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	Heard in the Halls: Quincy Councilor Concerned Comments Might Leave Kids Crestfallen The Patriot Ledger April 11, 2009 http://www.patriotledger.com/opinions/x1141869427/HEARD-IN-THE-HALLS-Quincy-councilor-concerned-comments-might-leave-kids-crestfallen Quincy councilor concerned comments might leave kids crestfallen QUINCY — Fade to Quincy city council chambers. Monday night meeting. Men in suits are bickering about the best way to predict how much traffic a proposed supermarket would generate. A disagreement ensues over whether “stratifying sub-elements” is really necessary. Riveting dinnertime television. Much more to come: polling places to designate, 2009 political calendar to set, a revision to downtown zoning to discuss. But first, the cameras cut to a light moment: Councilor Kevin Coughlin commends the city’s retiring veterans services director, Hank Bradley, whom he chides for his tireless, costumed dedication to local charities in outfits as Spike the Clown, the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus. Oh no! Coughlin remembers they are live! Christmases could be destroyed. He looks to the public-access camera. “I hope there aren’t any kids watching at home!” he says. Our guess, no. Sound of silence During her final year as a Holbrook selectman, Katherine Connolly missed a lot of meetings. She said it was in protest of the way the board ran things. Her protest apparently extended to Tuesday’s town election. Connolly didn’t show up to vote. And in what we’re sure was a show of unity, throngs of her supporters boycotted the election, too. She finished a distant fourth in a four-candidate field with 123 votes. She had plenty of company. Only 19 percent of Holbrook voters – not quite one in five – cast ballots. And, that was the best turnout among the four area town’s with elections on Tuesday, which included Canton, Randolph and Stoughton. All had contested races for selectmen’s seats. Book ‘Em The reopening of the showpiece main branch of the Milton Public Library has created a lot of buzz around the town, including the loud noise that caused a brief pause in the ribbon-cutting ceremony last Sunday. “And that’s someone going off with one of our books,” chairman of library trustees Gene Boylan explained after the unplanned demonstration of the library’s security system. You can call me Ray During a candidate’s forum Monday night, Milton library trustee candidate Raymond Czwakiel began every one of his one-minute responses by introducing himself. Czwakiel wanted his name to stick in the minds of voters “because mine will be the most difficult to pronounce on the ballot,” he said. And while there is some dispute among the family over the correct pronunciation, you can come pretty close with sway-key-el. Shake it somewhere else Apparently the threat of a burlesque dance troupe moving into the Norfolk Downs section of Quincy has riled up more than just the ward councilor, Brian McNamee. Nick Puleo, a relative newbie on the school committee and a budget and policy guy at the State House, was so unnerved by the prospect that he quickly fired off an email to a Patriot Ledger reporter right after a story appeared about the Boston Babydolls earlier this week. “I've held back for quite some time in regards to your substandard reporting, but I feel your recent story, Oh Baby, can’t go without comment. The positive spin that you give to this group is, quite frankly, disgusting. What happened to journalistic standards?” So this is the straw that broke the camel’s back, eh Nick? Wonder if it was the positively appalling mention of tassles and pasties? Knock, and it shall be opened? That’s what Terry McKiernan and others with BishopAccountability.org were hoping for last week, when they tried to hand-deliver a letter to Cardinal Sean O’Malley. Spurred by New Hampshire’s release of dozens of new files of priests accused of child sex abuse, McKiernan’s group and other victim advocates are asking the Archdiocese to do likewise. So McKiernan and others from BishopAccountability took their letter to the South End rectory where Cardinal O’Malley lives. “We hoped we could catch him on the way out and give it to him,” McKiernan said. “But no such luck.” The groups haven’t gotten a response yet. But to everything there is a time, as it says in Ecclesiastes. Maybe.
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