Brookline VOL 1, NO 4
BROOKLINE’S VOICE
NOVEMBER 1-14, 2016
Photo | Joshua Resnek Traffic clogs Brookline Village at high noon.
No surprises here about who local leaders are voting for By Alexander Culafi
The Voice With Election Day nearly upon us (heck, it’s already happened for some of us), a lot of questions come up for November 8’s final showdown of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. The questions are as endless as they are unanswerable. Of course, “Who’s the better candidate to run this country?” is arguably the most important one, and you may have already answered for yourself. Then again, the most important question might well be, “Who is the lesser evil of two candidates that the American people don’t tend to trust or to admire?” But after that, you might be interested in knowing whom your already-elected officials are voting for. How well do they represent your interests? Well, we called up some people, did a bit of research, and asked. As Brookline is a town, political parties don’t mean so much and endorsements are not often made. Brookline Selectman Neil Wishinsky made an exception. “I fully Support Hillary Clinton,” he said. “I find Donald Trump abhorrent.” What he told me after was slightly more surprising: all of the selectmen are on the Brookline Democratic Town Committee, the town’s organization for Democrats. Ergo, everyone in town government (well nearly everyone who is elected is a Democrat).
“All the other selectmen are on the Democratic Town Committee along with me, so I suspect they’re in kind of the same camp I am,” he said. Joining them? Both of our senators, Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, alongside a slew of individuals in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and of course, President Barack Obama, have all endorsed Clinton and the Democratic slate. For better or worse, this Massachusetts love of Clinton is no surprise. Before even touching on this unique election cycle, few states get bluer than our Bay State. The last election Massachusetts went red for was 1984’s Ronald Reagan/Walter Mondale election. However, that was not a close election; the only places Mondale won were Minnesota (his home state) and Washington D.C. And in a bit of ancient history, when President Nixon ran for his second term in 1972, he lost only one state, and that was Massachusetts. In the middle of this election is Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, who is a Republican. He refuses to openly support either major-party candidate. “The things (Trump) said about women and Muslims and religious freedom, I just can’t support,” Baker said speaking to the press in May. “At the same time, I do believe Secretary Clinton has a huge believability problem.” For the purposes of this story, I wanted to be fair and find as many Donald Trump supporters as I could. In Massachusetts, that wasn’t terribly easy, let alone Brookline (where the selectmen are the only people
worth even getting an endorsement from). The town manager would never give an endorsement, and what’s more, the town manager isn’t supposed to get involved politically. Our State Senator Cynthia Creem (who is running unopposed) has endorsed Clinton, as have Brookline’s State Representatives Michael Moran, Frank Smizik, Jeffrey
Sanchez, and Edward Coppinger. As far as Trump endorsements go, I could find a handful. Former United States Senator Scott Brown endorses Donald Trump. State Representative Keiko Orrall (12th Bristol), who is also National
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Firefighter once again claiming discrimination By Joshua Resnek
The Voice There is an old adage that if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. And so goes the story with Gerald Alston, a Brookline firefighter fired by the Board of Selectmen in early October. Alston was terminated on October 5 after claiming in court that he was the target of retaliation after alleging that a superior accosted him with a racial slur in a voicemail. According to Alston, the voicemail was sent 6 years ago. A Federal lawsuit filed by Alston against Brookline was thrown out in September, as reported in the Boston Globe. However, the judge allowed Alston to file a new complaint.
Alston filed a new complaint in federal court on October 21, according to court records on file in Boston. In this complaint, Alston claims his civil rights were violated by the town, all five current selectmen, three former selectmen, the town’s legal counsel, its human resources director, a town meeting member, and the local firefighters union, according to documents filed with the court. Alston, who is black, was on paid leave until October 2014. He alleged that a white superior officer left a racially-charged message on his voicemail in 2010. In previous proceedings at town hall, Alston claimed to have developed diabetes and cancer. He also claimed to have suffered anxiety, depression, rage, humiliation,
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