{"id":14701,"date":"2015-09-03T20:33:43","date_gmt":"2015-09-04T01:33:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/?p=14701"},"modified":"2017-02-23T05:36:53","modified_gmt":"2017-02-23T10:36:53","slug":"out-of-town-but-not-out-of-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/?p=14701","title":{"rendered":"Out of town but not out of mind…"},"content":{"rendered":"

…although I’m on the Duluth School Board so I may very well be out of<\/strong> my mind.<\/p>\n

I’m melting in Florida at the moment. September is not the month to visit. <\/p>\n

Neither is it the time to leave confortable Duluth during the beginning of the school year when folks start paying attention to our bi-annual school board elections. I couldn’t have chosen a more inoportune time to leave town. However, the Internet connects me to the Tribune and its opinion page and to email of which there has been blessedly little. I’m glad about that because I’ve got a big book to read on Harlem’s Hell Fighters of World War 1 about which I’ve blogged a bit<\/a>. I did recieve one message on the day I was flying out of town from Alanna Oswald:<\/p>\n

Sorry to interrupt your fun. I guess Renee’s supporters are blaming me for you latest post Number 10. They think I lied because I told Renee I wouldn’t be attacking her ever<\/em> just as she says whe won’t attack me. Now I’m to blame for you calling her out. I’m not happy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I replied cold bloodedly:<\/p>\n

She should go to her meetings then. I <\/em>made no promises.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Alanna softened up but not on her convictions:<\/p>\n

I respect your right to publish what you did and push the opinion you do. Just as I hope you hear I’m not happy about it. You know where my line in the sand is now.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To which I replied:<\/p>\n

All the more reason to put you on the board.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then I followed up telling Alanna this:<\/p>\n

I am watching America’s got talent. Number 10 makes me feel like Howard Stern saying what has to be said. <\/p>\n

I understand that Renee will blame you more than me for her hurt feelings. I am sorry about that. Too bad the Trib wasn’t more honest so I didn’t feel the need to go there.<\/p>\n

You have to be on that Board for my peace of mind. <\/p>\n

I have not been too cruel. I told about her anger at the DFT. I mentioned she is pushed by Rosie. I said she has missed meetings. That’s about it.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I could have added so much more. Any candidate expecting a free pass must be a Don Ness or Emily Larson. That is rare in electioneering. Besides, someone is clearly dropping hints that Alanna is a dubious candidate. I don’t know who but whose to say Alanna’s naysayers are not pushing Renee VanNett. All I know is that I painted a far more complete, if imperfect, picture of both candidates than the Duluth News Tribune.<\/p>\n

As I said at the beginning of That Editorial Part 10<\/a>:<\/p>\n

First let me make this very clear. I have never known anyone who ran for the School Board was not a good person or who didn’t want the best for our children or our schools. That includes the most inept school board members in Minnesota history who currently serve on the Duluth School Board. I like them all but there is not a one of them, including me, who hasn’t messed up badly.<\/p>\n

Desperation has made me far more candid about all of our human failings than is generally good for any politician to be. Some things are best left unsaid. Even now I am thinking deeply about how far to go.<\/p>\n

This post is about someone I have no quarrel with. That Renee VanNett is running for the Duluth School Board is commendable. I do not wish to argue with the Tribune’s editorial endorsement of her for the General Election. However, since the Tribune short circuited their endorsement by jumping directly to the November election I have no confidence that they will follow up their glowing editorial description of Renee with anything approaching hard, factual journalism. I think that leaves the voters in Duluth in the lurch. About all I’ve said about Renee is that her head has been turned by three school board members who don’t want to lose control of the Board.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

…although I’m on the Duluth School Board so I may very well be out of my mind. I’m melting in Florida at the moment….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[121],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2015-sb-election"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14701"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19611,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14701\/revisions\/19611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}