Paul Harvey died today. He began his career as one of the nation’s best known radio reporters just a few months after I was born.
In 1997 my attempt to put a light hearted spin on tense labor negotiations with Duluth’s teachers was misreported by Mr. Harvey. All America heard his version of the story which our School District immediately corrected. The story was pulled a short time later from the airwaves but not before a local Duluth Station recorded and rebroadcast it.
Years later my wife’s family in Iowa finally got the nerve to ask her if what they had heard about my casting a voodoo curse on Duluth’s teachers was true. No, it wasn’t she assured them. I put a curse on “ill will” in the District then stepped down as chairman of the School Board. Too bad the current school board won’t step aside.
The story still comes out to haunt me periodically. Ralph Doty made hay about it in an effort to defeat me in the last school board election. You can hear the infamous broadcast here on a website devoted to my fanciful recent run for Congress.
