After reading about Alderman Emily Norton’s proposal to change the city charter to include the term “alderwomen,” in the Globe Thursday, former alderman and Newton resident John Stewart sent the following email to members of the board yesterday…
I can’t believe you people are spending time on such silliness — but I guess you need some justification for demolition moratoria and inaction on the unchecked proliferation of pot holes.
Pls wake us up when you’ve solved the name problem.
John Stewart
In response, Alderman At Large Greg Schwartz shot back with the following reply to Stewart and cc’d all of his colleagues…
Wow. You sound like such a jerk!
Greg
Jerk is a gender-neutral term, as far as I know. Not that I am proffering that as a solution ;).
The jerk is the one that released an email from a constituent. The President of the Board should investigate and sanction. Sure it’s a public document, but a counsel of the court (a lawyer) isn’t allowed to do it, why should a public representative.
And some parts of Roberts Rules should follow an elect official in their role no matter if they’re in Chamber or at a bar. Sure Rob Ford of Toronto calls people jerks and worse, but this is Newton.
I am sure he was speaking for most of all of his ever so patient colleagues.
@Hoss: You lost me.
You’re mad at Village 14 for posting this, not at Alderman Schwartz, for acting like, well, a jerk?
Agree or not with the Stewart’s perspective, there’s no way we should want our elected officials talking to constituents like that (not to mention that Stewart is someone who has given a lot of himself for this community and deserves a respectful response).
Plus, didn’t anyone ever teach Alderman Schwartz that you should always think twice before sending an email, especially before hitting “reply all”?
Disagree over who’s a jerk or not, but sending that response was certainly not smart.
Greg — No. I like that you posted it. I don’t like that you got it. Just seems to me that any communications we have with a professional that represents us should remain between them and us.
Wow. I can’t imagine Charlie Shapiro, whom Greg Schwartz knocked off the Board, (1) being so ill-informed as not to know who John Stewart is and has been to this city, and (2) addressing a constituent that way, ever. On the positive side, at least Mr. Stewart received a response from Alderman Schwartz, an event rare to the vanishing point in my experience.
Jerk or jerkman? Speaking as a potential constituentress, gynecitizen and femvoter, I share Jon Stewart’s andropinion that the BoA has more important issues to deal with
I hope Mr. Stewart had a good retort to the Alderman, but at the moment the count is Stewart 1, Schwartz 0.
Charlie Shapiro knows very well who John Stewart is. Stewart endorsed Shapiro, in at least two campaigns now. One would imagine that Schwartz knows who Stewart is as well. The note reads a bit differently that way, whether he should have said such things or not. And who hasn’t hit “reply all” by accident?
For those who may not be aware, John Stewart served 3 different times on the BOA and is a highly informed, respected, and outspoken resident of Newton. If John is speaking, odds are it’s worth listening to.
This is one of those situation where the offending party should offer an abject, unconditional public apology and the sooner the better. Then we all move on. I don’t see this type of communications as part of who Greg is, at least in my experience with him.
Hoss – there’s no way of knowing how this email got out. If I’d received it, I can imagine forwarding it to a few friends with a “Can you believe this?!” note in the subject heading. That type of email message was surely going to get past the intended audience.
What Karen said. On point, and amusing at the same time.
Jane — There’s no way of knowing? It’s on a public email server, a simple public records request by any one of us could find out who forwarded it.
Hi all,
My point was not that John Stewart, whom we all know to be an accomplished former alderman and public servant, was a jerk. It was that his minimizing of a debate over how the word might perpetuate gender stereotypes made him sound like a jerk. As the parent of two girls, I don’t think it is a waste to discuss this issue. But, as it turns out, I only ended up making myself sound like a jerk, for which I’ve already apologized to John privately.
Greg
I don’t think dealing with the fact that women holding positions in our town’s government are being called men is a waste of anyone’s time. That perspective in itself is sexist, whether it is held by men or women who for some reason want to be called men. Solving dilemmas such as this one are part and parcel of moving our town toward giving women the respect they are due and playing catch up at that. Changing from being governed by Honorable Aldermen to something like a Town Council is a good idea. Calling them all Councilors or Council Members makes no distinction between our elected officials. As one member said, she is neither old nor a man. I hope the head of a committee is already called the Chair and not the Chairman.
JERK according to Merriam-Webster is “a stupid person or a person who is not well-liked or who treats other people badly”. You decide who was the jerk here…
Marti — In re. chair, take a look at this recent memo (from another thread) and what do you see? http://www.newtonma.gov/civicax/filebank/documents/61528
Greg Reibman — I assume the blog identified “Greg” above as our alderman and he was nice to post, but you do have a rule about full disclosure on names of public officials.
The post from Alderman Schwartz appears to be authentic. I think we’re done here. Time to turn the page.