Left In Lowell

Soon after I came home from the Lowell Folk Festival, I read the Sunday Sun; nice piece by Kathleen Pierce about the participating Armenian organization.

But my pleasure turned to complete anger when I read The Column. The comments made about Mayor Bill Martin are based on an inaccurate rendition of the truth and selective usage of facts.

I am referring to the paragraphs that discussed a meeting that took place at City Hall Chaired by Assistant City Manager T.J. McCarthy; the meeting focused on concerns residents impacted by last year’s flood have.

This is the sentence in question: “Mayor Martin was absent [from the meeting] while working at Donoghue’s 5th District campaign headquarters, according to comments he made on a local radio show.”

First let’s take the Mayor’s comments made on George Anthes’ morning radio program on WCAP. Mayor Martin is on regularly, I think once a month for about an hour. Phone calls came in on downtown’s revitalization and that was the major issue discussed. The Mayor in promoting what is happening in the City, mentioned that on Thursday night he had attended the grand opening of a new establishment in downtown. And then, in an effort to give a nod to Eileen Donoghue’s congressional campaign, he dropped her name by saying that he had been at headquarters before going to the downtown event.

His visit at Eileen’s campaign offices in downtown Lowell went this way: he came in, greeted the volunteers, gave encouraging words to the young staff, made a few selected calls, and then left to carry out his Mayoral duties.

How do I know all that? I heard the radio show, the entire conversation, not just five words; and I was there at Donoghue’s campaign headquarters on Thursday when the Mayor came and left.

CC Rodney Elliott was also taken to task for not being present and not even calling a meeting. Does the Sun really think that CC Elliott does not care about the residents of Pawtucketville? That he does not work hard enough for them? Why, because he does not blow his own horn?

If this was such an important meeting, the Sun should have sent a reporter to cover the event. I must have missed the article because I still do not know what the outstanding issues of the 2007 flood are.

Frankly, the person who really needed to be there was there; Assistant City Manager McCarthy. He was at the center of the City’s relief effort; he is responsible for maintaining and upgrading the infrastructure of this City.

Since the Column believes that this blog is into conspiracy theories and unfounded rumors while they report the truth and nothing but the truth, let me throw this out. The Column’s real concern is not the fate of those residents. No, it was to give CC Elliott and Mayor Martin a cheap shot and by contrast praise CC Bud Caulfield and Rita Mercier.

Why? How about Dan Phelps’ article where the Sun columnist takes CCs Caulfield and Mercier to task for their pettiness towards the Bernie Lynch administration. (And here is the link to Lynne’s post on the Phelps’ column: Phelps Calls Out the Cox Crowd).

Phelps’ column did not sit well with someone working on Dutton Street and so this individual felt the need to be nice to those criticized by his colleague and at the same time trash those who do not practice the fine art of pettiness. Watch out, CCs Kevin Broderick and Jim Milinazzo, you must be next.