About 30 residents expressed outrage and disdain at the idea of welcoming a Guantanamo Bay detainee to Newton, and tossed around ideas from rehabilitating the city's image to recalling the aldermen responsible for the contentious proposal.
But most of all, they wanted a public hearing and vote on the proposal, instead of seeing it dismissed through parliamentary procedure even as the board seeks to dispose of the item without an up-or-down vote.
``I don't want to see it go away, I want to see people take a position,'' said Robert Cera. ``Cowards walk away. The city raised the issue, I want to see them deal with it.''
Alderman Charlie Shapiro, who opposes the proposal, held the public discussion at City Hall on Friday to get a sense of how residents felt about welcoming Abdul Aziz Naji, a 34-year-old Algerian, to Newton should he be cleared to enter the United States. Naji has been detained as an enemy combatant and alleged to be a member of terrorist group Lashkar al-Tayyibi. Naji has said he worked in a legally operated charitable wing of the organization and he was cleared for release in May 2009 by the President Barack Obama's Guantanamo Detainee Review Task Force.
To a person, speakers were opposed to bringing in ``murderous thugs,'' as Nelson Lipshutz said.
``They want to behead and explode our children, grandchildren, friends and parents and us,'' Lipshutz said to applause.
``There's no reason to give him the freedoms of an American,'' said Alan Waxman, who thought the whole controversy could lower Newton real estate values.
Sallee Lipshutz, Nelson's wife, also said the kerfuffle had tainted Newton’s reputation.
``The blogs have equated Newton with Amherst,'' she said. ``We are painted as moonbats. We have to combat that image.''
And attendees seemed to feel, as one speaker put it, ``wronged'' because the aldermen would consider such a proposal. Helga Lustig, who said she fled Hitler to come to Newton in 1941, said she voted for local officials on the basis of how they would govern the city, not their stance in national matters.
``I'm particularly upset that you think you can represent us on a matter with no input from the Newton public,'' she said. ``There should not be resolutions going from Newton to Washington that suppose we're all on the same page on controversial matters.''
The resolution was docketed by aldermen Stephen Linsky and Ted Hess-Mahan and moved from the board's Programs and Services Committee to the full board by aldermen Linsky, Hess-Mahan, Dick Blazar, John Rice and Amy Sangiolo. Some attendees called for drastic measures - Margot Einstein said everyone who voted for the proposal should be targeted for recall, an assertion that was met with approval by about half the room - but Shapiro said that might be a bit much.
``A more positive look might be better than carrying torches,'' he said.
The board will take up the proposal at its Jan. 19 meeting. And though the attendees at Friday's discussion thought postponing a vote could give them more time to organize opposition to the idea, Board of Aldermen President Scott Lennon said he's urging the co-docketers and the Programs and Services Committee to withdraw their recommendation of the proposal.
If the committee switches its vote from one of ``yes'' to ``no action necessary,'' that would allow the full board to kill the item without voting it up or down. The board could also hold the item for further consideration, but Lennon said that would lead to more consternation and continue to distract the board from other business.
``My sense is that there's a lot of bad feelings as to what happened with this resolution, we need to take action sooner rather than later,'' Lennon said. ``If we hold it, it will continue to fester.''
If the board does vote ``no action necessary,'' its sponsors can always revise it and submit it again, Lennon said. But he said the resolution as it is currently written is a mistake.
``I don't think this resolution was such a fantastic idea,'' Lennon said.
NEWTON —
