Oh my Goodness!
I live in a quiet small lovely little town
Until you cross the wrong people.
Nutshell: our school district has to vote on getting a new school or now. On the surface it is awesome--who wouldn't want a new school?
Tons of ‘Vote YES on 3A’ signs up everywhere. Everyone is happy.
Some people start asking questions--wondering about cost, and deeper questions.
NOW...teachers/staff who MIGHT (and I am not saying there are, because I would not want to the be the reason they fear for their job) not want to vote Yes are not sharing any feelings because their jobs might be at risk.
Lucas (my hubby) was told "I am just warning you, this might hurt your business" on his discussion to vote no. his name was specifically addressed at a meeting--
Another man, who has been getting a lot of information about why we shouldn’t vote yes, was sent a letter in the mail--and it was NOT a love letter.
My QUESTION is---what is happening to our town?
What is happening to the 1st amendment!?
I have NO idea who is leading these letters or negatives statements.
I have NO ill feelings towards ANYONE about this--I am sad that it has come to this. In my mind I live in a world where people sit in a forum and talk peacefully with out to many emotions (love that mom?) and everyone is able to see all sides and then vote accordingly---EVEN if that means voting differently then me!
Long version with some ranting...
I DON'T CARE IF PEOPLE VOTE YES OR NO...I just want people to question more and find out both sides of the story---I like most people in our town---I think this is mostly a good school district with mostly excellent staff and teachers.
I feel that it is sad the Vote Yes people can send out a letter and sign their names at the bottom, when our little group can't do that for fear of retaliation. I feel it is sad that people have told me flat out, I am not telling anyone how I vote because I don't want to deal with the anger.
Ask questions---Like how all the signs were paid for by the construction company who is contracted to build our school---WHY would they be that interested? I could only assume millions of reasons?
Ask--how bad is the mold in our school? Is it bad mold? Do I have more mold in my own house? Do we have the budget to fix the mold/roof without building a new school?
Ask--How will this affect our school growth until the money is paid off
Ask--where is the money going exactly? Is this our ONLY option?
Ask—Even if this doesn’t go through, will my child still be getting a good education?
Ask Ask Ask--
The sad thing is that while asking the Superintend is grand and great (and I suggest people do it) -- who can we ask who ISN'T for it? Don't we have a right and responsibility to find out BOTH sides? Thank goodness for a few people in town who have stepped up and taken it into their own hands in finding out.
In college the first thing I was taught in debate was--If you are debating the Con side, learn ALL the pro's and vice versa so you know how to debate the issue.
The hard part it---I HOPE that I could trust the superintendant to tell us the truth (and I do), but I also trust these other people fully! SO when one person is telling me one thing and the other is telling me another—what do I do?
Well I ASK myself—who has more to gain? –does this family who isn’t gaining anything but stress and heartache out to gain anything? They have had a few issues with the school before, they have homeschooled their children, and then sent they back…but do they hate the school? No—if they really had issues with the school they wouldn’t send them back---What about the superintendant? Does his salary go up? Does his prestige go up? What does he gain by having a new school?
I was talking with my Step mom -in-law and she said the high school down where she lives was doing the same thing--they had MOLD and all this horrible stuff so everyone voted for a new school---Low and behold, all of a sudden the old school didn't have as many problems, and they use it for a Junior high now---HUMM...did the mold just disappear? Are they knowingly putting a whole school of children and adults at risk? Ummm...NO...the truth was exaggerated. So I ASK myself—is that what is going on here?
Really Out there ranting!
So after this SMALL scale issue…I can see how Hitler gained his power. Don’t get me WRONG I am NOT SAYING anyone in this situation is Hitler—hear me out.
Hitler use fear and secrets to gain control. He was able to spread fear and those few who spoke out and asked what was really going on were quickly removed—then he used more fear to gain more control and keep more things secret, until it was too late and everyone had to be quiet about everything and no one felt safe.
I feel in our town there are a few who are doing this. Using fear for a tactic.
Lets tell those that are vocally against the school to be quiet…lets threaten them…lets make their fear for their livelihood, lets tell them they are bad mothers because they don’t want a new school for their children, let’s make them afraid to say anything SO that others will be afraid to join them so the same doesn’t happen to them.
This is the stage we are at-- and in NO way can I see if going further than that—BUT I can see how it did and how easily it could. The sad thing is my family would be one of the first to go---
Last little part—Since this is MY blog and I am not writing to make ANYONE happy but myself with this post I WILL delete any comments that are negative.
See maybe there is a little bit of Hitler in me since I will be taking away freedom of speech!
