If you pull out the full page of the Budgeteer today which has Linda Grover’s column in it, you will find directly opposite this petition to remove her husband, Tim Grover, from the School Board.
Perhaps in apology to Ms. Grover the Budgeteer placed a generic column from former congressman Lee Hamilton directly above the petition. Its title is the same as the title of this post. Cong. Hamilton’s letter is clearly aimed at violence which has been threatened against politicians who are trying to pick up the pieces of a ruffled economy by working with President Obama. If the Budgeteer intends by this to imply that the petition is “unconstructive” it is a silly implication. The right to petition, is enshrined in our American institutions. Its a positive alternative to violence. In fact, the Grover removal petition doesn’t even have the force of law behind it. It is virtually impossible to remove a school board member in Minnesota unless they have been convicted of robbing a bank and you’d have to convict them first. Speedy justice not withstanding that process could easily outlast Mr. Grover’s four-year term of office. Robbing the people of their right to vote and/or shrinking from the fight to let voters excercise their traditional rights is not a grave enough offense to merit removal from office. (Although suppressing public information might be a form of malfeasance)
I’ve not paid very close attention to the work of current Red Plan opponents. I don’t attend meetings. I get few emails. I have instead worked hard to attend to my family and personal life for the last five months. I sort of collapsed in a heap after expending far too much energy to have a $100,000 bond returned to the donors who put their money on the line to defend our right to vote. But that has not changed my mind or stunted my sense of humor. I’m still outraged by the theft and I’m writing a book about the crime. Hundreds of people have already paid for it and I promised to have it finished by the end of the year. I break very few of my promises.
I surmise that this is another passive agressive attempt by our local Forum newspaper editors to put some onus on Red Plan opponents without the grit to say so unambiguously. The Forum editors view seems to be: “get over it.” Tell that to a rape victim. Then tell her that the child she is carrying will be beautiful.
In the same vein I couldn’t help but take yesterday’s Trib editorial a little personally even thought it was ostensibly directed at critics of the City government. It began:
This has not been a good week for Duluth’s unfortunate abundance of perpetual pessimists, those who love to gripe about government and how their voices are always ignored. You know the ones. They stay out of the public process and then are the most vocal objectors after decisions are made.
Tell that to the guy who woke up with a steam roller at the foot of his bed after it reaches his neck.
