Also visit the great http://www.independentleadership.com/ site to see what can be done with visionary leaders. See the footage of the NSNs in action ignoring the electorate!
Mean-spirited tactics don’t produce healing
BY ANN PERRY
The great thing about opinions, especially in this great land of ours, is that everyone can have one. Ed Bailey wrote in his Oct. 23 letter that Morrisville’s “Stop the School” candidates don’t “hate kids,” do “care about education,” and have not used “threats and intimidation.”
While Bailey is entitled to his opinions, the above statements are not supported by fact. From personal experience, I have grave concerns about the character and ideology of the “Stop the School” candidates and their ardent supporters, such as Bailey. And as their mean-spirited antics continue, others are beginning to catch on, and wonder whether they’re the right people for the job.
My experience with the “Stop the Schoolers” has been nothing but negative: from insulting and stonewalling parents at meetings, to picketing people’s homes, to the vitriol directed at past and current school board members who voted for the new school project.
Bailey claims the “Stop the School” candidates promise to heal the community and that they speak for three quarters of the town. Fact is the number of independent and other minor voters greatly outnumber the total number of people who voted in May’s primary election. Bailey’s candidates do not speak for most parents and others concerned about the tactics of the “Stop the School” campaign.
As for our association with outgoing school board President Sandy Gibson, let’s review. Four years ago, Gibson ran with four others, two of whom (Radosti and Heater) now appear on the “Stop the School” ticket. I didn’t vote for any of them. But they, with the support of people who are now rabid “Stop the Schoolers,” prevailed and elected Sandy Gibson as board president. When their dream of merging with Pennsbury failed once again, the board commissioned yet another study on how to address deteriorated conditions in the existing school buildings, carefully weighed its options, and made a tough decision to build a new school.
Unfortunately, Bailey and the “Stop the School” candidates are masters at slamming anyone who disagrees with them, then acting like innocent victims, denying things they’ve said and done. But don’t take my word for it. Please visit the Web site www.independentleadership.com for further information.
The Community Party candidates Felice Fava, Jessica Fox, and Greg Gunzelman are running as an alternative to the egregious behavior that has characterized the “Stop the School” campaign. Like the many other registered independents in town, they weren’t able to vote for school board candidates in the May primary election. The Community Party candidates have not endorsed the new school project either. They do, however, want to move away from the extremism and negativity that have pervaded the educational debate in Morrisville, and towards reasonable and moderate leadership.
If you’re as appalled by the “Stop the School” candidates’ words and deeds as I am, please give Fava, Fox, and Gunzelman a chance on Nov. 6. Otherwise, we have no one to blame but ourselves for what’s to come.
Ann Perry, Morrisville, is the parent of a kindergartener in Morrisville Schools
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