For more than 15 years, I have done a weekly commentary on the Cambridge Environment on Cambridge Cable Channel 9 at 6:30 pm on Sundays.
This past Sunday, the show ahead of me, What You Should Know, was devoted entirely to a presentation by convicted Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner.
Councilor Turner told his side of his conviction on criminal charges stemming from his performance of responsibilities related to his office.
That struck me as very close to home, what with the oped I have had published in two installments in the Cambridge Chronicle, the judge and jury finding of reprehensible behavior by the Cambridge City Manager toward Malvina Monteiro, the failure of the Cambridge City Council to do anything other than spend millions defending the Cambridge City Manager, and the pretty much non stop nonsense coming out of the environmentally destructive Cambridge City Council that they are environmental saints.
So off the cuff, I devoted the first half of the show to my analysis of the interrelationships.
I compared the Turner situation to:
1. That of recently deceased and former Cambridge City Councillor William Walsh who was jailed for mortgage fraud charges unrelated to his responsibilities in office, and in which the sentencing judge praised Walsh for his commendable public service.
2. That of the finding of judge and jury in Monteiro v. Cambridge that Cambridge City Manager Robert Healy was “reprehensible” in destroying the life of a Black female department head in retaliation for her filing a civil rights complaint. Case is on appeal.
3. The failure of the Cambridge City Council to meaningfully review the Court’s decision in Monteiro, simply paying millions to defend the City Manager without getting independent legal opinion as to whether the City Manager should be fired.
4. The constant self adulation of the Cambridge City Council calling themselves environmental saints even though they are
A. Involved in massive environmental destruction and
B. Heartless animal abusers as part of a singular bizarre project.
I have waited a long time for the show to directly upload from my computer. It is taking so long, I think there is a serious glitch.
The title is: Ethics in Government: Turner, Walsh, and the Cambridge, MA, USA Government. The URL is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEdoxBEOk1s. It is also posted on the Charles River White Geese page on facebook.
Related YouTube postings are:
On the Monteiro case: City Manager Can be Fired, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeGQtlFSg7k.
On Cambridge’s environmental destructiveness and related: Cambridge, MA: Killing, rape, heartless animal abuse, destruction of park and river, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7r6HY-ndOjo.
Please friend the Charles River White Geese on facebook, where detailed photos and additional information are also available.
Addendum.
This is our 500th blog posting. The email newsletter which preceded this blog got up into a distribution of more than 1300 and ran up to between 400 and 500 editions.
This milestone has a great deal of meaning because this video goes to the heart of perhaps the biggest problem in Cambridge politics and in the ongoing destruction of the environment of the Charles River and of the other wild parts of Cambridge.
