Halloween of 2011 for me was a day of rebirth instead of mocking death with the typical rituals of that pagan holiday. My sister brought twins into the world so a good part of my day was spent at the hospital. However, over the weekend the No Lakota Levy had lost between 500 to 700 signs and Channel 19 was covering the story where Tiffany was kind enough to see me at the hospital as the twins were born to discuss the missing signs. You can see that report at this link.
The little bird said, “Many of us parents were trying to save the band program from severe cuts by having a fund raiser, where we could have covered all the costs for that extracurricular activity. We wanted to pay for it ourselves but were told we weren’t allowed.”
“Why,” I asked.
“Because we were told that the band was an emotional issue that the public enjoyed, and that if the public didn’t pass the levy, it would be taken away until they did pass a levy.”
The long time family friend said to my wife after I left, “I hope the levy passes because I’m tired of having to drive my kids to school. It’s really hard on me.”
“But don’t you see that’s why they are doing it,” My wife said.
“You look tired,” Mr. Predator says to a little girl in his high school class.
“Yes, my mom and dad are……….having trouble,” says the little girl.
“Oh, that can be so hard on the kids. I’m sorry to hear about that.”
The little girl looks up at Mr. Predator. “Thanks.”
Mr. Predator puts his hands on the shoulder of the little girl. “Any time you need Mr. Predator, just let me know.”
Mr. Predator then proceeds to find reasons to deal exclusively with the little girl and manages to use her to arrange conferences with her mother.
“I can see that you are having difficulty in class. Will you give your mother my email address here at the school and tell her I’d like to speak with her about getting you some help?”
The little girl looks up at Mr. Predator bright-eyed and grateful. “Yes, thank you for all your help.”
The little girl goes home and gives her mother the email address to Mr. Predator.
Soon the mother contacts Mr. Predator and they are exchanging frequent emails. The mother angry at her husband over marital difficulties finds the divorcee Mr. Predator’s flirtatious advances inviting and soon Mr. Predator is sending emails to the mother such as, “You are a hot little cougar.”
Mr. Predator goes up to the little girl, “You look tired.”
“Mommy and Daddy were fighting. It was awful.”
“Oh,” says Mr. Predator. “I’m so sorry to hear such a thing. That’s really hard on the kids. What were they fighting about?”
The little girl looks up at her teacher. “They were fighting about you, Mr. Predator.”
Mr. Predator pretends to be shocked. But the little girl isn’t done. “Mr. Predator, why did you write in my planner that it was your birthday, and for me to get you an expensive present? I don’t have any money. My daddy thinks you wrote that for mommy to see.”
The couple resolved their differences and came to terms with the marital difficulties they had been experiencing, and once the smoke cleared they assessed with a fresh perspective the folly of their circumstances.
“How did you meet him?” asks the father.
“Through our daughter, it’s Mr. Predator. He is her teacher. He said she needed ‘extra’ help.”
“So he was using our kid to actually get to you,” the father says bluntly.
When the father learns that the teacher Mr. Predator has simply been moved to a different school he goes to the school board for help where Joan Powell takes an interest and reveals that there have been other problems at this particular school and that there wasn’t much she could do about it. This shocked the father. “Doesn’t the school board have any power to help with this?”
“No.”
So the father turned to Ron Spurlock, who genuinely tried to help with the situation. Being the assistant superintendent, his hands were tied also. So when the new superintendent was hired in Mrs. Mantia, the father tried to get a straight answer out of her. “Again, there isn’t anything we can do. It’s consenting adults.”
“Don’t you people have control over your employees?” the father pleaded.
“Do I need legal counsel?”
“I’m not talking about legal counsel,” the father said. “I just want someone to take responsibility for something.”
Public schools are too concerned with legalisms when they should be concerned about community values. I have watched and seen many people like this father get isolated as a “trouble-maker” by administration officials and turned into a radical in the courts of legal perception. “Mr. Father, you don’t have a case. Your wife engaged in a relationship with our teacher.”
“But the teacher used our child to start the relationship, at school. My wife was vulnerable and because of my child being in Mr. Predator’s class, he learned about that vulnerability. He sent home messages to contact my wife and lure her into his arms. He seduced her and he used my child to do it!”
Blank stares from the administration. “Mr. Father, we are very sorry but there is nothing we can do.”
The father is frustrated that all any of the administrators are concerned with is covering their asses. “Are you happy knowing you have an employee who has these behavioral tendencies still on your payroll?”
Behavioral tendencies are those nasty little things that indicate a person is prone to trouble. In this case once Mr. Predator had been suspended for the investigation he was simply moved to another high school. Without clamping down on the behavior, the teacher was simply told, “watch out, keep things on the down low. This father is out to get you.”
This is why wives should not typically go to night clubs with their girlfriends, because going to such places are an advertisement that you are on the market and looking. Men should not do the same, because in so doing, they are inviting opportunities for sexual relations outside of the sanctity of their marriage. The same holds true for a man taking a female friend to a social event, or out for lunch. Most of the time, probably 80% of the time, the man is searching for an opportunity to have some sort of sexual relationship with a woman using such activities as the introductory platform. The married couple must navigate those activities carefully and among themselves without social interference.
As I was looking at a Move Forward Lakota Levy sign at a traffic light where the people who placed it stuck it directly in front of one of our No Lakota Levy signs so people couldn’t see our sign, I had to laugh at the behavior. It was symbolic of many of the problems discussed here, were parents put on blinders to the behavior of a school in a belief that they will get an excellent product if they simply toss money at it. But Lakota seems to have an administrative tendency whether it is the story of this father upset that a Lakota teacher seduced his wife through his child within his classroom, or Ryan Fahrenkemp taking pictures of the kids in his classroom on a field trip in states of undress, or even the golfer who committed suicide. The alarm flags were up but nobody acted. The tendency of the administration at Lakota is to MOVE FORWARD, there is nothing to see here.
I ride roller coasters so much in fact that when my publisher accepted the manuscript to my latest novel, they commented on how intense the action was, and wondered how I could write such a thing. I explained that much of the original manuscript had been sketched out on my hand while riding The Stunt Track at Kings Island, which I road again will thinking about the Hume story at Lakota East. There is something soothing in that catapult launch, and the run through the police cars that gets my blood boiling in a positive direction and organizes my thoughts. The faster the roller coasters, the more clear things become for me.And as for settings, strange creatures, gothic music, and smoke machines actually provide context for the metaphors they represent in the real world. My wife and I grabbed some steak fries from Rivertown and I pondered more of the perplexing quagmires percolating in my mind from the week. I think I like this time of year at Kings Island best simply because they don’t play all the pop music throughout the park. I prefer symphonic pieces most of the time as a musical choice, especially playful pieces themed around horror films.
A reporter called me, “Rich, not too many people like you do they?”
“No, and I like it that way,” I replied.
“You like it that way?”
“Yes, because if you are good and fair to people, yet they still don’t like you just because you are asking legitimate questions, it’s because they have something to hide. So the more people who hate me means we’re uncovering things they want to hide and their anger is the mask for which they use to hide it,” I said. “Did you call to tell me that?”
“I received a strange message from someone who didn’t leave their name or number. They were furious that I spoke to you about the school board story.”
I thought about the story that had broken earlier in the week, along with everything else mentioned. You can see the article that started the rift on the Lakota School Board at this ink:
“They said you weren’t qualified to speak about school board matters and that we shouldn’t talk to you.”
“Well, there’s your answer, it’s one of the school board members themselves. What do you think?”
“You’re the one who gave us the flyer,” the reporter said. “If you hadn’t done that there wouldn’t be a story.”
“So because I’m not a school board member I’m not qualified to look at a flyer from a school board president and see what she’s up to, trying to stack the board in her favor, and therefore the position of the union? So because you interviewed me, they are trying to put pressure on you to not speak to me in the future. Is that how you take it?”
“Sounds that way to me,” the reporter said.
“Well, do you regret talking to me?”
“Hell, no!” the reporter said. “You are a fun guy to talk to. I just thought it was funny is all.”
I laughed. “Well, if they are pissed off, it means I’m doing something right. And before I’m done, there will be a lot more pissed off people, you can count on that. Sounds like mafia tactics to me. What do you think?”
“That’s the first thing I thought of,” the reporter added before we went into another interview for a story being prepared for another article.
In Ohio the NEA (NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION) contributed $1 million to defeating Issue 2 and they are a radical organization. Look at their reading list, shown on their website. These are the books that the NEA wants the teachers you pay for to read. The NEA is the parent union to the OEA (Ohio Education Association) and specific to Lakota the OEA is the parent organization to the LEA (Lakota Education Association.) These books are listed as they appear on the NEA website.
Rules for Radicals
Saul Alinsky, Vintage Books, 1989
The classic book about organizing people, written by one of America’s foremost organizers.
Organize for Social Change
Midwest Academy Manual for Activists
Third Edition, Kim Bobo et al, Seven Locks Press, 2001
This is one of the best books about collective action and putting the screws to decision-makers. It’s about winning battles.
Building More Effective Unions
Paul Clark, Cornell University Press, 2000
Penn State Professor of Labor Studies Paul Clark applies the latest in behavioral sciences research to creating more effective unions. His insights are both astute and highly practical.
The Trajectory of Change: Activist Strategies for Social Change
Michael Albert, SouThend Press, 2002
Z Magazine’s Michael Albert has assembled a collection of thoughtful articles on ways to overcome various obstacles to social change.
Roots to Power: A Manual for Grassroots Organizing
Lee Staples, Praeger, 1984
This is a good nuts and bolts guide to organizing. It is especially good on recruiting, developing action plans, executing them, and dealing with counterattacks.
Taking Action: Working Together for Positive Change in Your Community
Elizabeth Amer, Self Counsel Press, 1992
Written by a Toronto community activist, this book is easy to read, full of examples, and sprinkled with how-to-advice.
Organizing: A Guide for Grassroots Leaders
Si Kahn, McGraw Hill, 1981, Revised 1991
This book is well organized. You can find relevant material for your situation without reading the whole book.
Ethical Ambition: Living a Life of Meaning and Worth
Derrick Bell, Bloomsbury, 2002
A gem of a book that delves into the question of “Why become an activist?” It is both thought-provoking and energizing.
Soul of a Citizen: Living with Conviction in a Cynical Time
Paul Rogat Loeb, St. Martins Press, 1999
Provides solace for the activist‘s soul and juice for the activist’s battery
What’s happening is through radical union activity and small little rewards like higher wage compensation and benefits, grants and other perks, the radical unions are nudging their teachers to embrace radical ideas camouflaged behind carefully planted smiles and a public image. School boards are constructed to maintain that façade to the public, as the direction of the school boards is then controlled by the OSBA, the Ohio School Board Association who also reads the same types of books. School board members who don’t play nicely are pushed off the board, because the aim of a school board is to achieve public consensus. The game is a very subtle one, and for people who are more interested in watching Dancing with the Stars or picking up a magazine which features Jennifer Aniston’s newest love interest, they probably will think what I’m saying is a bunch of crazy talk. In fact, many school board members and even some superintendents might think so because their thinking is so specialized and focused on a specific task that they fail to see static patterns outside of their own experience. (TO UNDERSTAND STATIC PATTERNS AND WHAT THEY MEAN TO YOU CLICK THE LINK FOR REFERENCE.)
As I looked at all the costumes around Kings Island on the Haunt night I saw that it is the masks that the unions show us. The education institutions themselves are all wearing them and they want you to buy into the product they are selling, care and education for your children with service and smile. But what the larger organizations of union control want are teachers to pay them dues so they can use that money to inflict social change. READ THIS ARTICLE TO UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY ARE AFTER.
This morning an employee came up to me and said, “You’re for Issue 2, right?”
“Yes,” I said. “I’m a tremendous supporter of Issue 2.”
“Well, I think it’s just terrible. They want to take away our collective bargaining rights.”
I said to them, “Nobody has a right to collective bargaining. What makes you think it’s a right?”
“It’s in the constitution!” They were very angry when they said this.
I took a breath. “No, it’s not in any constitution either federal, or state wide. Collective bargaining for public employees was created by corrupt, progressive politicians to ‘purchase’ voting blocks for themselves. It has nothing to do with actual rights. FDR started this discussion and Kennedy finished it off as a favor to the mobs in 1962 with Executive Order 10988. That’s when public unions were allowed to form and it was a mistake. Unions have NO natural rights to anything I have. They do not have a right to collectively bargain for the tax money I toss in the pot to spend on our government services.”
“But they pay taxes too!” They said.
“Yes, but the difference is for the public employee, they pass the hat around, they all contribute and at the end, they divide up among themselves what they put in, because their wages come out of the hat. I put money in the hat and it never comes back to me. I don’t get money back out of the hat. It goes around, I contribute, and I get back an employee for public service, and I have a limit on what I’m willing to pay for those services. Collective bargaining in my opinion should have been abolished in Issue 2, along with the idea that public employees should be in a union. It doesn’t go far enough in my opinion! I see Issue 2 as a very fair reform that is ESSENTIAL to the future of Ohio.”
I was at an event the other day where many politicians had gathered. All of them knew both Cunningham and Seitz and we had very animated discussions about them. I offered that I think these guys think public education is all about football scores. They think public education is all about the Friday Night Lights which brings the community together under the banner of sports. The thought of a teachers union doesn’t cross their mind. In Cunningham’s case, the PTA groups and Lakota coaches come into his sports bar in West Chester and ask him, “please support us. You are the only one. Our children’s lives are in jeopardy.” I have a good idea what kind of talk goes on because another sports bar within the Lakota district received the threat of a boycott from one of the principals at Lakota last year working through the PTA organization, which really scared the owner. So much so she came to the No Lakota Levy group for help. The PTA argument was “We will pull our business if you don’t support the Lakota Levy.” So there is no question that similar discussions have taken place with Bill Cunningham who is a businessman first and understands that such a fight would cost him. So it’s easier to just keep focused on those Friday Night Lights, ground everyone can relate with, and ignore all the real problems.
• Huber Heights City School District: $1,273 • Northmont City School District: $1,272 • Valley View Local School District: $1,266 • Oakwood City School District: $1,249 • Northridge Local School District: $881 • Vandalia-Butler City School District: $880 • Mad River Local School District: $869 • Kettering City School District: $862 • Dayton City School District: $387 • Trotwood-Madison City School District: $383 • Centerville City School District: $311
The West Chester Police did a good thing and that’s act quickly on an internal investigation of one of their own. The nine-year veteran 37-year-old David Busemeyer was investigated and indicted by a grand jury of three felony charges, obstruction of official business, obstruction of justice and attempted tampering with evidence. Busemeyer is of course innocent until proven guilty, but this entire internal investigation is a reminder that public servants are not perfect. And I don’t expect them to be. What I expect is for West Chester to do exactly as it did, and that is bring about justice even when it involves their own.
The trouble with “collective begging” which is the union term that Cunningham has adopted to refer to the “collective bargaining” reform bill of Issue 2 is that “collective bargaining” is not practical, is expensive, and allows employees who can’t achieve large wage levels under their own merit to make excellent wages under that system. Using West Chester purely as an example since it’s my community it’s not a big deal if David Busemeyer makes $70,032.20 if there was some sort of evaluation procedure that delivered him that type of wage. Maybe he does a lot of high risk work, or maybe he can speak in several languages and act as a translator for illegal immigration busts. But under collective bargaining, EVERYONE makes that kind of money. All a public employee has to do is show up for work, do what they are told within the union rules, and keep their nose clean, somewhat, and they will receive an automatic increase based on their collective bargaining contract.And instead of one employee making great money, you have hundreds making that kind of money and every bit of it must come from the tax payer.
I hired Willie about 15 years ago to be my spokesman for a line of T-shirts I was producing to help get out a message I had which stated, “TAKE AN AX TO OUR TAX.” We were making the shirts at cost during the 1996 election season to bring high taxes to people’s attention. Rob Portman actually bought one from me, and I took one down to city hall and gave it to Roxanne Quals, the mayor of Cincinnati at the time. Willie was hired to do our commercial which we ran on 700 WLW.
I was set to go on with Bill Cunningham during his 9 PM show on a summer Friday night. As I was headed to the station Cunningham had on a segment where he had strippers on doing a live strip show while Cunningham did play-by-play commentary. My wife told me, “This is the guy you’ve hired to be your spokesman?”
I said, “No, he’s a conservative. Willie is just doing this for ratings.”
My wife said, “And you’re going to go on behind this?”
I shrugged my shoulders.
“Doesn’t this compromise your message?” My wife said. “You hate Howard Stern because he has no ethics. You hate Jerry Springer because he’ll do anything for money. How is this guy any different? And you’re going to go on his show and let him pretend he’s a conservative. You’re going to acknowledge his existence? You’re going to even give him the time of day?”
In the video above, Cunningham has fantasies that his words actually carry weight, and there is a certain percentage of the population out there who would listen to advice from Jerry Springer, Howard Stern, or Bill Cunningham. Those types of personalities try to be everything to everybody, and actually believe in nothing. But then again, most lawyers are that way. They’ll believe whatever you tell them to, so long as the money is green.
Doc Thompson did a segment about this controversy and I came on toward the end of it to provide some background about how S.B.5 was born and why all public workers were placed under the umbrella of Issue 2, which Doc felt was causing much of the problems that are starting to emerge. Both sides are getting furious and undermining each other with dirty tricks.
Obviously, the repeal attempt is attempting to manipulate the public, and they haven’t even thought about what will happen if Issue 2 gets repealed. The overwhelming amount of selfishness exhibited by the Repeal People is even bewildering to me. Collective bargaining has never been a “right” yet the government employee culture has come to expect disproportionate benefits from the tax payer and they have shown they will do anything to get them, even if the benefits come at the expense of their co-workers who are under them in seniority. Without Issue 2 there will be no legal way to balance our budgets, and massive layoffs will occur, and we will lose teachers, firefighters and police. So the YES ISSUE 2 people put together the ad you see below which turns the first ad back around on that same group with truth, which caused the controversy.
I was at a GameStop the other day buying a new video game and a woman about my age was at the counter talking to the staff member who was trying to explain to the woman who if she used a special promotional offer that GameStop was offering, the woman could save $15 dollars on the game she was buying for her son. To my shock the woman said, “Do I look like I need to save money!” I took note of her large diamond rings, her very nice attire, her manicured hands, her hair, and her ear rings. I had heard her say earlier that she lived in Blue Ash so it was important to her that people saw that she made a lot of money. I have heard the same thing from parents who want me to support the school levies. “Can’t you afford $40 more a month? What’s wrong with you?” It is the same mentality.
And many people are already at that point. My wife and I were dining at Chili’s recently and I studied the people at the bar while we ate. Many of the couples there were watching the baseball playoff games being shown and were drinking large quantities of alcohol. I knew a few of them, and knew that they were putting the bill on their credit cards and that their wives secretly resented their own jobs and wished they had the ability to stay home as my wife does. But those couples came to Chili’s to meet with other friends and keep up appearances because it’s important to them to be able to say they dined out and did some socializing. I’ve told those same men that you are working too hard to pay too much tax that if you paid less tax, you could enjoy coming to Chili’s and have the money to pay for it without worry.
“But I have plenty of money. I’ll pay of the American Express in full when it comes. No problem.”
That mug shot of Diana Frey represents to me the problems of public sector unions. It’s not the individual members themselves who are the problem, but collectively they pave the way to corruption. As a general rule, the larger the organization, the more opportunities for corruption, and that corruption usually comes from the leadership. Diana Frey had access to vast sums of money from a union she started, and she abused that trust for her own gain. There are people like her in the leadership of most unions to varying degrees. They may not be embezzling money on the scale of Diana Frey, but the power they wield does corrupt their intentions for the so-called “greater good.”
A hard look at the Stacy Schuler case in Mason and the sexual promiscuity going on at that school not just among that one teacher, but the several who are also involved, and the situation I recently learned about at Lakota where a teacher thought nothing of using a child to seduce the mother of a family is that all these participants are functioning within a bubble of protection which the union gives them. Because unions destroy competition, there are no real rivals in the work place that must be out-performed, and this allows the mind to wander to sexual promiscuity on the light end of corruption and on the heavy end, Diana Frey and her embezzlement of three-quarters of a million dollars in union dues. See the sad sex story of the Lakota parents here:
As I was riding to work this morning in the crisp cool autumn air I thought of a friend of mine and frequent reader here who announced to me last night, “I’m the one of the first to sign the petition for Ohio to become a Right to Work State!” I had to smile at that, and not just because the mask I wear in the cold attracts a lot of attention, but because it has been talked about for a long time. Many of us who have wanted education reform have been waiting to see the results of Issue 2, but after seeing how much money the unions from outside Ohio have spent attempting to defeat that very fair bill, it has been decided to proceed with our plan to put Ohio Right-to-Work on the state ballot. This is something that needs to be implemented as fast as possible. The ugliness, the fear tactics, the misleading information that has come out of the unions during this campaign against Issue 2 has sealed the deal and convinced many people who there just isn’t a happy co-existence with labor unions. Employees need to have the option to belong to them or not, and in the future I will judge the value of employees based first on whether or not they are in a union. If they are in a union I will assume that they are a weak employee who is relying on collective-bargaining to receive a level of pay they do not deserve. Those not in a union will naturally earn my respect because they obviously are proud of their work and don’t wish to hide it in a collective mass.
Rich Hoffman
