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The votes are in. And Moe is out. Moe probably lost his seat, much earlier, at last year's Town Meeting, trying to defend the Select Board's hiring of two new police officers and more guns. He was offering stability and continuity, when the times called for change. That's when the train left the station.
Today, in order to win a political campaign, the strategy is to Get Out The Vote (GOTV) which is to say, get out YOUR vote, and don't stir up the opposition. Give no visibility to anyone else, by encouraging discussion and debate, for instance. And so, Moe, despite being part of Progressive Needham at the time, was NOT included in their Public Service style Announcements about candidates running for office.
"That's not right!" said Kalpana Shaw, Needham's self-styled "number one volunteer" and a resident of the cluster housing at Linden Street. Kalpana was denied permission by the Lord to put up a political sign for Liz Lee. A day later, Kalpana found a Commissioner of the Housing Authority was helping to organize a "meet and greet" for the benefit of Housing Authority residents and it was to showcase Progressive Needham candidates. The meeting did not include Liz Lee. And it did not include Moe.
"That's not right!" ...for a person with position and power to be so undemocratic, as she said. If you hold an office, you should serve all the people. Kalpana, as an immigrant from Mumbai, has her own ideas about democracy. Kalpana boycotted the "meet and greet" on principle.
I sent notices to Moe and Liz and others. The meeting was public. Anybody could go. Kalpana felt that showing up uninvited would have been offensive. And she has a point. Needham has government by invitation. As a side note, I was not included in Progressive Needham's flyer when I had papers for signatures for Housing Authority Commissioner. When I realized nobody had invited me to run, I think that's when I quit.
Instead, because the issues are still here, I started a news letter.
