The Melrose Community Facebook page has stopped any discussion of the Override. Looks like City and Yes folks are getting the message that voters are not buying what they are selling. Many residents cannot afford it and many others do not trust Melrose politicians and their record of mismanagement. Voting NO !
One of the obnoxious Yes ("One") women came to our door today, shilling for the override and handing out a tacky but obviously expensive (glossy) leaflet (though so poorly produced, with dark image of a child carrying something down the middle of a street, presumably in Melrose). These people don't seem to realize they are not winning voters but in fact doing just the opposite. Their fear-mongering arguments are not intelligent and require suspension of critical thinking ability, supplanting it with zealous unquestioning and utterly undeserved faith in Melrose officials.
Last time around, Jen McA (who led the Yes campaign) embodied it perfectly, truly offensive and ugly in her sanctimonious and aggressive approach. This time around they have used some soft-pedaling consultant-types to make it appear they are open to input from all sides, which is just make-believe. They are open to nothing! Their schtick is the same prescripted nonsense based on false "data" like last time, only seeking many times more money now.
Question: If these closed-minded gullible people have raised enough money to be producing these silly things, why aren't they just giving the money to the schools instead since they are so concerned?
It’s no surprise why they put a Ban on the override talk. Look at who the administrators of the FB group as all of their personal comments in the thread are all pro override. The last few weeks the posts have been heavily anti override with people posting some embarrassing articles regarding BOA and others where Dolan was quoted as stating only two years ago “opening Beebe was not a viable option even if he had all the money in the world.” They don’t like the narrative so they shut the site down to override talk. If they keep the site up for override talk they are easily looking at a 3-1 defeat. The majority of residents know the city’s override playbook well. They use our kids as fodder over the common good to spew gloom and doom about the schools. Their reasoning for shutting the site down for override talk is laughable because there were many post in that group leading up to the 2015 override and they did not shut it down.
Much of the talk in Melrose of late has centered on the upcoming tax override vote, with each side of the debate making their presence known and stating their respective cases to all who will listen.
Tell me about it. A while back I made a post there informing that this site was back up and running. I said nothing offensive or controversial at all. About 5 minutes later I was banned from the site. It's their site and they can do what they want with it, but it's clear what their agenda is.
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It’s their FB group so they can do what they want but their agenda is obvious. Look back to the FB group leading up to the 2015 override it was the same back and forth arguments being repeated. It was obvious the no posts were getting louder. Not sure how long you have lived here, but the community is familiar with city hall’s override playbook. If the material from the override playbook was overwhelmingly rejected last time, why would you come back with the same message. Maybe if the override is defeated by a 2-1 margin this time, the city will bring a different playbook next time maybe in November possibly.
I can't say that this is verbatim, but it's an accurate paraphrasing of the post I made informing MCG that this site was back running. "I saw today that the site formerly called Melrose Messages is up and running again, now called Melrose Cares: Open Community Dialogue."
It's pretty clear to me why my post was removed and I was banned. The site is "owned" by override supporters, and from early on one particular group of people, beginning with and led by the prior Mayor, have been trying to silence it.
What's your explanation, other than they wanted to limit people from knowing it was back up, since it was and still is the only place where opponents of their agenda could comment? All the attempts to silence is what made me start taking a closer look in the first place. It's the action of someone who has something to hide.
The decision by the MCG to stop comments on the Override will backfire. The postings and activity on Melrose Messages is exploding and will only continue. The action to ban Override discussions will not accomplish their goal. The story behind the story on every issue and person always comes to light at the end of the day.
Melrose Messages is needed because of what citizens and politicians allow. Melrose is far from being ONE either “One Community Open to All” or “One Melrose”.