Yes.
" want toI tell you 'bout Texas radio and the big beat
Comes out of the Virginia swamps
Cool and slow with plenty of precision
With a back beat narrow and hard to master....."
-- Jim Morrison; The WASP (Texas Radio 7 the Big Beat)
We are having spring-like weather in the northeast. Some birds and flowers that usually aren't seen are popping up. The coyotes aren't howling at night as much as they were last week, but the young males are still out looking for a date. Perfect time to be blasting The Doors.
I'd like to tell you about a town and a school board. First, the town board of Sidney, NY, which became infamous when the supervisor, Bob McCarthy, and two board members attempted to force a tiny Sufi settlement to destroy their 100% legal cemetery. Though the three had run for office as republicans, they were from a regional Tea Party that did not take kind to Muslims in the area.
Those of you who were on this forum back then may remember when my friend Andrew broke the story, and Keith Olbermann named McCarthy the "worst person in the world." (I remember Keith from when he covered sports for an area news station as a university student.) I'll link one of Andrew's stories below:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/sidney-ny-stands-up-to-bo_b_1134320
Soon, an number of people, including Sean Lennon and my nephew (Sean's bodyguard) were attending the town board members. Although I live in another county, I started attending these meetings myself, at the request of the town and that county's Democratic Party. Soon that asked me if I would help run their candidates for office.
I knew that in the town's history, there had never been more than one Democrat at a time on the town or village board. More, at this time, the majority of registered voters were republicans, followed by independents, and then Democrats. Safe to say that the odds were against the Democrats at that time. How could I refuse their request for help?
Back then, hard as it is to believe, a lot of people got their "news" from area television stations and newspapers. It seemed doubtful that many republicans read Huffpost or watched Olbermann. Because I had numerous media contacts, I assigned myself to outreach and coordination with area newspapers, radio, and television. I connected reporters with the town's best spokespersons.
Tensions at the board meetings rose, as larger crowds -- inclufing media -- would attend. It reached a point where the vase was being covered by some European media. The regional Tea Party came out with a statement that they had kicked McCarthy and the offending two board members out of their ranks. The people in the community did not like the negative attention.
One of the most important things we did was have our people go door-to-door and campaign for the Democratic candidates. Now, there were a lot of people working on the campaign. I only mention my role because that's what I'm most familiar with. I had the most experience in door-to-door campaigning -- decades of it -- so I led this up.
On election day, we put the first Democratic Party majority on the board. We could not have done so without the votes of republicans, independents, and all two Green Party members of the community. When I first had begun working on this, Democrats were concerned that because McCarthy wasn't up for re-election for a couple more years, he would continue to hold power. Baloney. Replace board embers, and make him miserable. And we did.
I remember many years ago, on this forum, one person telling me that I didn't know what I was talking about when I said school boards are the entry level for local politics. Considering, say, Florida, I'd say one of us was clueless. So when some teachers from my daughters' school asked me to run for the board, I agreed. The night of the candidates' debates, the gentleman I was running to replace was walking down the hall. I heard him tell a friend he had spent the day in Albany to "oppose the gay agenda in public schools." Now, I love debate, and think I'd have beat him anyhow. But his saying that gave me a paddle to spank him with, both in the debate and election.
The school had recently hired a new superintendent. It soon became apparent to me that he lacked the ability to tell the truth twice in any month. Yet he wasn't a dumb man at all. Stupid, because he began taking a teacher and the board president -- on different nights -- for rides on the baloney pony. Within a few months, his wife left him, taking their daughters. He viewed himself as the victim, and at the time I was the only BOE member seeing him for who he was.
More, I was the only BOE member with a retired BCI Senior Investigator uncle and a retired FBI Agent cousin in private business. There had not been a proper background check on the guy, as those responsible had taken him at his word. He had a strong personality, and liked to note he had two PhDs. But the free background check my relatives provided presented a very different picture. He had been fired from his last two jobs, including from the State University. They had learned his second "PhD" had been purchased for a small sum from a "university" in the Carribean. He had also lost his driver's license, though he drove all around.
The faculty and support staff (non-baloney pony riders) soon were complaining about his constant lying and threatening their jobs. BOE members were slower to catch on. The one I got along with best told me numerous times that he didn't dare confront him on lies "because he's so smart." I said it doesn't matter how smart a person is when they lie and deny the truth. The BOE president learned he was mating a faculty member, and resigned. I can only speculate if the non-official information I provided her aunt had helped.
One night, after a tense meeting, the teachers' union president yelled at me on the school lawn. He was saying the BOE 'had pounded the last nail in the union's coffin." I told him to quit behaving like a spoiled brat, to act like a man and a union leader. He stopped yelling at me, and he and a group of teachers talked to me off the cuff.
I had already protected five people's jobs -- one teacher, and four support staff. The superintendent had threatened the union president with arrest over some nonsense that could not result in the police or prosecutor of taking seriously. I had experience as the VP of the county workers' union, and knew how close to impossible it was to fire a union leader.
Both of my daughters did well at the school. One was class valedictorian, and the other earned her two year college degree a month before graduating high school. So these were good teachers, who I respected. I had been friends with many of them for years. But the pressure from a guy I now saw as a sociopath intimidated them. Job satisfaction had dropped, and one of the very best teachers took another job. There was at that time only one employee, an art teacher, who dared stand up to him.
Through my daughters, she expressed an interest in learning about both union and grass roots activism from me. In time, the union started functioning properly. They supported the campaigns for two potential board members I had talked into running. This included in the media, and door-to-door. Both one. The guy who beat the fellow who didn't dare confront the superintendent because he was "so smart" one by a single vote. He called for two re-counts, and lost both by one vote.
Within a year's time, by our calling the superintendent out on every lie, and on bullying employees and stidents, the older board members began to turn against him. This led to one funny thing -- the guy had told me he heard I had been a good boxer, and asked me about my various experiences. Then, a board member who attended a state convention overheard him telling others that about "his" boxing experiences. That board member had known me since I was a fighter, and recognized his bold-faced lies. (I can say with zero risk of error that he had ever boxed. I didn't need my uncle or cousin to research that!)
Shortly thereafter, the superintendent was let go. He got a job at a school across the state line, and was largely forgotten inside our school. Because I felt that my work was done, I told the BOE that I was filing for a divorce, and handed my resognation in. They've asked me a few times to consider returning. But my efforts these days is more focused on assisting in other campaigns for Democrats running for political office. However, when the old superintendent got fired from his new job, I did e-mail newspaper articles to a few board members and teachers.
I've told these two stories for a reason. It's not to brag about what I did in either situation. I am just an ordinary guy that local people seem to consider an odd or curious character. But that is because it is human nature -- especially in the context of today's culture -- for most people to become convinced that things are getting worse, and there is nothing they can do about it. So I'm here to tell you that you've been lied to.
It's as much a lie as anything that superintendent ever spread. It's as much of a lie as anything that the defendant currently running for president has told. The truth is that this election season -- at all levels -- will be decided by how hard you and I work for the Democratic Party. Believe it. And believe in yourself.
= new reply since forum marked as read
What a great story. Thanks for telling it here. 
What a great story!
for one who walks the walk 
Your activism has been a boon to your town & schools.
K&R...
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