This is me at the State Fair this year. I’ve cut out my traveling companions who posed with me at the Minnesota Public Fair Booth to spare them the grief they will get for associating with Duluth’s most virulent child abuser. You can tell by looking what a smart alec I am. Funny thing is it took thirty years of politics to turn me into one. If there’s a teacher in my past who ever thought I’d become a show boater I’d be surprised. It turns out that being raised to be a straight shooter can lead one to my sorry state when confronted year after year by self righteous sell outs.
At tonight’s LDV meeting I got a well needed shot of adrenaline as those present relayed the latest horrors from the Red Plan freak show. Our town is crawling with thugs. It reminds me of Red China when old biddies were sent around their neighborhood to sniff out second pregnancies so that the unfortunate could be rounded up and given a forced abortion. BTW – I say that as an unapologetic pro choicer.
The Trib is standing in for those old biddies and if what I heard tonight is true they are being well paid. If what I was told tonight is true, sometime in the last couple of months the Trib was paid $40,000 by the Duluth School District. Before I heard that astronomic figure the most I’d heard was $10,000 for any given month.
When I was on the Board and we pinched every penny. We had an agreement with the Budgeteer – then independent of the DNT/Forum Communications Empire – for a full page ad once a month. I’m not sure we were charged for it but if we did pay I doubt that our advertising bills amounted to more than $12,000 per year. If this $40,000 figure is true then the Trib is little better than a pimp.
A while back one of the Trib’s reporters called me up and left a message. When I called the reporter back the reporter said “Hi Wary:……… I didn’t let the reporter continue and took over saying “Wary Helty, Yup, that’s me and getting warier every day.” Actually I wasn’t quite that witty. To my surprise the Reporter’s first reply to this was’ “Please don’t blog that.” Yes, a reporter for the Trib was afraid that I might blog about the harmless banter between us. Paranoia seems to be expanding out from the Duluth School District.
My pal Brenda Anderson called the DNT’s Chuck Frederick after some grievous recent editorial to ask for a pow wow. Stuffed puppy that Chuck is he readily agreed but then asked if he could invite another person or two. Brenda agreed. When she arrived she found herself confronted by the entire editorial board and it was loaded for bear. I have no doubt that Brenda acquitted herself well before this group of Kool Aid drinkers.
One member of the editorial board was a resident of Ordean who made it clear she was furious with Let Duluth Vote because she blamed us for not permitting more of the homes near Ordean to be bulldozed for parking lots. She was afraid that children would park in her yard. I don’t know why she didn’t blame her neighbors for not surrendering to the District’s threats of eminent domain or decreased home values. Of course it never occurred to her to blame the School Board for such inept site selection or planning.
But its hardly the School Board’s fault. They passed resolutions handing over their elective authority on the Red Plan to Dr. Dixon so that he doesn’t have to ask their permission for anything he wants approved or bulldozed. Thank goodness that this woman wasn’t the driver during the protests in Tiananmen Square when that crazy fellow stood in front of the Red Army Tanks called in to crush the protest.
Someone on the Board asked Brenda what she really thought about that crazy Harry Welty. Oh, they didn’t put the adjective “crazy” in the question but they might as well have. “Is he just trying to get attention or is he just trying to sell a book?” they wanted to know.
Brenda told the Board, “I’m Harry’s biggest fan and toughest critic.”
Amen to that sister. Amen.
Trying to sell a book? Shit. SHIT! SHIT! SHIT! I’m writing a damned book because we don’t have a newspaper in this town! We’ve got a bunch of pimps selling our schools down the tubes to the highest bidder. I didn’t take two plus years out of my life and pass up time with my sweet little Grandson to preen before the TV cameras. I had my chance to do that long ago.
I got started on this crusade when a tabloid journalist with more civic concern than the entire DNT editorial board put together, shamed me into commenting on the Red Plan. He told me I had an obligation to tell the public what I thought about the Red Plan because I’d been on the school board for eight years. It was going to be a lousy one time column. But after I wrote it people began expecting me to do more. I’ve wanted to quit a half dozen times. If anyone had told me that our Superintendent and is infatuated School Board would be so arrogant and ignorant that I would be opposing them for the next two years I’d have fallen over laughing. I’m laughing now but through gritted teeth.
Damn my parents for waving my Grandfather and his Congressional Medal of Honor in my face when I was little. It made me feel that I should do no less. This is a Democracy thanks to folks like my Grand Father and no one is shooting bullets at me. I’ve just had names hurled at me not whiz bangs. Big freaking deal. “Sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me.”
Among the more common slams first trotted out two years ago by a former state senator is that I’ve been libeling people. I’m still waiting for someone to take me to court. Goodness knows the School District and JCI have deep enough pockets to prove me a liar.
One critic said that I am fighting a scorched earth war. Well, the right to vote deserves a little fuss. The DNT lives by Mao’s old dictate: the nail that sticks up too high will be hammered down. OK then. Give me a good whack! As long as I’ve got Brenda on my side I can take it.
