Another week and another silly social media attack by a locally disgraced political operative! It's funny how many allegations people can make up in their fantasy land bubble. I guess if I took anything this person says seriously, I'd be upset.
But, I'm not. Here's why.
I always consider the source. If the source is a well-respected, well-spoken, well-educated person who I believe is fair in their assessment of people, I might pay attention. If I can see that their motivation is pure and they are able to speak their case clearly with facts and actual proof, I may even listen. I might disagree, but I would at least listen and give their points consideration. We would agree to disagree and still remain respectful of each other, even when we each think the other is totally wrong.
Sadly, this person has a rather checkered past, particularly with young women with whom he worked. It's a past of harassment and abusive name calling and accusations. It's the whole living in a glass house and throwing stones story.
He states no facts nor gives any proof of the names he calls me or the group I chair or the things he alleges we have done. He talks about associations with groups we don't even know. He calls us malevolent, and yet he has never talked to any of us in person. He doesn't like us for standing up for truth.
The worst thing is that he, by opposing our beliefs, seems to have his own belief system that he can't defend. For example, if we talk about taking books with graphic depictions and descriptions of sexual acts OUT of schools, books with passages that read like the script of a Triple X porno flick and that force school boards to stop parents reading examples of them at meetings, he calls that "book banning." Therefore, by extension, he approves of young impressionable children being exposed to horrific pornography. One wonders if he wants his child reading this garbage in his/her school. It's a question he can't and likely won't answer.
You see, what is okay for the theoretical "student" or "child" is not good for his child.
Or let's talk children being counseled to seek gender reassignment surgery/therapy at a young age without the approval or knowledge of the parents. As parents tell horror stories of their sons and daughters being disfigured or permanently harmed by these therapies, he whips out the old, debunked assertion that these "confused children" (who probably wouldn't be confused without a counselor making them so) will commit suicide without having their transgender whims satisfied. He totally disregards the stories of these young victims and their parents as if they don't exist at all. Yet, tell him that his pre-teen son or his daughter has been undergoing the gender reassignment process for months without his knowledge, and he will renounce his transgender religion immediately and ask for heads to roll.
Parental rights are not for you, only him.
He claims to want to leave the teaching up to the teachers in the classroom. He claims that the group I represent doesn't have the knowledge to question what is going on in the public school system. I guess he doesn't realize that many of us are retired teachers. Funny that he seems to have that knowledge, even though his professional background has nothing to do with education.
Even if we weren't, we are parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, friends, brothers, sisters, Black, White, Hispanic, gay, straight, religious, agnostic, atheists, etc. who know and love our children. We have a right to guide what we want them taught for six hours a day and nearly 200 days a year in our PUBLIC, tax supported schools. And, as a teacher, I believe these parents DO know what is best for their children.
I've faced these people before, so this guy is nothing new. There were fifty or so of them at a recent conference in Philly, all using the same tactics, name calling and hatred. One difference with this guy is I know who he is, and so does everybody else who reads his nonsense. He does his harassment on a keyboard, not on the streets of a big city. People who see his nonsense, like me, know who he is and WHAT he is. The most common descriptions they use for him are too profane to share.
He is a "usual suspect" who uses his ranting and irrational name calling to further his political and social aspirations or those who enlist his "help" to denigrate others. He attempts to bully those he disagrees with, and it really ticks him off when he can't accomplish that.
What he doesn't realize is that most of us see him for what he is and say, "consider the source." And we ignore him, which is the best thing to do.
Do you have someone who is bothering you like this? Remember, they only win if you believe their lies.
