One of the things I have managed to upload and which has stayed intact through all the messing around is my “Damn Speech.” I took the Lord’s name in vain.<\/p>\n
It’s perhaps the best example I have of my composing a speech on the fly. Its a bit long but I was pretty charged up when I gave it. I had been planning for two years\u00c2\u00a0to support a referendum to raise more property taxes for the Schools. Minnesota had slid from fifth place to the middle of the pack where per pupil spending was concerned and it was worse for property tax poor Duluth. We’d been cutting the school budget for years and I was desperate to fill our coffers back up again. Then on the eve of our decision about whether to offer an excess levy referendum Nine-Eleven happened.<\/p>\n
That pretty well made a hash of any drive to raise taxes. Certainly a levy referendum seemed a lot less important. Nonetheless, I felt I had a duty to press for\u00c2\u00a0the referendum\u00c2\u00a0and when one of the other school board members made light of the few parents who had showed up to\u00c2\u00a0suport the\u00c2\u00a0levy it really stuck in my craw.<\/p>\n
Take a\u00c2\u00a0look<\/p>\n