What a difference a day makes.
Yesterday morning, Orange County had a Board of Education made up 7 elected officials. Today there are only six. And according to media reports, the Board will simply wait until the voters fill the vacant seat in May.
I must say that this group of Keystone Cops has finally made a decision with which I agree. Let the voters decide who represents them. The last thing we need is repeat of the undemocratic fiasco that embroiled Carrboro a while back.
As for the Dennis Whitling scandal, I cannot deny that I am happy to see him off the Board. I think it is a genuine victory for the parents and children of Orange County.
However, I am going to take the high road and resist the extremely powerful urge to kick the man while he's down, even though I don't feel he would show the same courtesy to the parents and children of HES. That said, I will continue to link to developments in the case and publish comments from those who want to express an opinion on the issue.
Now for the original reason I sat down to post tonight. A while back I began receiving a large number of anonymous comments that I felt made unfair accusations about different groups of people and from people using names I knew to be fraudulent. While I would openly welcome comments from Joel Osteen on my blog, I find it hard to believe he has time to become involved in the politics of Orange County schools.
As a result, I began taking a more proactive approach to deciding which comments I publish to this blog. Unfortunately, this has struck at least one poster as unfair, and he/she has called on me to account for not publishing one of his/her recent comments.
In response to the posting I made after last night's Board meeting, I received the following comment this morning:
"Your statement that the announcement was made after the press left the meeting is completely incorrect. The announcement was reported in today's Durham Herald Sun. Where is the freedom of speech when you won't report my comments about the board member who resigned last night?"
While I typically will not respond to an anonymous comment, I felt a response might serve to both answer some of the poster's concerns while also providing some clarity around the issue of submitting comments.
Let's start with the anonymous poster's assertion that I was incorrect in my statement that Ted Triebel waited until the media had left before announcing Dennis Whitling's resignation. My statement was correct. Because they have early deadlines, reporters from the Raleigh News & Observer and Durham Herald-Sun routinely leave meetings early. Both Cheryl Sadgrove of the N&O and Ginny Hoyle of the Herald-Sun have told me that it is because the Central Office Boardroom has no wireless Internet access through which they can file their stories. As for last night, both left before Ted's announcement.
Yes, there was a report about Whitling's resignation in the Herald Sun this morning. What the poster assumes is that the Herald-Sun reporter needed to be present for the announcement to write her article. This was not the case. In fact, I emailed word of Whitling's resignation to the Herald-Sun reporter as soon as I arrived home, and then emailed her again when video of the announcement was posted to this blog. Had I not done so, there would have been no report in this morning's paper.
Second, let me provide a simple explanation for why I did not publish the anonymous poster's earlier comments about Dennis Whitling's situation. It was simply because the poster repeatedly referred to Dennis Whitling as "Dennis Hastert." Now, Dennis Hastert is a former Speaker of the US House of Representatives who, to my knowledge, has never been criminally charged with stealing $115,000 from a Durham law firm.
Finally, this is a good opportunity to provide a bit of clarity around what gets posted to this blog. Since day one, this has been a moderated blog. This means that I, and I alone, decide what gets published here. That fact has always been outlined in the "Commenting details" at the bottom of this page. It has always stated, "This is a moderated blog. The comments allowed are entirely at the discretion of the blog owner." That's me.
This is not now, never has been, and never will be, a free-for-all zone. Like almost any blog that allows reader comments, there are rules. And, I have sole authority to enforce those rules as I see fit.
If at any time you submit a comment that does not appear on my blog in a reasonable period of time, feel free to send me a message with your contact information, and I will respond with my reasoning behind rejecting your comment.
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7 comments:
You do appear to be biased in what you post. This blog paints Al H. and Anne M as saints. While at the same time, you allow some personal attacks to be posted. To be fair, you should not allow any. If everyone sticks to the facts and the current issues, there would be no need for anyone to get personal. But that's just my two cents. It's your blog and you can do whatever you want.
I fully appreciate you having this blog. I comment fully knowing it is at your descretion whether or not my comments are posted. So far, they all have been. That seems only appropriate since it is YOUR site. If it is your house, you can decorate it however you want to. If this poster isn't happy with how you run your site, then there is plenty of room on the web for them to create their own blog. Thanks for having this site, and kudo's for standing up for your right to run it!
Al and Anne may not be saints, but they do favor decisions that improve education in ou county, a forgotten objective by some. They have been our childrens advocate in this mess and therefore deserve our support
Re: the personal attacks on the other board members:
Anne and Al have lost a lot of sleep over HES and its future. They have been out on a limb on our behalf several times.
It is a political fight and we are on one side of the argument and the others have a philosophical difference. I wouldn't go on the Republican website and praise Clinton either. Although that would be fun!
Anyway, I know for a fact that Dennis had a few personal attacks on Al. Furthermore, his holier-than-thou approach warranted a few barbs in my opinion.
"If everyone sticks to the facts and the current issues, there would be no need for anyone to get personal. But that's just my two cents. It's your blog and you can do whatever you want."
Let's look at the facts:
(1) Liz Brown states that HES should be shut down because it is a "frills" school.
(2) Debbie makes a comparison of HES parents and the KKK because both groups met at the same building, eventhough it was many years apart.
(3) Ted Treibel says that HES does not represent the community due to the color of our skin.
(4) Casey Farrell says we are the "whitest" school. During the whole merger talks, Casey has painted the HES parents as elitists that are fighting diversity.
There are many more examples. The Board was the group who landed the first low blow. We didn't respond until after the personal attacks began. I always believe you don't hit someone until you are hit. Once hit, you knock them down. This is an effective way to control a bully.
To anonymous Feb 20 at 9:30:
You wrote "If everyone sticks to the facts ... there would be no need for anyone to get personal."
That reminds me of a famous quote from Harry Truman. "I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it's hell."
The problem is that what I feel is a fact, you may think is a personal attack.
If I was to say "Liz Brown is an arrogant, self-important shrew", you would probably see that as a personal attack. However, to me it is a fact.
I do not think highly of anyone on the board. But the fact that "Liz Brown is an arrogant, self-important shrew" will not hold up in a court of law or arbitration.
What matters are the facts, what the laws state, what the policies state and if those policies and laws were administered properly.
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