The war was over. The overwhelming might of the well populated industrial North had won. The South’s most revered leader General Robert Lee laid down his arms at Appomattox. Knock out the reverence part and I’m looking at General Lee as my metaphor for the current state of the District after the Red Plan Civil War.
Appomattox doesn’t really apply well to my meeting with the new Duluth School Superintendent Bill Gronseth yesterday. I didn’t lay down my arms and my army was already long disbanded. It wasn’t even my army. But the veterans of the Red Plan War are still nursing their wounds much as the entire South tended its wounded after the Civil War. In some ways those wounds have never fully healed. They will last a long time in Duluth too as I discovered when I got elected to the School Board twenty years after the closing of the original Central High School. Twenty years after I graduated from high school (in a different city) angry people were still complaining to me about the Central Roof which had become a metaphor of its own on the trustworthiness of the Duluth School Board.
So Lee retired from the military life and went on to become the beloved if short lived President of VMI the Virginia Military Institute.
I retired from the organized fight after a lawsuit collapsed with the loss of legal counsel. I’ve continued to lob critical salvos at the Duluth School Board pointing out the wreckage left after their decision not to give the voters a right to vote on the Red Plan. My criticism has lacked one critical aspect an inside view from the District. I had it to an extent while Gary Glass served on the Board but even Gary was prevented from seeing much of the inside information that would have given me insight. In the void I relied, over relied on my long experience being on the inside of the School Board.
The historian in me is very curious about what happened on the inside during the war. The practical educator in me knows that it is at least for the time being irrelevant to the healing of the community. When this election is over win lose or draw for my candidacy the Red Plan will slip away from this blog. it won’t disappear completely but the smoke from my fingers will clear.
Reconstruction followed the Civil War and I plan to be a part of Duluth’s reconstruction. Should I not be elected I expect I’ll refrain from finger pointing and muck raking. JCI and Dr. Dixon can always expect some occasional outbursts or anyone who wants to take a piece out of me. Anyone who wants to see my criticisms from an earlier Era will have the blog and its search engine to explore – at least as long as I keep paying my bills to keep it online. Otherwise the District will need some breathing room.
Should I get elected I’ll become a positive cheer leader. People who can’t get over the war are likely to be disappointed but its time to get on with fixing our schools. As I told the editors of the Trib this will not be a “sour grapes” campaign. The Central Roof is no longer an issue. The Red Plan is going to begin to head in that direction too.
General Lee said of his experiences “It is a good thing war is so terrible or we should become too fond of it.” Well said, General Lee.
