Cambridge loses board member over mascot issue

Missouri non-profit newspaper making a go of it after one year

By Ken Tingley

The community of Cambridge has provided the roadmap of how NOT to deal with the mascot issue at local schools.

They should be thanked for that.

The issue has been so divisive to the Cambridge community and expensive to its taxpayers, other communities have learned from it. In addressing the issue, the Glens Falls officials wrote this on its website:

Glens Falls City Schools has taken a proactive approach to the school mascot conversation. While some districts have seen conflict and even legal action over whether or not a Native American depiction can stay, schools in the city have been working to open the conversation. The dialogue has taken place under a core mantra: “When we know better, we do better.”

At basketball games this winter, Glens Falls teams have been referred to as the “Red and Black” rather than the Indians. The school uses a arrowhead for imagery with the letters “GF.”

Students have been surveyed - they have been split on whether they want to keep the Indian mascot - and a current 60-day comment period is being held for the public to weigh in. The issue has been addressed in a calm and thoughtful manner, at least so far.

That is still not the case in Cambridge.

Neil Gifford, who cast the original deciding vote to retire the Indian mascot back in June 2021, resigned his position on the Cambridge Board of Education this week.

His community is poorer because of it.

“Until last night’s Board of Education meeting, I remained hopeful that information, reason and empathy would ultimately triumph in board decision making,” Gifford wrote.

Gifford may have been the only one who remained hopeful.

The pro-mascot contingent in Cambridge - both on the school board and in the audience - has been an unruly mob obsessed with making this the only issue of importance at a time when there are so many others. Gifford should be applauded for is his continued use of reason rather than emotion, and more importantly, his gumption to make a decision he believes is in the best interest of the district and the students.

He is the rare public official unafraid to stand up to the mob.

“Since as the commissioner of education highlighted, it was the current board majority’s repeated ‘arbitrary and capricious abuse of discretion,’ and their supporters’ actions regarding the logo, that were ultimately responsible for eliminating Indigenous mascots, logos and team names in public schools across all of New York state, I remained hopeful that the board would accept the reality of the recent statewide NYSED order and abandon their attempt to appeal the NYS Supreme Court decision,” Gifford wrote.

Yet, the Cambridge board decided to proceed with another appeal that will cost taxpayers further money with little reason to believe its appeal will either be successful or put the issue to rest.

“I know I have more to offer CCS,” Gifford wrote in his resignation letter, “but I cannot in good conscience serve on a board of a public educational institution that continues to use public resources to pursue personal agendas over objective, evidence-based decision making.”

Gifford was taking a stand.

To do that, he had to resign.

Sometimes that is the only thing left to do.

The appeal will waste further taxpayer money.

The issue will draw attention away from the core mission of education. There are far more important issues facing the young people in Cambridge than the nickname for its sports teams.

And it continues to divide a small community that needs to work together for its betterment.

Over a mascot.

It all seems rather silly to me.

The community of Cambridge has wasted far too much time and money on this issue already. At least it is not banning books, yet.

Future of news

While speaking to various groups over the past six months, I’ve been asked repeatedly what the future of news looks like.

The point I’ve made repeatedly is that doing good journalism is expensive and consumers have to be willing to pay for it. If you are willing to pay $200 a month for cable TV and another $100 for a cell phone plan, you should be willing to pay for important information that will make you smarter and your community better.

It’s the underlying point I’ve been trying to make with the my book “The Last American Newspaper.” Journalism has value.

Out in Springfield, Missouri there is a small success story brewing.

That’s what I’m hoping.

David Stoeffler, who briefly served as interim publisher at The Post-Star 15 years ago is heading up a non-profit newspaper there that just celebrated its one-year anniversary.

Stoeffler boasts Springfield Daily Citizen, with a staff of eight, has published more than 1,700 stories and nearly 100 in-depth reports on key local issues over the past year.

That depth journalism is something many newspapers don’t have the staff to produce anymore.

The non-profit model in Springfield is unproven at this point. Stoeffler says the Daily Citizen has 1,800 paid subscribers and more than 10,000 subscribers to its free daily email newsletter. He reports that more than two dozen local businesses and organizations have become “partners/sponsors” of the Daily Citizen.

But here may be the most important part. Between subscriptions, sponsorships and other sources the newspaper has raised 85 percent of the funds needed to get it through its five-year start-up period.

This past week, I listened to WAMC go through one of its fundraising efforts so it can keep doing valuable work to keep local communities informed. It was stunning to hear them talk about the thousands and thousands of dollars they were raising. People believed in their brand and their product and were putting up the funds to prove it.

That may be the future of newspapers as well.

The Daily Citizen completed its first community fundraising campaign in December and raised nearly $40,000.

If you want to save your local newspaper, you are going to have to support it.

If you don’t support the local press, you are not supporting democracy.

Mann on PBS

Former North Country Public Radio reporter Brian Mann, who recently did a stint covering the war in Ukraine, made a guest appearance on the national PBS Newshour broadcast Wednesday to talk about the Fentanyl epidemic in this country.

The Fentanyl drug crisis is now Mann’s primary beat since being seriously injured in a car accident while in Ukraine.