I was doing fine until I checked the DNT

Its not quite 11PM. Despite the fact that my Tan Man had to go to the emergency room today so that I didn’t get to see him as I slaved away single handedly making three gallons of apple cider (Buying it is sure a lot easier) I was having a good day right up to my watching the Saturday Night Live rerun.

Then I decided to check my phone messages. One from and LDVer from early this morning asked if I was serious about not campaigning today when time is so short. YUP! I value my sanity too much and my family more. If the Duluth Schools go to the dogs after my fighting stupidity for over two years because voters decided to put their trust in the Emperor with no cloths…..well, I’ll sell my house for a song and move to some community where people still seem to think their voting rights are important. Selma, Alabama, maybe.

But that didn’t get my chest to pounding. No, I had to go to the DNT website where the ed reporter has uploaded what appears to be a teaser about the big story she’s writing on whether the sky will fall if we don’t just suck it up and let the Red Plan have its way with us.

Now, mind you. The story isn’t in online as of this dyspeptic blog posting. But it doesn’t look good. Here’s Sarah Horner’s lead in:

“Can the red plan be stopped at this point — and, if so, at what cost?

Most challengers in the Duluth School Board race have said they oppose at least parts of the district’s long-range facilities plan. Some of their most-fervent supporters would like to see the whole thing stopped in its tracks.

But by the time the new School Board is seated in January, about $60 million already will have been paid out to contractors and consultants on the

$296 million plan and potentially $140 million worth of construction contracts awarded.

Because so many of the candidates’ campaigns have been built on their support of or opposition to the plan, the News Tribune explores today what could happen if an anti-red plan School Board is elected.”

Now, I know its too soon to make presumptions about what the story will contain. But remember, Dr. Dixon has kept this story to himself for a week. That’s plenty of time to prepare a counter offensive. When I was on the School Board DNT reporters went ballistic when a Superintendent kept his card hand to himself. Not so any more.

What does the initial strategy seem to be? Fear Mongering. If we don’t continue we will waste millions in delays and lawsuits from the contractors. Not a big surprise this tactic. He used it just last fall in his failed attempt to raise additional operational money in a levy referendum. He warned us that the sky would fall if our schools didn’t get more money. He didn’t get it.

So, has Sarah Horner been working with the Superintendent’s minister of public relations to show us that its too late to stop he who must not be named?

Well consider this. In her recent story explaining the Minnesota Department of Education’s pro forma letter OK’ing a referendum on Plan B Sarah wrote that Commissioner Alice Seagren’s letter said that LDV’s Plan B was:

“‘Educationally and Economically VIABLE”

Viable? Like a baby with two Y chromosomes is “viable?” Viable? Like Running through a hail of bullets is a viable plan compared to sitting in a fox hole waiting for a mortar to land on you? Viable as in, “She’s brain dead but her heart is still viable.”

As an angry emailer wrote me this morning Alice Seagren did not use the word “viable.” Alice Seagren used the word “advisable.” There’s a “v” in the damned word but the meaning is one hell of a lot more positive.

So, I’m left to wonder if Sarah has been cloistered with Dr. Dixon for the last week trying to help him figure out how to win the propaganda battle. Every time I tell my friends in Let Duluth Vote not to be paranoid about Sarah’s coverage of the Red Plan and Let Duluth Vote she writes some cockamamie thing like this to utterly destroy her credibility.

So, when Marcia Stromgren decides to turn her back on the DNT how am I supposed to tell Marcia that she really has no choice but to deal with Sarah? Explaining that the devil we know is better than the one we don’t just sounds pathetic. All Marcia has to do is read what Sarah is writing. That’s enough. According to Sarah, Marcia doesn’t have time to do anything. A reader is left to wonder how Marcia could possibly be a School Board member. Actually, the Duluth School Board has very short meetings these days. They are always short when no one asks questions. LDV meets more often and our meetings last longer than School Board meetings. Marcia has found time to stick ours out for two years. Being on the School Board will be a piece of cake.

Trust me when I write that in my opinion Sarah Horner’s Red Plan stories are always viable.

Now I’ll just pop a couple of Rolaids and hope my pounding chest doesn’t keep me awake all night. I’ve got to sing in the church choir tomorrow. I’m supposed to be snapping my fingers to this David Morris anthem:

“Do you have the feeling, Children?
Do you have the feeling inside?
Its a good, good feeling down deep in your soul
When your walking with the Spirit inside.”

Well, I almost have that off my chest.

If my readers want to see someone who has a grasp of the potential financial alternatives they could do no better than to read the informed column in the DNT today by Loren Martell. I should have linked to it much earlier but I only discovered it after I was finished posting early this morning when I opened up the hard copy Trib today.

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