If you are new to this blog welcome. If you are trying to figure out its organization based on today’s posts, Good luck.
For two years this blog has been all Red Plan all the time. I’ve had a couple long absences of several months when my life outside of fighting for my voting rights simply took precedence and I had to set daily blogging aside. In the past few weeks the challenge has been all the hoops I’ve had to jump through. These hoops are spelled out reasonably well if you wish to go back to read through them.
I mention all this for two reasons. FIRST – I began the day with a lot of left over posts waiting their turn to be written but having to be set aside because a lot was going on today that seemed more important to blog about (but I still didn’t have time to do even that) SECOND – I just returned a call from an unnamed message on my cell phone and was asked why I hadn’t called this person before today to consider filing for the school board.
For two months I’ve had so much to do because the School District has made me run around in circles that I’ve only had the time to do those things which had to be done in the next ten minutes. This has been crisis management. If we the taxpayer’s suit couldn’t be continued without $100,000 in 30 days raise $100,000 and do it despite having scheduled two week long family excursions out of town. If the taxpayer’s suit couldn’t continue because the cash had to be converted into a bond convert it into surety bond. If the taxpayer’s suit couldn’t continue because the District demanded that I turn over emails to Gary Glass then go through my 10,000 emails and figure out over a couple days which ones they should get and figure out how to put them on disc. The best way to do this would be to read them all however assume that each one averages at least 100 words and multiply that by 10,000 resulting in 1 million words. So guess by virtue of 10,000 subject headings and the authorship which ones qualify. Find a way to catalogue all 10,000. Get a friend to show you how to print them out, organize them into separate folders then get your son to download software to put the appropriate ones on a disc.
If the School District’s attorneys then take your emails (even though you asked for discovery first which hasn’t been provided) and as a result demands that your attorney be penalized the suit dropped then drop everything and attend the hearing. If the taxpayer’s suit will fail without a new majority and the filing deadline is four hours away with one incumbent school board member facing no certain challenger then get on the phone and call potential challengers.
So when I returned a call to an unnamed phone number and a potential challenger who missed the message because I was a few days late putting out the call asks why I didn’t call earlier…….
For two months the District has bombarded us, me, with so many demands that it has been hard not to drop one of the many balls I’ve been juggling. The fellow I called was interested in running. His name wasn’t recommended until today and I had been too busy with other immediate crises to get a jump on it.
I could have avoided all contact with my family and probably finished this but that would have been a betrayal of the thing that has motivated me in this fight so far. Preserving our community starting with my family. As it was when the Tan Man was brought over this afternoon he rushed over to me as I made one phone call after another and called “Papaw.” I barely stopped to stroke his hair. I love this little boy with all my heart and the necessity of the hour, the necessity forced on me by a School District squandering my tax money to prevent me from stopping the damn stupidest waste of money on a plan which two years ago they made the calculate, corrupt but attorney sanctioned decision to deprive me of my vote on………
I’ll remember how these people made me so busy I couldn’t devote a precious few minutes to my grandson today. I’ll remember that question and the accusatory implication that somehow I’ve fallen down on a job for which precious few volunteers have stepped forward to help me with even though a huge majority of people agree with me.
I’ll remember how the dimwitted and inaccurate publicity campaign by the forces of Dr. Dixon have managed to portray me and my hard pressed fellows as idiots and been aided by an often too sloppy press. I’ll think of that every time one of the candidates that reflect some sober assessment of the grandiosity of the Red Plan reports to me that a certain reporter asks them questions in the accusatory manner so many of us on our side have become accustomed to. We are expected to justify our motives in the face of the abuse of trust that has been dumped on our community.
I’ve got a lot more posting to do but I need a good night’s sleep. This post is being written with eyes that would burn dry grass like a magnifying glass. This is not my preferred writing style. My preference is to sit down and rationally explain what’s going on. That sensible and reasonable approach has been answered for two years by such rehearsed nonsense arguments as: “Its too late to change.” “This is something our City should have done years ago.” “The School Board was elected to make this decision.” “Loopholes are the law.” “We have compromised.” and lies like this: “This will save money for more teachers.” “This will not cost taxpayers any more money.” “This will save the District energy costs.” “This is what the people of Duluth want.”
The folks saying these things lost all credibility two years ago. They are continuing to force this ill thought out plan for pride’s sake although they have many new confederates – people who stand to make some money and want it whether the project paying them is good for the City or not. I too must admit that I am motivated by pride. I would feel shame if I allowed this to continue without a fight.
