During the launch party for ONE MELROSE, there were many different messages from the speakers and the supporters present. All Aldermen will be targeted to publicly support putting the Override on the ballot and committ to campaign for its passage before Thanksgiving. If a BOA member does not comply, they will be targeted with an aggressive campaign to block their re-election. The negative plans we overheard for Mike Zwirko and Monica Mederios because they do not have children and Shawn MacMaster whose child attends St. Mary’s School can only be described as dirty politics. ONE MELROSE is $ for the MPS schools and only people who have children who are MPS students count. This dooms passage of the Override.

The small-minded, provincial approach of too many in Melrose is damaging, to say the least. In fact the political Machine in Melrose is anything but fair, and in fact it resembles much of the worst in the Trumpian approach. Transparency is largely something that is only said but not supported. Fair and just treatment of the issues is also just a verbal construct but not what actually takes place. The local pols on both sides behave pretty terribly when looked at with a bright light. Someday history will judge this decade of Melrose governance with the harshness it has earned.

Melrose is anything but "open to all," as the shallow bumper stickers try to convey. One need only look at the shame and disgrace around the OCR violations that came down from the federal government outlining the systemic atmosphere of racial hostility as put forward and fiercely defended by the status quo school committee, board of aldermen, and mayor, in which the ignorant, gullible parent community largely looked the other way and/or deemed it all a tempest in a teapot (mayor/SC), or words "misconstrued" (local temple sisterhood). This was a critically serious mess that epitomizes still all that is bigoted, cynical, and ignorant in the way Melrose society approaches things. "Othering" is the prominent mode. Shunning and bullying are the response to those who dare challenge the status quo, along with heavy doses of looking the other way and stating overtly the fear of rocking the proverbial (hostile, backwards, ignorant) boat.

Melrose fancies itself to be a progressive, friendly, and very desirable community. That works well for realtors (who openly lie about the school system) and the parents who need to feel good about their huge investment. It isn't real or honest, however.