Craigie Used the Moderator’s Podium As A Bully Pulpit

A Letter to the Editor from William Cameron:

The defenders of the Town Hall political establishment who recently have posted letters in the Patch must have been at a very different Town Meeting than the one I attended last Monday night. Ms. Craigie used the moderator’s podium as a bully pulpit on more than one occasion during the meeting. For instance, Jim Mamone was speaking from a perspective of getting rid of the trash fee and contrasted with the fact we are paying higher fees for ice time, Jim is a Stoneham Hockey Board Director, he was told to stop because he was not within the 4 corners of the article. Moments later Shelly McNeill, an ally of Craigie, was discussing user fees to squash support for getting rid of the trash fee, and she was allowed to speak freely despite being outside of the 4 corners of the article.

Anyone there could clearly see there was an obvious double standard. Ms. Craigie also showed bias when she applied her arbitrary 3-minute speaking limit to supporters of Article 22 while allowing opponents to go on at length far beyond 3 minutes. This was selective enforcement and a violation of certain town meeting speaker’s freedom speech stifling their First Amendment rights. Perhaps the most damaging misstep of the night was when Ms. Craigie failed to spell out the effect of voting in favour or against Article 22 when the question was called to a vote which left many town meeting attendees that included many seniors confused as to what they were voting on. That was the Moderators responsibility, and she was at best negligent.

Ms. Kulikoski is a newcomer to Stoneham perhaps she hasn’t seen the autocratic manner in which Ms. Craigie operates. It’s her way or the highway. Perhaps she has missed the vicious Facebook posts from Ms. Craigie in an effort to publicly, destroy, discredit, intimidate, and humiliate those who disagree with her or try to hold her accountable. She attacks with a vengeance. For any public elected official this type of behaviour should be an indication of her lack of the tolerance which should be a basic requirement for anyone holding public office. In case you haven’t seen her postings, go to the Real Friends of Stoneham page on which Craigie regularly posts. When challenged by constituents such people are made to feel like the child who is forced to sit alone in the school cafeteria. Unless you play by her rules you, can’t play in the sandbox. Ms. Craigie relishes her role as the Queen Bee of the Stoneham political establishment and zealously guards it from anyone who threatens its hold on Town Hall and the power it wields.

Lastly, Miss Craigie as a school committee member talked a lot about bullying and bullying policy for our children. What she fails to remember is that words don’t mean anything unless our actions back up those words. With all due respect to the authors of these letters, I disagree totally with their defensive perspective.

William Cameron, Mountain View Dr.