Letters

Free speechifying

Letters to the Boston editor, July 17, 2009

By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | July 15, 2009

How can Dan Kennedy pick a list of people who trample freedom of expression without listing the mayor of Boston? Whether I agree or disagree with Kevin McCrea, Michael Flaherty, or Sam Yoon, I give them all the credit in the world for having the stones to run for mayor — and in the case of Yoon and Flaherty for giving up their “safe” seats in the City Council. Together, with McCrea, they have put in their time, effort, and own money in their chase to unseat the incumbent. It’s bad enough to have a mayor who thinks Dewey Square is named for Huey and Louie’s brother, but for Mayor Stonewall to repeatedly deny these people the right to debate the incumbent because he’s scared to stand, sit, or squat on his record is an utter disgrace. If that’s not trampling on their rights to be heard and a muzzling of their voices, I don’t know what is.

Mike Arnold
Dorchester

Dan Kennedy includes “free-speech stories in New England” compiled by (among other sources) “the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).” The subtitle is in part “a look at the dishonorable enemies of free speech and personal liberty in New England.” Why did this prominent media critic fail to reveal that the ACLU itself is censoring stories, expression, and speech by its own board members?

No recent phenomenon, this year national ACLU board member Wendy Kaminer published Worst Instincts about this multi-year abomination. It is a sign of the times that the ACLU is censoring speech and media critics omit reporting the fact.

Furthermore, in the Boston Police award Kennedy states: “The arrest [of Shepard Fairey] was clearly a publicity stunt, based on old warrants.” This is spinning the facts. Police in most jurisdictions do not chase down suspects for outstanding warrants. When a suspect is stopped by an officer, or if the suspect files a complaint with the police — e.g., they check for outstanding warrants. In this case, Fairey became an object of police attention due to the publicity of the suspect. Clearly this is a deceptive statement by Kennedy.

Roy Bercaw
Cambridge

Signs of the political times
Regarding your article “Asians for Yoon — or Maybe the Other Guy(s)”: I have seen a number of places that used to have one Yoon sign and now have three or four Menino signs. It’s pretty obvious some muscle was put into that. I’ve also noticed a number of Yoon and Flaherty’s signs coming down — and Menino signs put up in their place. Maybe our thin-skinned mayor really can’t stand the heat. It’s obvious he’s not a fan of debates, competition, or criticism.

Jessica Leonard
Boston

Black power
Brooding about whether Barack Obama would have become president if he had been a more “traditionally black candidate,” i.e., a descendant of slaves, is a self-indulgence that trivializes the enormity of what has occurred.
Art dodgers
David S. Bernstein points out some key facts about who voted for Michael Flaherty in “Can Flaherty Woo Yoon?”, but he neglects to mention that, if Sam Yoon had won, he would need the base that voted for Flaherty, and he would also need to woo Flaherty’s support to win the mayor’s seat.
A libertarian's view of the Barstool/Brady child-porn fiasco
Sophisticated First Amendment scholars, lawyers, and media commentators, all of whom are strongly free-speech/free-press supporters, were critical of Coakley for allegedly engaging in a legal bluff — the veiled threat of possible prosecution under the state's child-porn statute — to convince Portnoy to remove the offending and exploitative image from his site.
Tiananmen 2.0?
The presidential election stolen from Mir Hossein Mousavi was not really an election at all. It was a sham, an elaborate beauty contest produced by the Islamist theocracy that holds the real power in Iran. The mullahs pick the candidates and the outcome.
System failure
In the “Talking Politics” column “Mass betrayal,” you attribute our state’s long, sad history of corrupt politicians to the culture of the State House. You’re probably right.
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Nine months ago, on the heels of the Obama-assisted deluge at the polls, political observers anticipated mayoral fever triggering huge voter turnout in the Hub this fall. Now, as the race has so far been a bust, they are downgrading their expectations.
Can Flaherty woo Yoon?
Michael Flaherty, having earned a spot Tuesday on the November ballot, starts his six-week push to the Boston mayoral final with a big problem. He needs Sam Yoon's voters, and to get them he needs Sam Yoon.
Fixing Boston Schools
The race to elect a new mayor of Boston has been in progress for several weeks, and at last there are indications that the candidates are capable of intelligent thought — at least about improving the city's public schools.
Can Sam Yoon win?
Recent elections, as you may have heard, have been about change.
State of the State House coverage
Adam Reilly made an erroneous assumption when he bemoaned the loss of State House news coverage with the downsizing of the Boston Globe . Fortunately, Boston is still a two-newspaper town.
Vote Yoon
Barring supernatural intervention next Tuesday, incumbent Thomas Menino is expected to top the ticket in Boston's four-candidate mayoral preliminary. The final vote will take place November 3.
Less