Turning Back the Clock

To the Editors of The Crimson:

In your report on the results of the Cambridge City elections ("Keeping the Incumbents," November 15) you included a comment, which I will not dignify by repetition, that has no place in progressive, democratic politics in this city.

Jack Martinelli has a right to his opinions, but no one I respect in city politics is out to break anyone's back or puts people down because of ethnic background or age.

Whether Martinelli, with this ill-advised remark, is practicing pit-bull politics for the Cambridge Civic Association or just for himself, I deplore the comment. There's nothing progressive about it. It turns back the clock to a time when Boston politics was marred by bitter ethnic divisions.

What this city needs to move forward constructively and to get beyond the hollow sloganeering of the 1991 city election is a politics of inclusion grounded on facts. Comments which foment divisiveness between age and ethnic groups help no one and act like sand in the gears of our city's political process. William S. Noble