More Coffee, Please

The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing man that he didn’t exist.

Baudelaire said it, and it’s true enough. But sadly, it also pertains to the School District.

Mr. Neil Moriarty’s removal as budget committee chair is a win for schools. But let’s be honest—It’s probably mostly a win for the Budget Committee, as they won’t need to put up with an abusive chair—the primary reason stated for his removal. Let’s be clear what this is—he’s not the chair. He’s still on the Board, and the Monadnock Taxpayer’s Association is still alive and kicking.¹

I don’t think anyone will believe Mr. Moriarty doesn’t exist, but the fact he’s no longer as visible means he’s not such a nice target. It was easy to point out why he was a problem to someone who isn’t paying attention—even his name made it fun. If anyone had a clue at all, they had the fun of pretending to be Sherlock Holmes.

On a more serious note, “He’s the chairman of the budget committee and opposes anything which helps the schools” rolls off the tongue much easier than “he’s a citizen of Richmond who runs around and tries to stir up trouble.” ² In addition, his actions as the Budget Committee chair—going back to his home town and not supporting budgets he helped develop—made it easy to see him as unscrupulous and deceptive. ³ Now he’s in a much less public position, and the temptation will be to think with him gone there’s nothing more to worry about.

It’s not the end of anything, and it won’t be over until Swanzey votes. The town must get out and it must vote. There’s no other way to say this—if Swanzey votes in proportion to its population, then there’s a very good chance the myriad of problems the district is currently facing will start being solved. ⁴

Live in Swanzey? Vote. Know someone in Swanzey? Start telling them to vote. Point them somewhere they can get good information.

1 Actually, they’re probably kicking themselves for not showing up, and probably talking to lawyers—it’s in their nature. Which means they won’t make the mistake again…which means the next time, it’s going to be much more of a battle to pull off doing what’s right. We can’t rely on the other side starting a land war in Asia all the time. ↺

2 On an interesting note, the Monadnock Taxpayer’s Association claims that their purpose is to lower taxes in the district. But Surry leaving the district raised taxes by their own admission. and now they’re involved in Sullivan trying to get that town to leave? This will once again raise taxes… So if they’re not after lowering taxes then what? Destroying public education? What else is left? Do we want people who don’t support public education involved in the conversation about what’s best for our kids? ↺

3 Though evidence for this isn’t that hard to come up with. I love his letter on July 15 to the editor posted on the Monadnock Taxpayer’s Association site where he claims that during the 2007-2008 school year the school will only have 950 students. This was written two months before this school year—a school year which has 1300+ students in the building. How can someone “accidently” be off 350+ students? I wish the Monadnock Taxpayer’s Association allowed comments on their site—it’d be nice to be able to post accurate information to what they have online. ↺

4 At least, the financial ones. The problems with the schools themselves will take longer, and it will once again require the parents to start demanding a change. Unfortunately, that will take more than one night at the polls. ↺

Gregarious

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