First, there has been no movement on the extension of Route 53. Bill Morris of Grayslake was the only Tollway director to try to speak on behalf of Lake County when he said “there are people that live north of Chicago.” Apparently not according to the Tollway Authority. The Route 53 extension falls right within the purview of the Tollway Authority, while it is making improvements to link up the Elgin-O’Hare expressway (currently freeway) and a bypass around O’Hare it kicks the Route 53 can down the road again.

As if that weren’t enough, the Waukegan Toll Plaza is included in the tolls being hiked, it will go up to $1.40. This will mean the current bad situation with Wisconsin commuters bypassing the Waukegan Toll. Currently they will use side streets and Highway 41 to get around the toll. One only need sit at one of the truck stops on Russell Road and watch the Wisconsin plates go by every morning. How many more will there be now that the till had increased?

All in all this sorry situation shows the Lake County contingent of politicians is in an obvious decline. This isn’t to say we don’t have many hard working politicians but when Lake County Board Chairman David Stohlman and Libertyville Village President Terry Weppler endorse a plan that completely leaves out Lake County what other conclusion can be drawn?

This plan does nothing to solve traffic problems in Lake County, it only increases the burden on Lake County taxpayers and it only increases the traffic on Lake County roads. Do you hear that sound? It’s Adeline Geo-Karis rolling over in her grave.

 Photo: “Traffic” by Kim Scarborough Some rights reserved

I was hoping that Ron Paul was not going to run this year, that he would realize he had done all he could and would pass the torch to someone else. Gary Johnson came out and said he was running and I was hoping that would be good enough for Paul. Johnson is an attractive candidate — former governor, successful businessman, thoughtful and well spoken, impeccable libertarian credentials (better than Paul’s). Surely Paul would see this and realize he need not run. Of course, I was wrong.

Once that took place the teeth gnashing started and the thrashing in liberty circles started and it has become a full-on Paul versus Johnson war. I’m fairly certain that neither candidate wanted this to happen, yet it has. The problem is the “Paulistas” as I call them: rabid and zealous Paul devotees who hold him with messianic zeal. They are easy to spot:

1. Nearly always refer to him as “Dr. Paul” (funny, I never heard them utter “Dr. Frist” but I digress…).
2. Every other sentence refers to either the latest Ron Paul poll or is encouraging participation in a poll.
3. If you are a Democrat they will sell you Paul’s stands on drugs, war and social issues while concealing Paul’s vote on DOMA.
4. If you are a Republican they will sell you Paul’s stands on the Fed, taxes, balanced budget amendment while concealing his request for earmarks despite Speaker Boehner’s ban on them.
5. If you are a member of the Tea Party they will tell you how the Tea Party was all because of Ron Paul and you should support him automatically (and stop your corporatist shilling for the Koch Brothers).
6. If you are a Libertarian they will tell you how Dr. Paul is the only one with a chance to win.
7. If you are a libertarian Republican they will gut and fillet you if you don’t support Ron Paul.

I’ve had it with the Paulistas and I can’t stand by any more. Any time I have thought about giving up on Johnson and supporting Paul there’s a mass of sneering Paulistas reminding me why I can’t be affiliated with them. That, and the fact Ron Paul is not electable.

First, any debate involving Ron Paul and Barack Obama would be over the first time the President got to speak. He would ignore whatever question was asked and say, “Let me read you a bit of a Ron Paul newsletter“. As you know, the President is black and is our first black president. The sight of our first black president reciting things like “if you have ever been robbed by a black teen-aged male, you know how unbelievably fleet-footed they can be” would turn the stomach of any American. The Paulistas call it the “newsletter hoax” or the newsletters “have been debunked” but they cannot get around the fact that racist diatribes appeared in these newsletters with Paul’s name on the top. Whether he wrote them or not (I doubt he did) is irrelevant, if he can’t watch a newsletter how can he watch the United States?

That is just the opening round. Ron Paul is protected by a cloak of obscurity right now. Few people take him seriously and his opponents see him as little more than a nuisance. Therefore no political espionage efforts are undertaken against him, why waste money on someone that has no chance? The second he became a real threat that cloak would be yanked from him and Ron Paul would be out there warts and all. An Axelrod led team would easily have Paul labeled an anti-semite  and point out donations he’s accepted from less than desirable groups.

My honest opinion is this is all bunk, none of it is true about Paul. I question why he makes sure to single out Israel but I think it’s a strategy to get the most attention. I also wonder why he doesn’t pay closer attention to donations but he has a laissez faire attitude about it, he got the cash and will spread his message with it, end of story.

Things have boiled down to a nasty gurgling simmer in Wisconsin since the fracas over Governor Scott Walker’s plan to require public workers to contribute more to their healthcare and retirement. Union protestors claim they are willing to deal but they refuse to deal on losing their rights to collective bargaining. In the meantime the Democratic members of the Senate have skipped town for the friendly confines of Illinois to shut the government down. Things may be simmering, but they’re ready to boil over.

We’ve had protest groups and counter-protest groups. We’ve had polls that seem to favor Walker and others that seem to favor the unions. We have allegations of plutocracy, autocracy and the obligatory reference to Nazis. I could write on all this ad nauseam but I thought I would spend some time talking about what I know most about — working with a public employee union.

As you may know I spent several years on the Round Lake Area Schools Board of Education, the last three of them as its president. I stayed out of union negotiations for the most part. Why? For much of my tenure I am the son of one of the members of the bargaining unit in Round Lake, the Education Association of Round Lake (EARL), a local of the Illinois Education Association (IEA) the biggest teacher’s union in Illinois.

Without going into a whole lot of detail into that experience (that would be a very long post) suffice it to say I have participated in collective bargaining negotiations, grievances, stayed up until the wee hours of the morning negotiating with the association and fielding hundreds of phone calls related to union matters. I’m not a lawyer but I consider myself well experienced in this area and familiar with the process.

I respect the core tenets of unions and what they stand for — protecting the rights of workers and ensuring that everyone receives fair treatment.  The problem is when you deal with things as a collective you soon run into difficulty dealing with the individual and on more levels than one.

Governor Walker has a budget deficit looming and his state spends a lot of money on two things in particular — public employees and entitlements (Medicaid, welfare, social programs).  Wisconsin is not different from any other state in this regard. Most of what the state spends on education does not go directly into education – it goes to the local school districts in the form of state aid. School districts receive federal money (usually for special programs for at risk students), state money (general state aid and categorical grants – money earmarked for specific programs if the district complies) and local money (property taxes).

If you broke down the figures most districts receive little to no federal money, it mainly goes to poorer districts or districts with a large population of kids with special needs. All of them though rely on state and local money . The biggest expenditure the local school district makes? Overwhelmingly (to the tune of 70-85% in many cases) salary and benefits for its employees, mostly teachers. So, this is how the different levels work and how it is broken.

Governor Walker wants to balance his budget, he needs to cut spending by a billion from somewhere. For the purposes of this exercise let’s say he wants to take it all in education. Does Governor Walker now go to the state teachers unions (most states have two) and get their approval? He could, but it would be as meaningless as any state union assurance now they will take the deal on reduced benefits. They don’t negotiate the contracts, the local teachers unions do!

So Governor Walker puts together a plan and tells the state Board of Education to reduce spending by $1 bil. The state board comes up with the formula in elimination of categoricals (very common here in Illinois) and then reduction in general state aid.  Or, maybe a state aid payment or two, or four gets skipped.  Now imagine you are the local school district — your boss came to you and said that work you did last week on that special project?  Sorry, not paying for it, it was very nice work but we have to cut expenses. Also, “I need to dip into your pay a bit, I’m not going to pay you this week, I might pay you again in two weeks but I’m not sure yet, I’ll let you know.” That’s reality here in Illinois and I doubt it’s much different in Wisconsin.

What would you do? You would cut back your expenses right? Well imagine for a moment if you went to cut your biggest expense then, let’s say it’s your mortgage. Do you think you could get a reduction in your mortgage? Maybe eliminate some of the things you built into the loan or you could sell your house and live in a smaller one though, right? Maybe sell and rent a smaller place? Not if you’re a school district. No, see you collectively bargained a contract with these folks a year or so ago and not only can you not do anything to change that you said you were going to give them a raise next year and they want it. They are also going to enforce the class size provision that we bargained for. Some locals will see the district is in trouble and negotiate, this has been happening in Illinois and to the credit of those locals, others won’t. It’s up to the local to decide how they wish to balance reduced benefits for their members versus loss of members in the form of layoffs.

So what is left for the local school district to do? Cut administrators and lay off the teachers you can. Maybe the union will bargain with you on how many of its members it will let go without too much of a fuss. Only bad teachers would be let go right? Nope, can’t do that, because a union is about seniority.  No, you can’t lay off Mrs. Smith who has been mailing it in for the past decade trying to get enough years in to retire early. You need to lay off Mrs. Jones who is a new and enthusiastic teacher getting great results in her classroom. She’s only been here two years though and doesn’t have the protection of tenure.

This, my friends, is a glimpse into how things are done year after year in a school district. It doesn’t make unions all bad – it makes them misguided by tradition. It doesn’t make all school districts right, many of them planned recklessly. At the end of the day though the money comes from somewhere, not a magic tree or pot of gold over the rainbow. The taxpayers have been taking a haircut for the past few years and it’s coming time for the public employees’ turn in the chair.

The system is unsustainable as it is constituted so call me a little crazy for secretly hoping Wisconsin will become a disaster. A little revolution every now and then is good, no?  Maybe then we can talk about what the real problem is.

I’ve had a wave of friends over the past few months that have had a case of Facebook emo rage.  Emo rage is defined if you follow that link for those non-gamer nerds of you who follow my (neglected) blog.  To be honest, I understand the frustration but I have to tell you — you brought it on yourself.

To me, Facebook is a wondrous invention and Mark Zuckerberg is a visionary for having brought it to us.  I can’t list the number of folks I thought were lost to me forever that I have found.  A few of the things that will never be the same because of Facebook:

Reunions

I actually enjoyed my 20-year reunion as I had caught up with most of my friends on Facebook and could spend time having a good time instead of spending time “catching up”.

Work Relationships

Work is a big part of your life, I spent over a decade of my life at one company.  Through the power of Facebook I’ve been able to catch up with a lot of my old friends that, before Facebook, I probably would have never seen or talked to again and that would be a shame.

Family

Recently I’ve been able to catch up with a lot of family that, for one reason or the other, lost track of each other.  Facebook has been a great way to catch up, start trading family trees or what have you.

Lost Friends

Thirtysomethings brought back to high school.

Life is a journey that can take us down many roads and many paths.  At different stages you create new relationships for yourself and some stay while some fall by the wayside.  Some things should be abandoned so you can move on.  However, others should be there when you need them and want them to be.  I’ve caught up with friends who moved across the country after high school and we just didn’t stay in regular touch, now we can whenever we would like.  A group of guys that hadn’t played together in 20 years got together and played for all their classmates because of Facebook.  Without it I doubt the crazy idea of “we should have a band reunion at the reunion” would have ever flown.

How Do You Want It?

Best of all, Facebook puts you in control of how you want to use it.  If you find yourself getting overburdened with drama then take a break, don’t log in for a while.  Or, perhaps, you need to change your Facebook experience.  Because it is so new I think all of us have a tendency to fully indulge, friend everyone who asks and make all these connections that we didn’t before.  It’s like the funny video with the guy from high school you didn’t even like now at your door.  You can friend him or you can tell him no by just not accepting the request.

Is there a chance people are going to see you as rude if you don’t accept their friend request?  Perhaps.  If someone brought it up I would simply say “because of privacy reasons I keep my Facebook friends list to only my closest friends, I hope you can understand.”  Who wouldn’t accept that?  If they wouldn’t do you really care what they thin anyway?

I’m sorry if I sound like a commercial for Facebook, I don’t mean to be.  I just see so many people who are getting chewed up by the teething period of social networking.  This is completely new stuff, we have not been here before and it’s going to take us a while to figure it out.  Me, personally, I believe anyone can find whatever they want about me without much work so I share a lot on Facebook.  I also do it because I am socially inept and Facebook is like training wheels for me.

What my message is that you can make your Facebook experience whatever you wish it to be.  You can cut it down and keep it exclusive or you can open it up, or you can find somewhere in-between, it’s up to you.  Maybe you make that guy earn a few dates before you friend him on Facebook or maybe you do it right away, it’s up to you.   Maybe you care what your Aunt Tilly says about that political article you posted or maybe you could care less and don’t let anyone comment on what you post.  It’s all up to you so get into your privacy settings and decide for yourself.

Now this is just a proposal at this point so while I am giddy as all get-out about it I’m still not holding my breath. He can champion this all he would like but he still has to turn to Congress to get this done. I’m hopeful there is support in Congress for this and I’m hopeful Republicans are leading the charge because this is a transformation of President Bush’s No Child Left Behind (NLCB) and takes important steps to fix what is wrong with it while still insisting on accountability.

First we need to talk about what is broken with NCLB and that is ever increasing standards that can’t possibly be met. Standardized tests are based on percentiles so if you require schools to place within a certain percentile you are creating a glass ceiling — there will be a point where you can’t improve and if everyone improves someone still has to be at the bottom. This is the fundamental flaw of NCLB — it punishes districts even if they are making improvements.

While the administration has put out what it is calling a “blueprint” and not legislation, and I’ve been unable to find any outline yet what Duncan and Obama are saying is highly encouraging. According to the USA Today:

1. Raise the current standards by 2014.
2. Scrap the 2014 reading and math requirements and replace them with “college readiness” requirements by 2020.
3. Use subjects other than reading and math in their ratings.
4. “Value-added” indicators for teachers and schools.
5. Use indicators other than just test scores in assessing teachers.

These are all great changes to NCLB. The only one I am leery of the teachers unions getting their hands on is the subjective assessments. They could twist this into a means of keeping teachers who are not up to par by subjective means. That needs to be discouraged. The rest of these are great improvements on NCLB that open up the restrictions and bring reality to eduction — it’s not all reading and math.

What they added next though was the real kicker. For schools that are struggling, down in the bottom 5% they would have to take one of the following actions in order to maintain federal funding:

1. Shut the school down.
2. Bring in an outside company to manage the school as a charter school.
3. Fire the entire staff and rehire no more than 50% of them.
4. Fire the principal and bring in a new one with a transformation plan.

Wow. That’s about all I can say about that, wow. This is absolutely, without a doubt, EXACTLY what is needed to put teeth in NCLB. Right now a struggling school will only get worse; most of the parents will have nowhere else to go, that school will lose federal funds and with less funding it will only get worse. That’s broken. This puts the teeth in NCLB and frees school districts to make the kind of changes they would need to transform a failing school.

You can guarantee the teachers unions will be fighting these provisions tooth and nail in Congress. ”Let me be clear” here for a moment if I can steal one of the President’s lines, I have a message for teachers. I have nothing against the rank and file teacher doing everything he or she can to educate our kids. It’s a tough and often thankless job. You get to deal with a slew of parents who just don’t care. However, there’s no legislation on the planet that is going to make them care. This is all that can be done.

The prescription from NCLB right now just gets in the way of a teacher being able to be a teacher. A slew of requirements are put on them, the district office is in their classroom, creating some new set of guidelines for them to follow or the like. Teachers aren’t allowed to innovate and educate. You need to tell your leadership right now that the President’s plan will let you innovate and educate again and stand on your own.

Your leadership is about to barrage you with a mountain of scare tactics and try to get you behind opposition to this plan. You need to stand up to your leadership and tell them no. Have you seen the headlines over the past few weeks? In Illinois we have a complete disaster on our hands and districts are cutting staff left and right. This is what your leadership has gotten you with their hold on power and their refusal to innovate. Many a good teacher is being fired so many a bad teacher that’s been doing it forever can keep his or her job. That’s not right and you need to stand up for it as not right.

I’m sure you can easily count the bad teachers in your building right now. The ones who don’t care, the ones who “phone it in”, the ones you are constantly covering for. Admit it, you know they are there. Are you prepared to lose your job for them? That’s what your leadership will be asking you to do. Under this proposal YOU will be responsible for YOUR own results. If you are doing all that you can it will be seen and measured and you won’t be held responsible for your failing peers. This plan is a plan for good teachers and good teachers should stand up to their national leaders and get behind it.

I’m hopeful this plan can be put into place and it stays as it is outlined. You can rest assured I will be watching it as it comes out, but this is a great start and the first reason for hope and change I’ve seen out of President Obama.  Well done.

Senator Dany Duffy’s bill to put an end to red-light cameras has hit a snag — Illinois legislator’s not ready to do an outright ban on them as reported recently in the Daily Herald. It’s disappointing there’s not enough support for a total ban but I don’t think that should discourage opponents of the cameras or Senator Duffy. It’s clear some compromise legislation is needed. Hopefully that legislation would effectively curtail their current use and abuse — milking taxpayer dollars via unwitting municipalities.

I believe a compromise could be reached that would sound their death knell. It starts with making it much more difficult for them to be approved and thus less enticing to the companies that are selling them. The first solution would require a referendum in order for the municipality to deploy them. If they are that concerned about the public safety, let the public decide if they should be used. I think you would quickly find out who is truly in it for public safety and who is turning to fines to replenish depleted municipal coffers.

If there’s not enough support in Springfield for that, and that would be unfortunate, there are still requirements that could be put in place to deter their abuse:

Aside from the requirements needed to install them their use also needs to be addressed:

Finally, provisions on cameras already in place need to be addressed. While they couldn’t follow all of this process they could follow part of it.

You need to make a difference and speak your mind on this. Don’t just email your legislator or senator, call him or her. Send the message to Springfield that something needs to be done about the abuse of these cameras and they should support Senator Duffy’s effort to do so.

You’re like the old boys, they were golden. They had that special pride. When they were done, they were done, no one had to show them the door.

I may not be “golden” but no one has to show me the door either.  So today I filed my resignation at the district office and said that I was done.

This film speaks to me on many levels at this time in my life. After Chapel gets those words of advice his on-and-off-again girlfriend tells him she’s going to London. He has to pitch so he heads to the stadium, arm full of pain from throwing for nineteen years and he reflects on his life throughout the game. Sometimes in life you get so focused on something that you never picture your life without it.  It becomes a hunger that needs to be fed.  Everything you do you feed to it.  You shut people out, you refuse to let others in and you skip out on obligations because you have the hunger that needs to be fed. I have done the same thing with my school board work and just like Chapel I have worn myself down body and mind serving it. I can’t even remember the times my son has been turned away by me and he says “you’re always working or going to a meeting dad.” The first twenty or so times it hurts, when you get up to where I’m at now it weighs on you greatly.

Despite the sacrifices you make to the hunger you certainly have times you look back upon fondly. You remember some of the achievements you were a part of and I have certainly had my share. Going back to 2001 our district was in utter and complete chaos, the state had come in, it was about to take full control and I had six people who didn’t care too much for the fact that the good people of Round Lake elected me to serve with them and they let me know about it.

Even in my more recent stint I came to a board that had appointed me as its 3rd appointed member in a year. The board had virtually no say in how the district was run, it couldn’t even set the agenda for its meetings. When I would ask why we couldn’t do anything I was told “because of the SFA, they won’t let us.” I made it my mission to change that and since I’ve been president the board has run the district and the board has set the agenda. That was because of the efforts of many good people but I’d like to think I had a hand in that. We built what is essentially a beautiful new school that the district could be proud of and I am certainly proud of from my early days on the board of constantly questioning, “what are we going to do about Magee?” I leave her in good hands.

I remember my first graduation as President of the board and I probably went a bit overboard in my speech to the graduates about what going to RLHS meant. I took a lot of criticism from some people over my remarks despite reviewing them with the principal, Dr. Jeff Brierton (also fondly missed) before I made them. It was worth the shots I took later though when a staff member came to me afterwards telling me how much it meant to her.  I’d do it again.

Also during the film Chapel reflects on his former teammates, some with him still and some not. I have reflected on mine as well. I don’t want to get in trouble and leave someone out but I need to recognize some special people I have served with in the district. Walter Korpan retired a couple of years ago having straightened out the financial mess and I have written previously of my love and admiration for Walter.

Jerri Ryan has served ably for well over a decade now and has steered the district on a path to harmonious relations with the union when they were anything but when she arrived. I particularly remember when Jerri made her transition from in-house counsel to her current position and the tears that were cried over the mere changing of a title.  That’s one of those fights I was glad to have won albeit it only partially. I’m fond of the Reagan desk proverb of “There is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn’t mind who gets the credit.” While others at various times have taken the credit for our improved labor relations Jerri never did though it was sorely deserved.  I will miss my times playing attorney with her.

Heather Bennett has been secretary to the CEO for several years now through the different CEOs and she has been a bastion of consistency and organization in the district office. A fellow graduate of Round Lake she works tirelessly for the CEO, the board and the district. I will miss her great smile and an attitude that never was down. Your words meant a lot to me today Heather, thank you.

I’ll miss Kim Kearby pacing around at the back of a room be it a board room or the RLHS library when we’re taking up a contentious matter. Those times have waned in recent years and I think Kim, who I can’t ever stop reminding people was my tee ball coach, has had less reasons to pace in front of the board.  I’m disappointed I won’t be there to present you with your retirement award Kim, I had an iPod with “Kiss Him Goodbye” all ready to go for the occasion!

Most of all I will certainly miss someone who I certainly consider my friend now and that is Dr. Ben Martindale. Ben came and started working for us despite not even being done with his previous job yet. He and I went over our relationship and how we would work together to achieve the goal I so desperately wanted to achieve. I made some mistakes along the way and he would be there to either nudge me or bark at me if the moment required it. We both share a fondness for the more, shall we say “creative” words of the English language that he has a jar in tribute to on his desk.  We also share many common loves be it sports, the Indy 500 or kids with special needs. I’ve never met a more tireless and passionate servant for children and I don’t think I ever will. Knowing you I know what you must be thinking about all this and I can assure you, it’s the players that play the game, not the coach. I will never forget you and what you have taught this student, my friend.

So I’m sorry to say that this old arm doesn’t have a perfect game with me but I feel like I’ve already made my mark. The picture for this article is one of those proud moments I had. In September 2008 we were visited by 90-year-old Frank Dvorscak who was on the board that would become our board and built RLHS. He was a delightful gentlemen and when he came up to accept our recognition award he whispered “you run a good meeting” and that meant all the world to me. I glanced over at my place at the table where a gavel that had been my father’s rested and thought he might be proud.

In the picture we look pretty funny because I think neither of us wanted to stop chatting for photos. When we were done he went down to the plaque in the old original hallway that bears his name on it. His family sent me a photo with him holding the award I had given him standing with the plaque. That’s legacy stuff and something he was obviously proud of, I hope that will be me some day.

At the end of the film, before he goes to throw the last inning, Chapel writes on a baseball and has it run up to the owner.  As Chapel goes to take the mound one final time the owner looks down at the ball and it says “Tell them I’m through, for love of the game.” It’s the final words of love from someone who doesn’t want to give up what he has built a significant part of his life around. But he realizes he can no longer serve his love the way he should and moves on to other things.

I’m through, for love of the kids.

US Senate: John Arrington

Forget this nonsense about only Kirk can win, John Arrington is the real deal.  Mark Kirk has let us down as Republicans, he quite simply doesn’t support what the party should stand for.  The most glaring example was voting for the ridiculous Cap & Trade Bill.  Under no circumstances should such behavior be rewarded!   Enough about Kirk though — John Arrington is a Harvard graduate, former alderman and public servant.  He has strong conviction to his ideals and if you haven’t seen him speak you can see him now:

Governor: Adam Andrzejewski

There’s a lot not to like in this contest and one candidate rises to the top and that is Adam Andrzejewski (And-G-F-Ski).  Virtually every other candidate for the Republicans has some baggage he’s carrying with him, I won’t go into it all.  Adam is a self-made man, speaks from the heart and holds to the ideals of liberty.  Everyone he is running against can’t hold a candle to his qualifications.

Lieutenant Governor: Jason Plummer

Another great candidate with the ideals of liberty and who comes from the private sector.  Jason has sworn off drawing salary should he be elected Lieutenant Governor.  How’s THAT for putting your money where your mouth is?  Jason wants to transform this useless office into one that will cut through the Springfield red tape as an advocate for liberty.

Comptroller: Jim Dodge

As much as I admire much about Judy Baar Topinka the last thing we need is someone who has spent most of their life down there.  Jim Dodge has a solid background in holding local public office and is a great choice for Comptroller.

Illinois 8th Congressional District Representative: Maria Rodriguez

If there’s anyone who can beat Melissa Bean it’s Maria Rodriguez.  With solid credentials in local government Maria is another candidate on my liberty parade — committed to limited government and free markets.  She’s a fantastic candidate and our best chance yet of having a candidate who represents our ideals and won’t go lock step with a party line that doesn’t hold them.  I strongly endorse Maria Rodriguez for the 8th District.

There’s little doubt for anyone familiar with my writing that the late Senator Edward Kennedy and I had little in common politically. Aside for an issue here or there his positions have been the polar opposite of mine. That’s not why I’m writing here today although I’m sure many will say it is. While the eulogies and the tributes continue to flow for him I can’t sit back and watch it happen without my say, and that’s what blogs are all about.

This isn’t a political issue for me it’s a moral issue and it’s about getting away with murder. I don’t subscribe to the theories that the end of Mary Jo’s life came deliberately at the hands of Edward Kennedy. We will never know because Kennedy made sure we would never know. However, there is no doubt in my mind the man was not fit to hold public office after what happened in July of 1969. When Richard Nixon resigned the presidency it was for covering up a burglary; Kennedy covered up the loss of a promising young woman’s life.  Why he was re-elected to office again and again over the next forty years is almost more troubling than Kennedy’s actions then.

Edgartown Police at the scene of the crash.

So while those who wish to lionize him will go on about all the great accomplishments he made, the way he wanted to embrace people and raise them up, he did so by holding one down. At the critical moment not only did he turn away, he looked for ways out of it. Even his own friends present tried to talk him out of the cover story he was concocting about Mary Jo driving. Worst of all, the diver who recovered Mary Jo’s body told People Magazine in 1989 that she didn’t drown, she spent the last two hours of her life slowly running out of air that was trapped in the car.  During those two hours Kennedy passed up a home within 100 yards of the crash site with people home and a telephone.  He went back to get his friends to start figuring a way out of the mess including blaming it on her.  He concocted a story about Mary Jo wanting to go back to the hotel and Kennedy offered to drive her despite the fact she didn’t tell any of her friends and left her purse and hotel key behind.

“The Lion of the Senate” as he was somehow dubbed resembled the one in The Wizard of Oz in July 1969 as he was far more concerned with saving his own posterior than Mary Jo breathing her last breaths. Even worse, even after these terrifying events he got up the next morning calm and casual striking up conversations with those in the hotel lobby.  Mary Jo’s body laid submerged aside the Dike Bridge that went to nowhere but a beach.

Even after finally showing up at the police station to own up to being involved (the police already knew that having run the plates on the car) he artfully dodged any serious prosecution as only a United States Senator can.  You or I would have have been prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.  The fullest extent for Kennedy who was driving on a suspended license, left the scene of the accident and did nothing to aid Mary Jo was a suspended sentence.  Despite a judge’s clear findings of a cover-up at a coroner’s inquest the distrct attorney never prosecuted the case.

So, I’m sorry if I am out of line for speaking ill of the dead, I think I’m only following Kennedy’s example and I apologize.  We all make our mistakes in life, to err is human.  To walk away and let someone die? Little could be more inhuman.

Amidst all the talk of the grand and noble things Kennedy said and did there should be some thought put to just how genuine those things were.  Because when faced with the terrible wrong he had done Kennedy greeted his moment of truth by walking away.  Some say it cost him the presidency, it cost Mary Jo her life.

Round Lake Area Schools – Board of Education

First off I want to thank everyone who supported Dan, Tonesha and me in the election.  Thank you for returning me to the board I’m very grateful to have your support and will continue working hard to make a difference in CUSD 116.

Obviously this race was closest to me since I was in it.  Despite all the congratulations I have gotten I was very disappointed in the results.  First, to see Tonesha Baker lose, hurt me very much.  Tonesha was the first Master Board Member ever in Round Lake.  Tonesha went out and aggressively got the training when it wasn’t easily being provided and before anyone else.  Most of all Tonesha was always up front and honest with me, never afraid to tell me how she really felt and never told me one thing and did another.  She’s an honest and thoughtful person and an excellent board member, she will be missed.

Secondly, Dan Hartlieb finished a few votes behind me and I was disappointed we couldn’t get the needed votes to take at least two spots.  Dan is someone who’s lived here all his life and is deeply invested in the schools.  I think he would have been an excellent board member.

Tonesha and Dan have both told me they plan to stay involved with the schools and I hope they do so.

If anything the mistakes in this campaign were mine.  First, for not putting the required time into them.  I was too busy with work, board, family, etc to sacrifice the weekends and evenings to be hitting the campaign trail. Our opponents didn’t and were working right through to the final hour, they worked harder.  Second, after a review of the outcomes in many of the races and the techniques used it’s clear running a positive campaign focused on the facts and your accomplishments doesn’t always work.  I thought people would clearly see who was more qualified, who was more invested in the district, who knew what our issues were and who knew what our boardroom looked like more than three months ago.  I was wrong, I won’t make that mistake again.

The campaign is over now and we’ll have a new board member and thus a slightly different board.  The new board will need to rebuild itself, continue to improve and prove that we are ready to take on the reins of leadership ourselves.  We have objectives to meet if the School Finance Authority is going to leave at the end of next school year as anticipated.  We’re going to jump right into working on those objectives right away.

Village of Round Lake

Yesterday the voters sent a clear message they wanted a new direction in leadership for the village, you can’t slice a 2 to 1 victory across the board any other way.  Congratulations to Jim, Joyce, Don, Sonia and Susan for a hard fought victory, you guys deserved it.

I was highly invested in this campaign going months back in fact going back to immediately after the November election.  First I was surveying the field hoping that someone would emerge to challenge Bill Gentes.  When that person was Dan MacGillis I began working with him and Don Newby on their slate.

Contrary to the accusations the two slates decided for their own benefit and for the best chance to defeat Gentes the slates needed to merge.  So then I started working with Jim Dietz and the folks with what became RL United For Change.  I was the webmaster for their site, attended most of their functions and did my best to support this slate because we were in desperate need of change in Round Lake.

I am very pleased that not only did United For Change win, they won in overwhelming fashion signaling a clear message from the Village that things needed to change.  However, that is not to say there weren’t some good and well qualified folks on the opposing slate.  To that I would say each of them made a decision to run with Gentes and thus tied their collective fates to him – that was a mistake.  As I said though there are good folks there and while their decision kept my votes from them I am hopeful we can all move on from this election and work together.

Rebuilding Together

Thus we get to my final topic and that would be moving on from elections together.  Unfortunately local politics is particularly nasty because it’s neighbor versus neighbor in many cases.  The candidates in all the races made their case, some races were won, some were lost.  Now it’s time for us to move on together as the folks have voted.

To that end I am putting this election behind me and will affirm my position to work with anyone who will work with me.  Anyone who is up front and honest with me is someone I can support and work with.  I don’t have to agree with you all the time, there will be times we won’t (and I am certain to let you know about it) but it is rarely if ever personal from me.  I try not to make decisions from a personal viewpoint but at the end of the day I’m only human like anyone else and might be prone to emotion sometimes.   At the end of the day though I would hope that people, whether they agree with me or not, would know that I’m honest and a straight shooter.  I hope we all can work together for our community to make it better for everyone here.