Jane Donahue – The chairman of the Board of Selectmen was well within her legal rights to prohibit the Observer from verbally responding to Cara Ann Winslow’s tirade Tuesday night, but that doesn’t make it right. Whenever a selectman abuses his or her authority by personally attacking an individual from a spot at the selectmen’s table the victim of such an attack should be allowed to respond. Donahue claimed she wasn’t going to allow the meeting to turn into a circus. The Observer had no intention of being disrespectful to the proceedings.
    In the nearly four years the Observer has been in existence no one from this paper has ever interjected themselves into a public meeting in Wareham. We are there to report, not to participate. But when false claims are made against one of us by a sitting selectman then we should be allowed to respond directly and respectfully. Donahue denied the Observer than opportunity. She didn’t even admonish Winslow for her actions. That’s shameful.
    Maybe we’ll start taking her up on the one proposed “media participation” portion of selectmen meetings from now on.

I want to offer Jane a CHEER, despite my personal feelings for her, she has done a fine job of Chairing the meetings and the entire community should thank her for denying a non-resident to engage in a verbal spar with an elected official. It is no secret that she doesn't like Cara, all anyone has to do is watch how she speaks to her, but Jane did the right thing. By the way rag man, the BOS didn't propose the media participation, a former member did, good luck with that. And, when you make false claims you should expect to be called on them. Why would she admonish Winslow? She saw how much you helped her buddies on this last election. I doubt the Donahue household is looking for a repeat performance in 2011.


Cara Ann Winslow – Ask and you shall receive. When a public official is criticized by the media the standard way to respond is by either calling the publisher to complain or by writing a letter to the editor. Not only did Winslow make false claims about the Observer from her bully pulpit during Tuesday night’s selectmen meeting, she didn’t even have the spine to agree to a tape-recorded interview following the meeting.
    That sort of sums up the entire hate blogger mentality: Attack and then refuse to let the victim to defend himself. The Observer had made numerous attempts to contact Winslow in the past. She has refused to respond. Part of sitting in the big chair is being able to handle legitimate criticism. If a public official thinks specific criticism is unfair then there are proper channels in which to voice that opinion. Using parliamentary rules of procedure during a selectmen meeting as a shield is just plain cowardly.

Rag man, if what her husband has told us is true, she neither reads nor cares about a thing you say. What you did wasn't legitimate critisism. You dragged private citizens (Dick, Larry and Cara P) into it, you were unfair to those private citizens and you also tried to make it seem like Jim Maxim wasn't deserving when you claimed he was the brother-in-law of Larry and a political supporter of Cara. Your "cheer" to the MM doesn't undo what you did. You are the coward here.

Walter Cruz – Wow. He really outdid himself this time. During a heated discussion on the roles that volunteer should play on town boards and committees (a discussion Cruz initiated with an absurd plan to limit individuals to two boards each when there are currently 60 openings), there was about a five-minute stretch when the selectman was simply incomprehensible. A majority of those in attendance literally had no idea what he was talking about. Then he presented a letter from an “unnamed board” in support of his position that boards and committees should not recommend appointments to selectmen. After reading it he said, “Now that’s a letter.”
    There was one problem with that. Selectman Brenda Eckstrom quickly pointed out that the letter had been sent by the Library Board of Trustees, which later sent a second letter retracting the first one. Cruz was forced to sheepishly acknowledge his apparent attempt at deception.
    Then it was suggested that a sub-committee be formed of two selectmen and one member of the public to advise the entire board how it should deal with appointments moving forward. Cruz did not reveal that the citizen being recommended had been his campaign manager when he ran for selectmen.
Any questions?

Here is my question, if you want to make the argument that citizens should have the opportunity to serve as volunteers on committees why does it matter if the individual managed someone's campaign? Oh right, you don't like Cruz. The truth is John & Jane managed the campaign. As usual, talking out of two sides of your ugly mug.