School Board Elections are no Big Deal, right?

Yesterday two candidates for the South Washington County School District 833 were informed by the district file clerk that a complaint had been made about the candidates' sign placement.  The email read as follows:

Good afternoon, I had a CG resident contact me to say that your signs near the corner of ---th Street and County Road -- are illegally placed.  He says they are on church property OR too close to the roadway...He says that if you do not move them by 8am tomorrow morning, he is contacting the city to have them removed.

This morning, the husband of one of the candidates went to check on the signs, at which time he reported being watched by a man in an older black truck near the church property.  The husband recorded the license plate number of the truck, then determined that the signs were not illegally placed on city property, but were on church property.  He talked with the church secretary about the issue, and was informed that on Thursday, allegedly a man had entered the church, threatened the secretary with the IRS - loss of tax-exempt status - if the church did not remove the signs.  He also allegedly left a note stating, "Remove the signs, or else."

The incident, along with the license plate number, have been reported to the Cottage Grove police and is being investigated.

This incident demonstrates that even though our school district has its elections on odd years, and only around 7% of voters - approximately 4,000 out of 50,000 eligible voters - will vote on school board candidates, that these "small, local elections" hold much value to the people involved with determining the future of our children and control over taxpayer money. They know that most people are not paying attention to the election, and when there are candidates who are willing question and hold accountable the administration and education unions, that they must shut those candidates down in any way possible - even if it means threatening a church's First Amendment Right of Freedom of Speech.  

School board members make decisions that affect all the students in the district - those kids are our future. Their decisions affect how much we will be paying each year in taxes and how much our district employees - teachers and staff - will be paid.  I would argue that there is no more important election than that of the school board and city councils because what they do affects the citizens the most.

Obviously, there are those in our district who feel that this election is important and are willing to stoop to the lowest of lows to shut down opposition voices.

Pay attention.  Research the candidates.  Ask questions about the levy renewal/increase and bond.  Do your homework. AND VOTE ON NOVEMBER 5.

UPDATE: The police went to the church and spoke with the pastor and the candidates.  The police have stated that the person in the truck was actively harassing the candidates and church.  The police have also said that if the person in the truck is seen at either at the church or the candidates' homes that would constitute "stalking."  
~Updated 12:33pm, October 18, 2013 

Not Going Anywhere

A quote by Winston Churchill has been ruminating in my brain these last couple of days.  It is one of my favorites in general, but lately, it has come to gain significance.

You have enemies?

Good.

That means you've stood up 

for something,

sometime in your life.

Judging by some recent comments made on previous blog posts, I've managed to stand up for something and have created some enemies by doing so.  This person, or these people, seem to think that by leveling personal attacks here on my blog and (GASP!) using my actual name, that they're helping whatever cause it is that they support and they see me as opposing.  Rather than having the intelligence to argue their own points in a logical and reasonable way, they've decided to attack me personally.

Ah yes, I do love the way some people's minds work - it's like a "I can't argue my point so I'm going to call you a name"-disease.  This disease usually manifests itself when the attacker has no ground on which to stand and/or no logical reasoning behind whatever their beliefs are, so instead of admitting they are wrong or don't have a clue about which they're talking, they go into six-year-old debate tactics: "Well...well...YOU'RE A BIG FAT LIAR STUPIDHEAD!" followed by a stomp of the foot and sticking out a tongue. And truthfully, no consequence will befall them if they choose to post here. On MY blog. Unless, you count my ability to edit certain comments to remove names of my friends, or those of private citizens of whom they are trying to discredit or insult or the names of my children from the comments, or even remove my own name if I so choose, a right of which I reserve to use when I feel it is necessary to do so. Or there's the consequences of my friends seeing me being personally attacked in a vicious way and then they decide to stand up for me by taking you down (I do LOVE my friends), usually using the same tactic you chose when you attacked me (that'd be called "Tit-4-Tat" debate-style, used by elementary students all over the world).  Otherwise, you know what? You are free to say whatever you want.  Also, if you look WAAAAAAAAAY up at the top of the page, underneath the bulldog with lipstick (I know, it's supposed to be a pitbull, but the bulldog was cuter), you'll see my very own disclaimer: "You've entered my world now; unless otherwise noted, all posts are my thoughts/opinions/musings; callin' it like I see it." That means exactly what it says - I take responsibility for my posts and if you don't like how I call it, well, I guess you'll just have to stop reading and move on to the next blog now, huh? Buh-Bye.

However if you choose to continue reading, you should know that I work hard to research and show factual documentation for the things I post here, and I would expect that since I work hard to research and logically argue whatever point I'm attempting to make, that the polite thing to do if you happen to disagree with me, would be to do your own research and find a way to civilly argue your point, either here in the comments (and take your chances that someone else will come in and disagree with you and expect you to explain your point - you know, a give-and-take of ideas might occur in which you might learn something new or else you might actually teach somebody something new).  That's how things should work here on MY blog and in the real world.

Unfortunately, that's not how they usually work.  What seems to happen instead is that as soon as one person disagrees with another person, the first thing out of the disagreeing person's mouth is some sort of name like "Hypocrite!" or "You have an Inferiority Complex?" or "Hateful!" or "Bi-Polar!" This tactic is used to shut down debate and discredit the speaker/writer.  If the debate is stopped, then whoever shut it down wins.  At least that's what they think.  But the problem is, no one wins when that happens.  People don't hear each other, they don't really listen to each other and the fights go on and on and on and on.  And pretty soon, we're spinning our wheels in the most divisive political climate the country has experienced in the last 100 years. Or that's what we're told.

Funny how I am trying to teach the etiquette of debate or civil disagreement; honestly, etiquette is not my strong suit as evidenced by Buttercup producing "armpit farts" at dinner on Mother's Day.  All I could do is choke back laughter and beg her to quit.  Granted, we were only at "Lenny's" (as the kids call it...what? Mama was craving some Chicken Fried Steak...It was MY day. What can I say? I'm pretty easy to please), and they put us in a far back corner, and Buttercup is still quite young, but....yeah, what I'm trying to say is: use your manners.  Don't come onto my blog and start trying to shut me down by insulting me or trying to intimidate me, because that's not going to work.  I'm not going anywhere.  If you disagree, please feel free to civilly argue your case, but remember, if you choose to do otherwise there could be consequences...after all, the name of the blog is:

A MNHockeyMama's World.