Letters to the Editor

The Eyes of the World on Our Sleepy Little Town

Dear Editor,

It all began with a few helicopters’ urgent thup-thup-thupping a few hundred feet above my home, taking turns, hovering back and forth over the eastern end of Winthrop. Over what, though? Usually helicopters signal that the beach is being scanned because of a boating accident or a missing swimmer.

But there was something oddly different this time. The commotion overhead didn’t fade away after an hour or so; no, a determined group of choppers seemed to keep vigil, rotating in turn above something, something ominous, presumably for the five and six o’clock local TV newscasts…

Big news spreads like wildfire of course, especially news of this magnitude, and especially in a small town in the age of social media. So I soon found out about the truck (astonishingly embedded in what I remembered as a sub shop from my youth), the gunman, and three dead people. Others were hurt as well, in a car that was hit by that truck barreling down Shirley Street at twice the speed limit.

Slowly the pieces came together in multiple news reports and press conferences. I could now construct a picture in my mind’s eye, in slow motion and with vivid detail, even though I was many blocks away from the epicenter. I pictured Bolster’s, Shirley Street, people out walking, happy, finally free of masks and all things COVID. And best of all it was summer, and that part of the summer where school usually lets out for ten glorious weeks. Liberation. Exhalation.

And then, when time couldn’t stand anymore still, out of the mad void, roaring at the stillness, comes that Rapid Flow box truck.

Who would do this?! That’s what flashes through your head, a primal violation. I immediately formed a mental picture of an outsider. I think that’s what growing up and living in Winthrop does to you; when we were kids even East Boston was almost a foreign country in our peninsula that feels like an island.

Everybody seemed to be in shock that the turbulence of our times hit our placid little hometown on that innocent, lazy Saturday afternoon. Hit hard.

And now I was reading about it in accounts local, national and international. The BBC wrote, “Allen walked through a marsh to a garage in the city of Winthrop where he stole a plumber’s lorry. He crashed the vehicle into an unoccupied home.”

That’s our marsh they’re talking about! And though we’re technically a city with our town council, we still choose to be called a town. There’s something fascinating about seeing yourself through the lens of another. A Lorry? A truck with an English accent.

I also read that we’re “close-knit,” “seaside,” “working class”… All those adjectives that add up to us, as defined by them. Yes, we’re definitely under a microscope this week, our erstwhile happy little town. The “Eye of Sauron” if you like…

But if you flip that over, that sense of collective voyeurism, there’s another feeling. It’s compassion and empathy from beyond. That’s what’s settling in with me now anyway. More eyes on this thing. The disturbing, fresh hell of this thing, Allen’s own white supremacist writings and his decision to execute blacks and not whites.

I know that I wish this man hadn’t lived among us. I resent that. I really do. That kind of hatred is savage to me, and acting on that kind of hatred is unspeakably evil. Unspeakably evil. And yet, there he was, with his freshly minted Ph.D and his condo on the marsh, lurking in the shadows…

Also, blessedly, living among us was U.S. Air Force veteran Staff Sargent Ramona Cooper. Ms. Cooper, who leaves behind an identical twin sister, a son, and two grandchildren, was crossing Shirley Street near Expert Auto, a half mile from her home, when she was shot three times in the back. Just like that, a sacrificial lamb in this wounded world.

Ms. Cooper moved to an apartment she loved with an ocean view on Shore Drive a year or two ago, next to Café Rosetti, and she loved the smell of garlic that drifted through her windows. A lifelong public servant, she talked endlessly about her work with veterans at the VA Medical Center in Jamaica Plain.

Also living among us for all of his 68 years was retired Massachusetts State Police Trooper David L. Green. State Police Col. Christopher Mason summed up Green like this: “Trooper Green was widely respected and well-liked by his fellow Troopers, several of whom yesterday described him as a ‘true gentleman’ and always courteous to the public and meticulous in his duties.”

And his lifelong friend from WHS Class of ‘72, Nick Tsiotos, described David Green as “the best humanity had to offer, a man of charity and integrity.” Truly, everything I read about David made me sad that I never knew this man who lived on nearby Beach Road.

I’m proud to share the same hometown with him, though, this textbook definition of a hero. He ran toward the danger. May he rest in the arms of an angel, in God’s perfect love, and may we always remember that Trooper David Green sought to save our very lives in the last moments of his own.

And last but not least, the heroic Winthrop police officer who confronted Allen in a gun battle the likes of which Winthrop has never seen. If not for him, also a veteran like Cooper and Green, who knows how many more may have lain dead on our streets. I do not know his name, but I hope one day to shake his hand.

So I hope those eyes of the world see what we see. Because hate has no home in Winthrop.

Count on it. We do.

Bill Pimentel

Remembering Lives Lost

“My Condolences, to both David Green & Ramona Cooper families and friends may they rest in eternal peace! Black Lives Matter!!”

Love, Krystal Hart

“The WINARC Board and its participants would like to express our condolences to the families of David Green and Ramona Cooper. We hope the support from the Winthrop community can help you in dealing with your grief. We wish the injured police officer a quick recovery.”

WINARC

“Keeping the victims of Saturday’s senseless tragedy in our thoughts and prayers with condolences to their loved ones. In honor of David and Ramona, let’s embrace our neighbors as friends.”

Mary Lou Osborne

Moratorium on Tree Cutting Was Ignored

Dear Editor:

Thank you for publishing the letters to editor re the moratorium. Sadly, our request to accept (or even acknowledge) our moritorium was ignored (despite the 350+ signatories) and the Tree Warden continues to cut down tree after tree in violation of the Massachusetts State Laws and without regard for our increasingly terrible environmental situation…no hearing, no notice to the public, and without response or regard for our FOIA requests for copies of contracts/receipts of tree removal work and a list of trees removed over the past 3 years (although they have provided a list of plantings over the same time period). That said, our citizen’s group has just this week received notice of 3 additional public trees taken without the requisite public notifications, by a tree warden who does not hold the requisite qualifications to make any of these determinations.

Sadly, this is quickly becoming out of our town’s hands as outside authorities are taking notice and will soon be stepping in, while at the same time our town counsel refuses to appoint effective tree committee members (ignoring the 6 new applicants who applied this year and leaving in place the felon-member and other failure-to-act existing members — no plan, missing money, cuttings without state-mandated notice or hearings, nepotism, this list goes on). Here are the addresses of the 3 trees removed outside of state mandated procedures for removal of public trees (MGL Ch. 87):

• 44 Court Road

• 24 Brookfield Road

• Next to 90 Degrees Restaurant

As our Tree graveyard on Kennedy Drive (in back of DPW – picture attached), temperatures climb during this week’s heat wave and our citizens hover under the big Metcalf Square tree during our Community Building event on Saturday, as Boston and Cambridge embark upon major replanting initiatives in the coming months, as our FOIA act requests for a list of felled trees over the past 3 years, receipts of/contracts for the Tree removal work taking place outside of legal processes go ignored, our Tree Warden continues to OK off-book Tree removals to our increasing detriment. 

Our citizens are calling for media attention. Is the Winthrop Transcript the right outlet? Please advise as this is a matter of utmost importance and we are urgently seeking a voice about the harmful acts happening in our town.