Where are the Democrats?

I feel compelled to comment further on the recent confounding statement made by Mike Hugo, purportedly on behalf of Framingham’s Democrats, at our most recent city council meeting.  

I have made public statements I regret or could have articulated better.  We all have.  Public speaking can be frightening in the present day as it is easy to make a misstatement.   In our very politically correct world, a phrase or a metaphor that used to be acceptable sometimes is no longer.   Make a mistake and there is plenty of accountability to be had.  Even honest mistakes can cause significant consequences.

 

Mr. Hugo, sent an email to the Council members late in the evening of our meeting, saying he had misspoken.  Puzzlingly, he said that the time limit of one minute for remarks, instituted by the chairman, was the reason for him misspeaking.  This was confusing as he had emailed us the full statement that morning, and the offending passages were in that statement.  There was no explanation of how such a thought got in there in the first place.  He promises to address it at our next meeting.  I will look forward to his presence on the 28^th of this month to gain further understanding.

 

The worst part is, it really was not his own statement, as he specifically stated he was making it on behalf of the Framingham Democratic Committee. He also sent an email to the Democratic Committee, apologizing for his statement but in that email, he said, “ I am sure that I will get plenty of attention from the usual haters and social media commentators”. When you are making major public statements on behalf of others, and make outrageous remarks,  you have to accept you will get negative feedback.  Deflecting not yet received feedback as coming from “haters” casts into doubt the sincerity of the regret the email was expressing.

 

After scratching my head about how such a statement could ever be made, I also ponder the absolute silence from the Democratic Committee.   The group is often one that seems proud to hold people accountable for their positions and actions, but they seem quite reluctant to self-reflect in this instance.  How can the Committee fail to issue a statement disassociating themselves from the statement of their chairman who explicitly stated it was made in their name?  Why has there been no formal repudiation of the statement made on behalf of the Committee?

 

I am not currently on the committee; I have been a member and chairman in the past.  As a Democrat, as a former chairman, and as a citizen I am as disappointed in their lack of response, as I am with Mr. Hugo’s selective and limited “apology."