Every campaign is a work in progress and although the progress on the Welty for School Board campaign began well before filing in June I’m pleased. Bear in mind that this school board campaign is also something of a trial run for a later run next year for Congress. Also bear in mind that I have little expectation of winning that race, my fourth Congressional filing, should I plunge into it. It will mostly serve to give me a forum to fight the single greatest threat this nation has faced since World War 2 by running against a Trumplican collaborator garbed in sheep’s skin. It will be against the forces of anti-intellectualism, racial disharmony, economic cretinism and environmental pollution. Each of these by themselves would give me plenty of reason to challenge Congressman Stauber but all four wrapped together look like the Hindenburg landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey.
This might be used against me in the School Board race. Some Trumplicans will ask why am I looking ahead to greater glory instead of concentrating on our children and our schools? Its a legitimate question which I’ll swat away with the truth. If the incumbent wins reelection our District will still be stuck paying off the Red Plan for the next dozen years at a cost of 100 teachers a year. If I’m elected I’ll face the same problems. And I have a duty, as a last remnant of Republican decency, to defend my parents and grandparent’s Republican legacies.
Unlike the incumbent, once “a teacher of principals,” I’ve been giving my lifetime to thinking about public education and how it is the corner stone of our Democracy and how, improbably, it could become more effective with some tweaking. Those are subjects in a book I’m writing to fund my campaign.
At the very least it needs a goad. The incumbent has been the opposite of a goad in his first four years on the Board. He has been utterly satisfied to support an administration which has lost some of its very brightest people. They jumped ship for better posts elsewhere. At the same time the captain of the Duluth Ship failed repeatedly to find new ports of call. He then said he would stay behind the wheel. He then announced he would abandon ship at the end of this school year. The incumbent, (one of the Joint Chiefs) has been content to watch this unfold with nary a complaint.
I don’t consider myself a complainer but I do call’em as I see’em.
So far my campaign has been quiet as I’ve labored to pick up steam as the School year begins. It starts next week. In June my initial fund raising letter to 125 people raised $2,000. Its paid for a much larger mailing that went out on Thursday. If it falls on 2,000 deaf eyes my campaign will stall.
The book accompanying this campaign is about my experiences in public schools. Although I wasn’t much of a teacher I do consider myself a writer. After losing my teaching job in 1987 I began making that ambition a reality. I’ve composed millions of words and have a small, dedicated, but largely anonymous readership. Do I have answers to make our nation tack in a less perilous direction? I hope so. Do I have solutions that will undo some bad financial bets our District made? For our student’s sake I hope so. What I’m not is a rubber stamp.
I will print at least 500 copies of my book no matter what happens. Two hundred book orders at $15 apiece will pay for its printing. But I’ll also need to raise more. So far 42 people have taken me up on my offer. Thursday I emptied my campaign treasury by mailing out 2,000 letters. I still have another 10,000 more voters left to send letters too. Over the next week of checking my PO Box I’ll find out whether I’ll be able to cover additional mailings. I like the letter I wrote but if it doesn’t convince people to buy my book or vote for me you won’t hear me bellowing, “YOU HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO VOTE FOR ME!”
The book isn’t finished yet but I think it will bring smiles to my readers faces just as so many of my snow-sculptures have.
The title? I cribbed it from America’s most famous author.
Don’t worry. Your 401K plans don’t depend upon your purchase.
