customers served (give or take a few hundred thousand) since September 2004!
Comments and opinions expressed on THE KNIGHT SHIFT are those of Christopher Knight and not necessarily those of subjects discussed in this blog, of advertisers appearing on it or of any reasonable human being. Any correspondence/irate letters/lawsuit threats/Nigerian e-mail scams can be sent to theknightshift@gmail.com.
Showing posts with label civil disobedience. Show all posts
Showing posts with label civil disobedience. Show all posts
...and my anger and disbelief at what I am watching right now in this country, just won't let me be as mercurial a wordsmith as some have alleged me to be.
So I'm going to relent to brute-force attack.
Regarding how President Obama is trying to force Catholic hospitals and other institutions to fund birth control, against that faith's beliefs and teachings:
If this isn't a situation that demands civil disobedience and even flagrant lawbreaking against the government, then I don't know what possibly WOULD be!
I try my best not to judge the spiritual state of another. For the first time, I am inclined to be compelled to wonder about that of Barack Obama. How can anyone of conscience even conceive of mandating such a thing?
Gary Ceres is one of the coolest most awesomest cats that I've ever known. He and I met during our very first week at Elon (when it was still Elon College) and... well I can put it no plainer than this: I've learned lots of good stuff from him about making mischief for the publick good! Like that poster of Hillary Clinton that we put up all over campus on the night before the 1996 election, but I digress...
Anyhoo, Gary has written an excellent op-ed piece that has been published in the Washington Times News (out of Washington, North Carolina). In it he takes an incident that happened while he was recently traveling across the state, and develops it into an essay about how it is that we no longer think for ourselves... but rather let politicians and dumb machines do the "thinking" for us. Here's an excerpt:
t’s not just the annoying shift of a light from a flashing red hand to a white pedestrian walking that we have willingly chosen to surrender our common sense to, but also the bureaucracy, particularly city-wide, that seeks not to govern us but to dictate to us on a daily basis the most inane decisions of everyday life. Why make such a statement? Well, firstly, of course, because it’s true. Secondly, maybe because we actually shouldn’t.
Now I am not advocating any type of civil disobedience or anarchy or any thing of the sort. As John Locke wrote of in his “Second Treatise on Government,” the social contract is necessary to preserve individual liberties. But when we allow ourselves to be ruled by the absurdity governing how many feet from a curb we have to place a sign, or whether we need someone’s permission to replace a door knob, or whether we have to beg for an extension on an absurdly high utility bill before a government worker, well, something is rotten in Denmark.
I was going to preface this with some commentary. Then I decided that this is something that would be better for you to watch and decide for yourself whether this is right or wrong.
U.S. District Judge Joseph A. Greenaway Jr. sided with the parents of the students, who had been threatened with suspension by the Bayonne school district last fall for wearing the buttons. However, the judge added in his ruling that the boys will not be allowed to distribute the buttons at school.
"I'm very pleased," said Laura DePinto, mother of one of the students. "I think it upholds the most basic of our American rights, which is to protest peacefully."
Citing a 1969 case in Iowa involving students who wore black arm bands to protest the Vietnam War, Greenaway wrote that "a student may not be punished for merely expressing views unless the school has reason to believe that the speech or expression will 'materially and substantially disrupt the work and discipline of the school."'
Greenaway's decision "follows the law as we saw it going in," said Karin R. White Morgen, an attorney representing both boys' families. "We believed that it was the Tinker decision that applied," she added, referring to the Iowa case.
The buttons bear the words "no school uniforms" with a slash through them superimposed on a photo of young boys wearing identical shirts and neckerchiefs. There are no swastikas visible on the buttons, but the parties agreed that they depict members of Hitler youth.
Bayonne instituted mandatory uniforms last September for grades K-8, and fifth-grader Michael DePinto wore the button several times before objections were raised in November, attorneys for the plaintiffs said.
In a letter dated Nov. 16, 2006, Janice Lo Re, principal of Public School 14, notified Laura DePinto that her son "will be subject to suspension" for wearing the button in school.
Parents of the other student, Anthony LaRocco, a seventh-grader at the Woodrow Wilson School, received a similar letter from principal Catherine Quinn.
After the suspension threat, the boys' parents filed a federal lawsuit claiming the district stifled the children's First Amendment free speech rights. They also have mounted a legal challenge to the uniform policy.
Neither boy has worn the button since the lawsuit was filed, Morgen said.
District lawyers asserted that the image of the Hitler youth was abhorrent because it conveyed intolerance and racial inequality represented by Nazism.
This morning I was going back though the past few months of blog posts looking for something I'd written pertaining to education. In the course of searching I found the video of WGSR's Star Talk on June 14th where Mark Childrey interviewed me about my plans to address the July 9th meeting of the Rockingham County Board of Education while dressed as a Jedi Knight. It was all to protest the "Standard Mode of Dress" (legalese for "school uniforms") at Reidsville Middle and Reidsville High schools that the board had approved.
As was reported here a few weeks later, the board wound up rescinding the earlier vote to implement the policy after POTSMOD (People Opposed To Standard Mode Of Dress) turned the meeting into a media spectacle with picketing by students, black armbands and not just a Jedi but an "escaped convict" too :-)
Well, I watched the video again and it got to the part where I was alluded to Mark that I had "something much more outrageous" in mind if the board continued to refuse to acknowledge us. What this was, I told Mark, would "drop jaws all over the place".
Fortunately, the board did hear us out. And we are thankful that they did and that they overturned their initial vote for the uniforms.
But I was not bluffing. There was something that I had planned to do if the board, at the July meeting, continued to deny our protests.
If the Jedi Costume didn't grab their attention, I was seriously intending to escalate this thing, big time.
The only people who've known about this before now were my wife Lisa, Samantha Fettig of POTSMOD, Richard Moore, "Weird" Ed Woody, and just a few others. They were all sworn to secrecy about it. They also, every single one of them, tried their darndest to talk me out of doing this.
But after studying it long and hard and figuring that (a) if it was in the public interest to do this then I'd have no problem with attempting it and (b) it would be an awesome experience if I survived, I was all the more bound and determined to be ready to do this.
So what was it?
If, after the July 9th meeting, we could not help but believe that the Rockingham County Board of Education was not interested in our concerns about the school uniforms and why we did not want them, then I was going to pick a date and send out a whole wazoo-load of press releases, telling every TV and radio station, newspaper, blogger and whoever else came to mind to be at a certain spot at a certain time.
When the press was all situated, I was going to come out wearing one of those flame-proof suits that cover you from head to toe, set myself on fire, and with the cameras rolling stand there with a sign saying "SCHOOL UNIFORMS BURN ME UP!"
The effect was hopefully going to be like what you see in the photo on the right.
The plan was for me to stand there for several seconds all lit up holding the sign, long enough for everyone to get good footage and pics, and then have volunteers with fire extinguishers douse out the flames.
So intent on going through with this was I, that the announcement of my plan for it was written into the first draft of my speech before the board. Luckily a cooler head (bad pun I know) prevailed and the "threat" didn't make it into the second version of the remarks. But I can only imagine what the look of horror on the faces of all those board members might have been, had I gone through with publicizing it that night...
...and especially what the reactions from a certain few of the members would have been. You see, they're the ones who know me. We've been friends for many, many years. And they would be the first to tell you that they KNOW that I am outrageous enough to try something like this! Emphasis on "try": they're well aware that I would take a stab at it even if success wasn't guaranteed. If the stunt might be glorious and spectacular, that's all I need to know to want to attempt it. Although so far as physical danger goes, this would have been one of the more daring things that I'd have ever considered.
Would I have really done this? For my brothers and sisters in POTSMOD and for the kids at Reidsville Middle and Reidsville High schools, you bet that I would have.
Thankfully (and I really can't stress that nearly enough), things didn't get to that point at all. The board voted 7-3 at the July meeting to overturn the uniforms policy at the two schools. So ever since classes started a few weeks ago the middle and high school students in Reidsville get to wear whatever they want, so long as it adheres to the reasonable dress code.
But for a few weeks there, in the summer of 2007, Rockingham County was almost the site of its very own version of the Burning Man tour.
Look, it could have been worse. At least I didn't have The Wicker Man in mind when I hatched this crazy plot...
Why do so many Christians, in spite of everything that their faith teaches, keep participating in such a corrupt political system? More to the point: How is it that too many professing believers in Christ still insist on supporting people like George W. Bush, who is anything but a shining example of Christian virtue?
I believe one of the reasons, if not the main reason, that Christians are so gullible lies in a mistaken, and even dangerous, intrinsic trust of government. I hear and see this attitude expressed among my brethren constantly.
Part of this problem stems from an illogical and unscriptural interpretation of Romans Chapter Thirteen. Christians have been drilled (and dare I say, brainwashed?) into believing that government is endemically good and should be thoroughly trusted. Of course, this was not the belief of America's Founding Fathers, and neither was it the belief of Church Fathers.
In fact, our entire system of government is predicated upon a deep-rooted DISTRUST of government. Our three branches of government stem from the suspicion that no one branch could be thoroughly trusted and must have at least two other branches to help keep it in check. Yet, even that was not considered enough of a deterrent to combat the propensity of government to become tyrannical. What the separate branches of the federal government could not do to police each other, the states and people were to do. In other words, if Christians were really good Americans, they would distrust, not trust, their government.
Of all people, Christians should understand the fallen nature of man: that man in a sinful state is capable of anything (unless they attend a "Purpose Driven" church, of course). How is it, then, that they cannot seem to comprehend the evil machinations of people in high office? Are they totally taken in by the "I am a Christian" façade so many politicians use? Perhaps.
However, I believe that constant preaching from milquetoast preachers instructing their people to trust their government is the main culprit. The lack of discernment and courage of America's pulpits is frightening. They have produced a generation of Christians incapable of understanding, much less opposing, the manifestations of evil and oppression.
There's much more to be found at the above link. And last week Dr. Baldwin also published "An Appeal To My Fellow Christians", which I also thought to be quite a good read.
Last night the Rockingham County Board of Education, after months of outright frustration on the part of parents, students and other citizens, voted 7 to 3 – and with 2 abstentions – to rescind its April vote to implement Standard Mode Of Dress (the euphemism for school uniforms) at Reidsville Middle and Reidsville High schools starting with this upcoming academic year.
Now for the full skinny on what went down, at least from the vantage point of one of the members of P.O.T.S.M.O.D. (People Opposed To Standard Mode Of Dress) ...
After last month's meeting, when members of the board refused to acknowledge citizens' concerns about the uniforms and the legitimacy of the initial vote, I had vowed to show up at the July meeting dressed in my Jedi Knight costume: admittedly, and I even said this last night, as an "attention-getting device". And that's exactly what I did. I put on the outfit early yesterday afternoon and wore it when Tracey McCain from WFMY News 2 came by to do a quick interview. Earlier she went to the house of Samantha Fettig – who deserves bigtime props for her leadership of P.O.T.S.M.O.D. these past several months – and covered the students there who were working on picket signs to carry outside the schools' Central Office yesterday afternoon. A little after 4 p.m. I left home and headed to the office. Vehicles from WFMY News 2 and WXII Channel 12 were already there, and a short while later a huge "mobile studio" from WXII rolled into the parking lot.
A few minutes after that Samantha Fettig, Susan Imus, Wendy Inman and the high school students who've been part of P.O.T.S.M.O.D. arrived with their signs. Samantha's son Chris Fettig also showed up… dressed as a prison-striped convict! WXII's Melissa Marsh interviewed us for a quick story to run during the 6 o'clock news. Here’s the clip ...
And here are the students and several of the adult members of P.O.T.S.M.O.D. protesting the uniforms on the other side of Harrington Highway across from the Central Office ...
And just for the record: wearing a Jedi costume – which includes two layers of shirts, a tabard, a waist sash (all muslin), thick belt and heavy cloak over all of that, in 90-plus degree hot July sun ... tends to make one a little sweaty, to put it mildly. But, it was way too much fun to have done that, especially for a good cause :-)
I went back up into the office at about 5:30 'cuz by that point the heat in that outfit really had become somewhat overwhelming. Going in I saw board chairwoman Elaine McCollum (who was also my old high school homeroom teacher), board members Lorie McKinney and John Smith and Nell Rose, and school superintendent Rodney Shotwell. Ummmm I think "amused" would be a good way of putting their reaction to my attire ... but in a good way, not the "oh Lord this guy's a nutball he's not going to try to do the Jedi mind trick on us is he?" sort of way.
I went downstairs to the board meeting room and it wasn't long before there was a considerable media presence getting ready to cover the meeting: Melissa Marsh's crew from WXII, Erich Spivey and his team from WFMY, and Kira Mathis from News 14 Carolina. Also on hand were Heather Smith from the Reidsville Review and Jonelle Davis from the News & Record.
The meeting convened and after the traditional Pledge of Allegiance, then approval of the agenda and with no intervening business, Elaine McCollum declared the public comments portion of the meeting to be open.
Now, I must confess here that I didn't take good notes during public comments about who exactly said what. By this point I was really struggling to stay cool (in the thermal energy sense) and focused, and all the stuff that I had in my hands didn't allow for much dexterity in taking notes. But the following will give you a pretty strong idea of what happened during comments. Here are some photos (thanks to Erinn Murphy for taking these!) ...
Here are the news stories covering the meeting ...
At around 8 o'clock, during the Consent items on the Agenda, a brief recess was called for. After the meeting resumed, the board went through the Action items and spent considerable time discussing issues pertaining to year-round schools. This went on until around 9:20, when the meeting arrived at Reports/Discussion items and after Dr. Shotwell gave a series of reports, the evening finally arrived at item 7.3: the superintendent's report on Standard Mode of Dress implementation for the next school year.
Dr. Shotwell absolutely must be commended for following through with another survey – this one giving the parents the option of choosing NOT to be in favor of the school uniforms – in light of how much confusion and accusation and appearances of impropriety that surrounded the earlier survey. According to the figures from this new survey, which was taken around June 23rd, combining the results of polling parents of students at both schools yielded a strong 57 percent opposed to Standard Mode Of Dress, compared to 42 percent who said that they were in favor of the uniforms: a marked reversal from the stats of the initial survey.
Dr. Shotwell, for the purpose of relaying to the board his report on feasibility of implementing SMOD at Reidsville Middle and Reidsville High schools this coming year, talked about his research and discussion with administrators at schools that do have uniforms, particularly talking about the experience that one middle school in neighboring Guilford County is having with the uniforms. Which on the surface seems to be a rousing success there. The thing that makes SMOD a fairly feasible thing in Guilford County and that is lacking in Rockingham County, Shotwell noted and what was discussed at length in the ensuing dialogue, was that many lower-income students with SMOD in Guilford can be accommodated with the required attire out of the generosity of local contributors, be they individuals or corporate and other larger interests. And the fact is, there is no comparable "charitable infrastructure" in Rockingham County that could likewise help lower-income families acquire enough needed uniforms if SMOD were enacted. Because of this, Shotwell made the recommendation to wait at least a year before implementing SMOD at the two schools.
What happened after that was easily the liveliest – some might even say chaotic – discussion among the board members that I've seen in a year of regular attendance. Whether the schools were the least bit prepared to enact SMOD was an issue immediately pounced-upon. At-large member Lorie McKinney asked if the board was ready to decree which items of clothing that students could wear, and noted that some students are allergic to certain fabrics: was that matter being taken into consideration? The issue of discipline for those students who refuse to adhere to SMOD was addressed: Dr. Shotwell said that schools would try to be prepared to assist students if they needed it (i.e. the teachers at the schools he studied had 3 belts per classroom, to lend to students who did not have belts of their own to wear). Chronic violation of the uniforms mandate would result in calls to parents, then in-school suspension and then corrective action at the principal's discretion.
Celeste DePriest – one of the four who voted in April to not implement SMOD – said that she still did not believe in enacting this policy. Reida Drum – one of the nine who voted for the uniforms – expressed that it was a good policy that should be followed-through on. Dr. Jim Austin, who also voted for the uniforms, then asked if there was an "escape clause" available as an opt-out for those parents who did not want or could not otherwise participate in school uniforms for their children. I overheard a number of people in the audience note that there were a lot of reasons why parents would not want their children to wear uniforms … which could possibly even include religious reasons (I've known some Christian families who maintain a strict dress code among their own for their children: SMOD as was voted upon in April would even violate many of these families' beliefs on modest dress).
Then Dr. Austin started talking about the support in the community for Standard Mode of Dress. He stated that he believed the numbers from both surveys could be considered accurate: "People change their minds," he noted, and that there had obviously been a "valid change of statistics." Austin said that he was now very much troubled about the prospect of putting in place a policy that there was no longer support for, and that he had to question how he could go on supporting it.
Dr. Austin made the motion to put the matter up for a vote to rescind the April vote of approval for SMOD. "The time has not come in Rockingham County for uniforms," he said, adding that this would be an unwise policy without gradual adjustment to the idea beginning with earlier grades, and that without an escape clause out of SMOD that the system would be wide-open to legal challenges.
Board chairwoman Elaine McCollum seconded the motion.
And then Ron Price – honest folks I am not out to "get" this guy, he does it all on his own to demand the ridicule – had to weigh in. Price said that he agreed with Dr. Austin that there had been a change in public opinion, but he said that the earlier decision to implement the uniforms was sound and should be upheld. Then Price totally lost it: he outright blamed a "small group in the community" that was making "loud noise" for "changing public opinion". Yes, Ron Price said that ladies and gentlemen: that people had changed their minds and that he did not like it. He did everything short of calling out names of individuals for their "activities" in spreading the word about the uniforms. But when he expressly called out Reidsville television station WGSR for giving P.O.T.S.M.O.D. an outlet for its views and blatantly said that WGSR was "bad for the community" ... well, not for the first time in a school board meeting, I saw and heard members of the audience chuckling and laughing at Ron Price.
The guy has lost it. I hate to say this, but when an elected official lets a tiny teevee station get stuck up his craw and that he has to lash out like this ... well, it doesn't exactly inspire confidence in that official, does it? I heard one person say that Price sounded like "a whiney teenager". Which is ironic 'cuz I've watched and listened to a lot of real teenagers get up to speak since this all started, and none of them ever acted like how Ron Price did last night.
(Look when something sticks out like a gangrenous thumb, the tendency is to point to it, ya know?)
Elaine McCollum then said that she had been thinking a lot about this matter in the past month and that she had especially "been listening to children really closely". And, McCollum said she had come to realize, the SMOD issue had become something that it had been thought it would avoid: dividing the community. "We need to cancel out that vote," McCollum proclaimed, "and start over only if there is real interest."
Reida Drum then brought up a survey that had been conducted in April: one that it was said did give parents a clear option of voting "no" to the Standard Mode Of Dress. That survey, Drum announced, was 53.1 percent in favor of the uniforms and 46.9 percent opposed: practically the opposite again of the June survey figures. Lorie McKinney quickly noted that some people who were contacted for the April survey were parents of students who were no longer students at Reidsville High School: "I see definite questions about this survey," McKinney said, adding that she knew of one person whose child was already well out of the schools and thus she should have no say in the matter. "She's a taxpayer," Drum responded. Some in the audience very quickly pointed out that if this was the case, then all the taxpayers in Reidsville should have been polled about whether they supported the uniforms.
And now, Herman Hines chimed in, with what had to be the most colorful and impassioned spiel coming out of the board during the entire night. Once more, Hines indicated that he was going to abstain from a vote to rescind, on the same grounds for his abstention from the April vote: that unless this was something affecting students county-wide, he wasn't going to have anything to do with it. But he said some things that I believe haven't been stated very much in these proceedings: that the matter of clothing is something that ultimately is the responsibility of the child's parents. "It starts at home," Hines said. That unless the mother and father take an interest in their children and lay down the boundaries of what their children can and cannot do, then anything the schools tried to do was really a moot thing. Hines did heavily imply that the schools absolutely do have a say-so in how the students come dressed, and that when he was an educator he had a policy of confiscating hats and caps from students who already knew that those were not allowed: "When I retired in 1985 I had a lot of hats and caps," he quipped, to considerable chuckling from the audience.
Personally, I thought that Herman Hines had a lot of good things to say. Maybe not necessarily about Standard Mode Of Dress directly as an issue, but he is right: unless the parents do involve themselves with their children, beginning in the home, then there's really very little that the schools can do for those children.
Throughout this entire discussion by the board, it was becoming creepingly obvious – and eventually blame was laid directly on this – that the administrators at the two schools had, intentionally or not, encouraged the belief that there was widespread support for Standard Mode Of Dress ... and that this led to a lot of mis-information. By this point it was being widely agreed by most that the entire process that had led to the April vote to approve the uniforms had been "sloppy" and with little real thought or consideration. Tim Scales was especially emphatic in registering his disgust with the process: "I will never support SMOD in Rockingham County again because of how this was handled."
Wayne Kirkman had some of the final remarks of the discussion, protesting that "we didn't just make up the SMOD dress code. We thought we had the information." He then said that "we've taken a lot of heat for the past four months" about the uniforms. Earlier during the public comments portion of the meeting, Kirkman – while never mentioned by name – was referenced in derision by many speakers (including Yours Truly) for his comments in Sunday's Reidsville Review that "School is about learning, not about individuality. It's about how to find a job."
Finally, the vote was called for.
Voting "yes" to rescind the April vote to implement Standard Mode Of Dress at the two Reidsville schools: Celeste DePriest, Lorie McKinney, Amanda Bell, Elaine McCollum, Nell Rose, Jim Austin, and Reida Drum.
Voting "no" to rescind the April vote to implement Standard Mode Of Dress at the two Reidsville Schools: Wayne Kirkman, Ron Price, and John Smith.
Abstaining from the vote were Herman Hines and Tim Scales. Scales announced his abstention by saying aloud that "I've had enough of this!"
Standard Mode Of Dress was rescinded – not postponed or otherwise delayed, but completely done away with – with 7 votes out of 12 that could have possibly been cast.
The rejoicing from P.O.T.S.M.O.D. was politely delayed until the board members finished with two additional items, after which it was announced that the board would have to go into closed session for discussion of personnel items. But before they closed the doors, there were several minutes of reaction and outright jubilation on the part of the SMOD opponents, and the members were thanked for their vote to rescind the policy. After all these months of tension and frustration, it was finally over.
And, a lot of people didn't hesitate to let their hair down a bit in the spirit of the moment. While I was at the front of the room meeting with several of the board members, Dr. Shotwell produced something out from under his place at the table, that he had made it a point to go looking through storage for this just so he could have it at this meeting ...
Here he is, Dr. Rodney Shotwell, Superintendent of Rockingham County Schools, with a full Darth Vader mask sitting on his desk:
And here are "the Two Chrises" - Fettig and Knight - in their costumes:
By the way, all while this was going on, I might have just been seeing things but I could have sworn that Ron Price, while sitting at his place at the table, was using a small flash camera to snap at least two photos of me after the meeting. Curious, that ...
After the meeting went into closed session, the P.O.T.S.M.O.D. people congregated in the parking lot. There was a lot of hugging and high-fiving and chest-thumping and plain-out celebration! We hung out for about a half-hour, then went home. But from the looks of all the e-mails that have been flying among the members, this was definitely a binding experience that, I really can't help but think that brought us together in a very unique and powerful way and that's something that will always last.
The people of P.O.T.S.M.O.D., I can't say enough how much of an honor and privilege it has been to work with Samantha and David and Chris and Wendy and Eddie and Susan and Bob and Terri and Cliff and Sherion and Judy and Rebekah and Erinn and Angela and Tina and Melanie and Jill ... and anyone else that I might have momentarily slipped my mind (not kidding folks: I sorta did get some heat exhaustion from that crazy lil' Jedi stunt yesterday, so my brains are a bit frazzled at the moment).
Sometimes, the good guys do win.
Thank you to everyone in P.O.T.S.M.O.D. who worked so long and hard, and sacrificed so much, to see this happen last night.
And to the members of the Rockingham County Board of Education who voted to rescind the vote and remove the uniforms policy: from the bottom of my heart, thank you. I've said twice now that if you would admit to having made this mistake and would make amends for it, that you would win our respect. Last night, you definitely did that. The stock that I have put in you has gone up tremendously because of this.
The right thing was done last night. Time to move forward. But always remember: this moment has been won ... but P.O.T.S.M.O.D. will still always be out there, somewhere, if there's ever a need to call for them again. We're like Batman: we lurk and we watch and when we have to we come out. And like Batman, we don't tire easily either.
There's apparently starting to be some interest in the stating of my intentions a few days ago that I would address the Rockingham County Board of Education at its July 9th meeting... fully costumed as a Jedi Knight. The only thing that I am leaving off the ensemble is my lightsaber. For one thing, I am being extremely cautious in adhering to the school system's weapons policy: even though this is not a functional weapon by any means, I'm not taking chances. For all intents and purposes, this is simply a "different" mode of attire than what you usually see at a school board meeting. As it is, I don't see this being construed as a special circumstance, and I'm not going to intentionally make it one, either.
Besides, I have something much better than a lightsaber that I intend to take with me. You could say that I will be a Jedi without a lightsaber... but one well-armed with a Sword: parse that as you will. People will know it when they see it.
This clip is from yesterday's Star Talk on WGSR Star 39 in Reidsville. Mark Childrey interviewed me (via telephone) live on the air about what happened at this past week's meeting of the board, and the plan for next month's meeting, including my inviting any other opponents of the Standard Mode Of Dress (S.M.O.D. or "school uniforms") to likewise come dressed in wacky attire, in protest of the board's indifference toward the public regarding this matter.
Speaking of which, that is why I am protesting in this manner. Yes, I'm against S.M.O.D. very much... but it has really started to bother me that the board - which is supposed to be hearing and representing our concerns - is ignoring why it is that we don't want the uniforms and instead is beginning to play political football with the issue. That's what this is all about: if the board will not pay attention to our words, then we should - peacefully of course - oblige them to pay attention to us in other ways.
And I do mean something that I say in this clip: that there are members of this board that I respect. I respect them an awful lot. With the exception of a very few, I've no reason not to respect any of them. But we out here in the public have a moral obligation to speak up when something's not right... as it is here.
Anyhoo, there's the first (and probably last) TV interview about the "Hey PAY ATTENTION TO US, Darnnit!" protest planned for next month's meeting. If this should get any more press attention, I'll be sure to post the appropriate links.
Thanks to Tyler Richardson for providing the video!
I just got back in from tonight's meeting of the Rockingham County Board of Education. The last time the board met during regular session, they voted to impose school uniforms (or "Standard Mode of Dress") next school year at Reidsville Middle School and Reidsville High School. It was an 8-4 vote (with Herman Hines abstaining) that came after a lot of parents and students spoke out against the uniforms during public comments. I said after last month's meeting that this is a way wrong measure the board passed and it should be rigorously opposed... as in "civil disobedience".
Well, tonight even more parents and students came out in opposition to the uniforms (and not one in favor of them, it must be noted). These were some of the most passionate and eloquent speakers that I've ever heard at a school board meeting... and a lot of them were high school students. Even more dire arguments against the uniforms were made, and it has come to light that apparently there may have been some data manipulation/massaging of facts going on that obscured the knowledge from many parents that this was about to happen. Well, from what I saw tonight, an awful lotta the people in this county are honked-off at the board for doing this.
At the conclusion of public comments, board member Steve Smith (who voted against the uniforms last time) tried to make a motion to reconsider the vote. He was told that only someone who had previously voted in favor of it could move to reconsider. It's also worth noting that Steve Smith made it quite clear that he didn't want the public's chain to be yanked on this: that the board should either say that it was going to discuss the matter again or that it wasn't going to do it any further. It was after this that a ten minute break was declared and most of the people attending left.
However, I stayed to the very end, right up 'til the board went into closed session. And this is what happened...
Board member Lori McKinney said that although she also voted to oppose the uniforms measure, that in light of the many people who came to speak out against it tonight, that she had to say that the board should re-examine this issue. No member who voted to approve the uniforms actually came out and moved to have a re-vote, but Reida Drum did state that she felt led to re-evaluate her stance on the uniforms, after considering everything that she had heard tonight. There's going to be some discussion about it at the next meeting.
I honestly don't believe that this board understands what it has done in mandating the uniforms at Reidsville Middle and Reidsville High. As one person told the board, this has only worked to incense many, many more people in Reidsville - and especially the students - instead of doing something positive at the schools, as the proponents of this thing might have claimed the uniforms would do. In any case, I think it was pretty clear to everyone (at least those sitting where I was in the peanut gallery) that if the board doesn't make some movement toward rescinding this thing and like yesterday, then quite a few of their political butts are going to be in a sling. More than one person told me tonight that they would run for school board against the sitting incumbents next time because of this issue.
(And in case anyone is wondering: I have never seen Ron Price look so sneering and condescending toward the people who came to the podium to speak as he did tonight... and I've got the videotape to prove it. Even if I didn't, a lot of people shared with me their disgust at his attitude.)
But this is what the board really should know: that tonight, quite a few people told me that they had read my report on this blog from the last meeting, and my call for the parents and students to disobey. Looks like it got circulated around a fair bit. More than I was really expecting. A lot more.
If the board doesn't move on this and soon, I believe there will be resistance from the parents and students. But I don't think that anything I really wrote had any bearing on that likelihood: it's probably going to happen no matter what might have been said here.
I don't want to see this ridiculous uniforms mandate - that is going to put a strain on too many families' pocketbooks - put into effect. At the same time, I do not want to see any real trouble come as a result of it either for the parents and students. Even though sometimes you have no choice but to draw the line and tell them "to this point and no further". Indeed, Americans have had to do that for the entire life of this country with their government. This time it's no different. But I'll do anything to see a nasty confrontation about this headed off before it comes to pass.
So, this is what needs to happen...
There were easily a hundred people or more at tonight's meeting. The next regular meeting of the Rockingham County Board of Education is at 7 p.m. on June 11th. There needs to be a hella lot more people at this next board meeting. If there were a hundred tonight, there needs to be two or three hundred next month. I would love to see enough people try to cram into the Central Office that it becomes a fire code violation and have the meeting forced to relocate to a bigger venue. And every single one of those people... or at least those who feel okay with speaking into a mike at a large gathering... needs to sign up to speak out against the uniforms.
I saw this meeting go until almost 11 o'clock tonight because of how many spoke this time. Wouldn't it be cool if there were enough speakers to make next month's meeting go until 1 or 2 a.m. the next morning?
There are some people on this board that I know quite well. That I have known for years and appreciate as much as anybody else. But all the same: if the public sentiment is really against this thing, and they don't feel led after that to rescind the vote, then we need to see a real battle of willpower erupt at the Central Office. Who can outlast who? Personally, I think those against school uniforms can go the distance.
So however you can, spread the word: we need to turn out in droves in the worst way come June 11th. I'll go ahead and say this now: I'm already planning on speaking. And I'm coming in armed with a bombshell that I've had waiting in my arsenal for more than ten years now. Some people at the meeting tonight know what I'm talking about.
Hell, I'm the guy who blew up a school just to try to get elected to the Board of Education. Don't think that I won't detonate something else (not literally 'course) if that's what it takes to see the right thing be done here.
Last night the Rockingham County Board of Education voted 8 against 4 to implement "standard mode of dress" at Reidsville Middle School and Reidsville High School next year. In other words, there will be school uniforms at those schools this coming fall.
There was quite a turnout at last night's meeting. More than there's been at any meeting since I started attending regularly last summer (I've only missed one meeting during that time and that was last month, on the night that Mark Childrey asked me to fill in for him on Monday Night Live). Several students of Reidsville High School rose to speak during the public comments portion of the meetings. I thought that they were considerably more passionate and articulate in their arguments than most of the "grown-ups". When the vote came, at least two of the girls who spoke broke down in tears.
Steve Smith was one of those who voted against "S.M.O.D." His belief was that unless the heart of the parents and students and faculty was fully invested in this, that it wasn't worth pursuing. Steve Smith wanted to postpone the vote but board chair Elaine McCollum said that because of procedure that a vote had to be taken during the meeting. When the vote came only Steve Smith, Amanda Bell, Celeste DePriest and Lori McKinney voted against implementing the uniforms. All the others voted to enact it, except Herman Hines who abstained because he felt that unless this was something being considered for all of the students in the system that he couldn't conscientiously take part in the vote.
To say that I am disappointed in several members of the board would be putting it lightly. I told Elaine McCollum – someone who I have known and respected more than she'll ever know quite a lot over the years – that this was not right. I told her that if evoking a sense of spirit and pride at the schools was the goal, then that can't be something that's created from the top-town. It has to inherently be there to begin with. The board can't mandate this "sense of belonging" into being. McCollum told me that by roughly a six-to-one margin, she heard many more parents tell her that they did want the uniforms than parents telling her they didn't want them. And she told me that "you know me Chris", that she has never been a person who would have wanted anything like uniforms. I've known Elaine McCollum for enough years to trust her on that. That still doesn't mean that I can approve of how she voted on this though. Or that I can be approving of several others who voted for this, for that matter.
McCollum stressed that this was going to be a pilot program. Meaning it should be considered a "trial run" at Reidsville Middle and Reidsville High. There are going to be reports made every few months about how well it's working. I have to wonder how much the rising seniors of Reidsville High were considered. This next year is supposed to be the best of their high school career... and the school board is going to play games with it. Would the members of the board who voted for this have enjoyed recollecting how their own high school senior years were diminished because they were forced to wear a school uniform?
By the way, Ron Price voted for the school uniforms. He spoke in favor of them a few times during the meeting: something that met with considerable sniggling from members of the public ("Oh the irony," I told fellow former school board candidate Penny Owens).
When I was running for school board, I made no secret about being a proponent for a strong dress code. I still believe that. If a thing enforced, the dress code is more than adequate. Enforcing a uniform will fix nothing. It will not do anything that wasn't already there waiting to be done in the first place.
As we were leaving the meeting last night, I met with a few of the students from Reidsville High who spoke during the public comments portion of the meeting. And I told them something: "Remember Thoreau."
So here it is: I am going to go on record as stating that last night's vote dictates a little "civil disobedience" on the part of any parents and students of the affected schools who do not wish to adhere to this uniform code.
To the parents of every student, and to every student at Reidsville Middle School and Reidsville High School: the school board has voted to make you wear school uniforms.
Now let the school board try to enforce it.
I wouldn't ordinarily advocate something like this in defiance of people... well, some of them anyway... who I happen to personally know and believe are good and have the best of intentions in mind. But no matter who is in charge of it, if government is wrong then it becomes a duty of conscience for the citizens to protest with due diligence and force if need be. Indeed, I believe that there is not only a moral duty to defy government in such circumstances, but a dire Christian one also.
You don't have to do what government tells you to do simply because government takes a vote or makes a threat. And this particular body of government has neither legal force or the moral authority to back up any threats it may make, either.
Defy the board. Adhere to the dress code that is already in place. Within those reasonable limits, wear what you want to wear at Reidsville Middle and Reidsville High. Encourage your friends to violate the new uniform code too, if they also believe it is wrong. Don't buy a single piece of prescribed attire.
Make a show of public force about it. And then dare the board of education to do something about it. Tell the board that if it wants to have you wear a particular outfit to school, then you will be glad to do so... provided that the board foots the bill for it. But until it does so, tell the board to stay out of your bedroom closet.
What's the board going to do? Suspend or expel every student who doesn’t adhere to the new uniform rules? How much teaching do they expect to be done at Reidsville Middle and Reidsville High if even 25% of the students are suspended because they don't dress as monotonously as the board is dictating? How much teaching would they expect to accomplish if 50 or 75% of the students refuse to adhere to this unreasonable demand of the board?
I don't think that there would be very much teaching that would be done at all. And the board would be forced to back down on this empty threat that it has made.
It's like this: we can either meekly accept this decision by the board and thus go on to teach our students that they must do whatever government tells them to do. Or we can choose to defy the board and demonstrate to our young people that there is still such a thing as freedom in America if we choose to have it.
In this situation, as best as I can understand it this is definitely a case where disobedience to government is obedience to God. And if there is going to be an America worth handing down to our children, then we the citizenry must make that America come about ourselves, instead of trusting those in government to make it happen.
That even applies to such things as decisions by the local school board.
