So the national media has its missing Malaysian Airlines flight 370 obsession while our local hometown newspaper has its Blarney Blowout preoccupation, as here we are exactly two weeks from the day and it is still a banner front page above the fold story -- with fancy graphics no less. Yikes!
And it made the AP national wire.
They're STILL talking about #BlarneyBlowout ?? Damn people (on both sides) it was a party, cops busted it, end of story. Let's move on.
— Spencer Lockhart (@SpencerLock) March 17, 2014
Meanwhile, the Gazette sent a reporter last night to cover what one town official described as an "intense meeting to address horrible racist incident against teacher in #AmherstMA schools" and it didn't make it into today's print edition as a stand alone article.
Meeting last night at Jones Library in response to latest school incident
And how exactly did that young lady know the content of the note/graffiti? Did she get it from a classmate or school officials? Obviously APD did not release anything and school officials surely should not have. So if she got if from a classmate, then follow it back to the original source.
Meanwhile, Ch 40 is reporting -- using a lone High School Junior as a source -- contents of the note: "f you Ms. Gardner" followed by the "n-word". So what I'm trying to confirm is which version of the n-word was it -- the five letter version that ends in A or the six letter version that ends in R?
Because after the incident six weeks ago, it apparently does make a difference.
Was the "f" word actually spelled out or did they write it like that? Was the message etched on a wall, mirror or bathroom stall in traditional graffiti style, or was it a note written on paper? If so was it printed letters or cursive writing, and did they use pen, pencil, crayon or print out from a computer?
17 comments:
Actually it did make it in today's print edition. It was part of the general article about the incident. There was also a big article on the first page of the Gazette about how the entire nation is dealing with this problem. I don't know what the answer is but it is something we, as a nation, need to come to grips with once and for all.
I think it's a bit like the pot calling the kettle black. Here is Larry chastising the Gazette for continuing to cover the Blarney Blowout story while his blog continues to be filled by, wait for it, wait for it....Blarney Blowout stories!!!!
Yes, and I'm so glad they gave me an opportunity to cover it again without really covering it, since four of my Top Ten stories of all time (seven years worth, 3,058 total posts) now concern Blarney.
why the group photo?
Because the other photo published on Facebook (showing the meeting in session) didn't show the extent of the crowd who showed up.
WARRIOR week, people with their fists in the air. Way to promote peaceful coexistence for all.
So to the outside world Amherst looks like a place where the college students are drunken fools and the townies are a bunch of racists?
How wonderful. (sarcasm)
In response to the response:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn4UnHTuddc&hd=1
"Those who cannot remember the past
are condemned to repeat it"
Now, back to our regularly scheduled program:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK8sxngSWaU
Shutting
you
d
o
w
n
n
n
n
-Squeaky Squeaks
Shabazz et al just can't resist a photo op. "Check your egos at the door" folks we've got work to do.
Shabbaz has been on the School Committee for 2 years now and has not done anything! The School Committee is very much a working committee that has many sub-commitees that members are supposed to volunteer to be on. Also, many town committees require school committee participation and folks are supposed to volunteer to sit on those as well. Shabbaz is not on ANY sub-committees or town committees. He shows up late for School Committee meetings and at times leaves early. He has done NOTHING to contribute to the huge amount of work a school committee must do. This lack of work and commitment on his part causes everyone else to do more than their share. He loves the limelight and putting himself in a place where he will be in the front of any camera that is around. But he is all bluster and no substance. He has been a useless member of the School Committee and hopefully people in town are paying attention and will vote him out next year. He has been more of a burden than an asset. I know when I vote for anyone for any office I expect him or her to do the job I elected them to do. If you don't have the time or the interest to do the job, don't run.
He was on one committee, but resigned 30 seconds after he lost the election for SC chair, saying "I don't have the time". (He had time to be SC chair but not to be on one committee that meets once every three months?) Then he pouted for the rest of the meeting, but not before openly accusing the other SC members of not being collaborative. And now he wants to oust a 3 year member who has been very productive and has been instrumental in initiating real change. What a team player!
I truly miss Irv, he was selfless and worked hard and easily collaborated with other SC members and administration.
I suggest everyone think about why the US Supreme Court ruled that one has a right to burn the US Flag.
Do not forget that George W. Bush was once President -- would you want him being able to tell you what you can not say???
One has an equal right to use the "N" word, the "F" word, both "B" words and all the rest. One has a right to say hurtful and disgusting things -- saying that Jerry Fallwell lost his virginity in a drunken outhouse encounter with his mother is about as disgusting as one can be.
Yet that is protected speech. It has to be -- unless you wish to be told what words you can't use....
"Shabazz et al just can't resist a photo op"
What would they ever do if they woke up tomorrow and discovered that there no longer was racism?
Kinda like the "March of Dimes" [to Beat Polio] was when Polio was beaten? Whatever would Shabazz and the rest have to grandstand on?
Anon: 11:16
You state: "And now he wants to oust a 3 year member who has been very productive and has been instrumental in initiating real change."
Who is this member you speak of. No one on that committee has done anything productive or initiated real change. NO ONE. They say they do but can't produce a single piece of real evidence that change has happened.
For those of you out there in support of the SC please don't quote a program without showing how they determined what the problem was, who it was going to help, how it helped, and the data that shows a significant trend in improvement over time.
Also don't waste our time by saying we have not had enough time to prove it worked. That means you don't know and you are still taking it on faith.
The SC is a joke pure an simple. They do nothing. Nothing changes, Nothing! Just a waste of time in a quietly corrupt system.
anon 10:00am: Yup, Shabazz doesn't even bother to be present, is on no committees, everyone else is busting their asses, and he has the gall to show up sporadically to say "I am getting impatient. Show me what you've done that is making things better for the kids I care about! I want to see the needle move!" You all do the work, I don't have the time.
And then he plays the card "No one is letting me do anything".
Start by getting on a committee or two and take some of the burden off of your fellow board members. That's what we expected of you when we elected you.
Call in the FBI and figure out who committed this horrendous act--it's that important, and the community is demanding it, as displayed by the show at the SC meeting this evening. Right now we don't anything about the perpetrator--male, female, student, adult--as far as we know the criminal is in the group photo within this post.
The bottom line is that the teacher who was the target of a prejudicial rant on a bathroom wall doesn't need sympathy on this blog. She's already getting plenty of sympathy from the school and the community at large, including paid leave. Perhaps if the community weren't so consumed with diversity and political correctness, then bathroom wall rants wouldn't seem so appealingly provocative to some teenager.
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