PhD.s, Winters is the most informed. But he is an apologist for the sorry state of local government. He seldom criticizes what goes on. He sees no corruption, and has mild opinions of misguided acts of the city officials.
He never criticizes police abuses and ridicules persons with disabilities. For Cambridge he is the One-eyed King in the Land of the Blind.
"[V]oters don't want the truth; they want to be flattered and made to feel good. [. . .] To tell [them] the truth is risky, for [they are] unlikely to welcome news that [they] are being cheated and [have] colluded by [their] stupidity and indolence." (David Slavitt, Blue State Blues, page 82) For the Cambridge voters Robert Winters provides more than enough for them to understand.
Here is the link to my letter, a different perspective, to the City Council about "The Final Report of the Cambridge Neighborhood Safety Task Force."
http://tinyurl.com/28846n

Jan 14 2007 Roy Bercaw Speaks to Cambridge MA City Council

"Due to the writer's strike, I had to write my own material," Roy Bercaw said speaking as the Founder of the Mid Cambridge Emergency Committee to Ban Heterosexual Male Persons of No Color, and to prohibit them from voting and from running for elected office. Bercaw reminds the Council that the Council in December declared that the Cambridge Chronicle was not a real newspaper. He asked why the Council wants to put announcements in a "non real paper."

Why Don't People Vote?

During a panel discussion on December 12, 2007 at the City Cable TV office, three Cambridge MA politicians lament the low voter turnout. Lovell Dyett reveals he was elected to the School Committee. Sandra Graham was a City Councilor and a State Rep. Robert Winters ran for City Council and for Election Commission.
No politician ever raises the possibility that they are the reason for low voter interest. None of these pols did. Voting is the least amount of effort a citizen can make to participate. They don't even need any knowledge of the candidates or the issues. All they have to do is show up or send a ballot to the election commission.
In December 2007 newly elected Cambridge City Councilor Sam Seidel appeared on Harvard Student Ben Eisler's "Inside City Hall" CCTV show. He referred to CCTV and to Robert Winters as NGOs (Non Governmental Organizations). As Bill Clinton said, "Give me a break."
Does Seidel know that CCTV gets $850,000 per year in City money? Is he aware that Robert Winters works for and is protected by a police agency? Or is Seidel intentionally misleading the voters? It is bad enough if he holds misguided opinions and misuses words. But if he deceives that is worse. In either case it is one small example of why voters reach a limit of being offended by politicians and stop paying attention and stop voting.

Robert Winter's New Year's Prediction for Cambridge MA

Robert Winters appeared on Cambridge City Cable TV with former City Councilor and State Rep. Sandra Graham and WBZ radio host Lovell Dyett for three panels in December 2007. They discussed the City of Cambridge. Among the remarkable comments on those shows, Winters made the prediction that the City Council will become more of an advisory body. He indicates that he shares Walter Lippman's view of government, where elitist managers run the government and tell the unwashed what they need to do. This is Harvard's view of government as well. Currently the Cambridge City Council is a weak group of spineless politicians with little knowledge of how the city government works. They defer to the city manager and his appointees.
Under MA state law the Council is supposed to set policy and hire the 25-year serving Manager. This power hungry Manager sets policy and tells the Council what he will and will not do. They are unable to assert their statutory power to reign him in. Winters would make the upside down version of state law permanent shutting out the voters from having any influence on what the city does. Winters refuses to identify which police agency he works for -- the Cambridge police, the Harvard University police, or the FBI. His abuse of police power is obfuscated by the newest City Councilor, Sam Seidel who referred to Winters as a Non Governmental Organization. Since when have the police become a non governmental agency?