Stefanik tearing communities apart with lies
Happy St. Patrick’s Day where we all can agree to wear green
The Front Page
Morning Update - Happy St. Patrick’s Day
Thursday, March 17, 2022
By Ken Tingley
There is nothing wrong with a robust discussion about the issues, but Rep. Elise Stefanik has a adopted a scorched earth policy about the issues. She doesn’t want her constituents to debate the issue, she wants them to be outraged by the issues and then act on that anger toward their neighbors. She uses social media to ridicule other elected officials and anyone that does not support her way of thinking.
This is not the way to be neighborly.
For the most part local communities are proud of their schools. They support them and believe their children are getting a good education. They know the teachers and administrators. In many rural communities, the town revolves around the Friday night basketball game and school musical.
Rep. Elise Stefanik, who went to a private school, doesn’t seem to understand that sacred relationship. She seems to be intent on ripping it to shreds.
North Country Public Radio reported earlier this week that many school officials believe Stefanik is spreading misinformation to fuel community confrontations over whether students should wear masks.
Sadly, it seems to be working.
One administrator even acknowledge that she is good at it.
At times, school officials have felt like they were under siege.
It started in late January when a judge ruled that requiring masks is unconstitutional in New York. But that was based on the fact that the governor’s emergency powers had expired.
Rep. Stefanik fired off a series of tweets saying that the mask mandate was “illegal.” But later that day, another judge ruled the mask mandate would remain in place pending an appeal. Stefanik never updated her tweets and continued to call the mask mandate “illegal.”
It let to confusion with parents who believed that schools were maintaining an illegal mask mandate when the reality was just the opposite. The state mask mandate was still in place.
“She really misinformed the public with some of her statements,” said Dale Breault, superintendent of the Franklin-Essex-Hamilton BOCES. “But it served the purpose of really getting a lot of constituents upset, who then took out their anger at local school districts.”
Her social media posts urging parents to show their outrage had consequences.
A Cambridge school board meeting was shut down when many in the audience refused to wear masks even though they were told it was a state policy.
Parents staged picketed the superintendent’s office in Malone.
Parents berated a teacher who offered a student a mask in Saratoga.
Breault said Stefanik’s social media was like “pouring gasoline on fire.”
“Our local schools have always been trusted organizations from their communities and the fact that politicians are beginning to weaponize that relationship for political gain is really just pretty frustrating from my perspective,” Breault said.
It is also an assault on community values.
Long-serving school board members are walking away from serving because of personal attacks. So are veteran superintendents.
In early February, Malone superintendent Jerry Griffin looked out his window to see “Impeach Griffin” signs being held by a dozen protesters after Rep. Stefanik’s tweet.
Griffin had worked in the Malone Central School District for decades. He had also been a student and teacher there.
“I’m dedicated to these kids, to this town and this school district,” he told North Country Public Radio. “I’ve raised my family here. I’ve dedicated my life to this community. To see something like that and to hear people chanting that and saying those things. You know I’m a human being.”
There was name-calling and personal attacks on school board members.
“It’s gotten kind of ugly,” Griffin said. “The tweets and social media posts that came from her have had a negative impact on our schools. Whether she knows it or likes it or not, her name’s being used and dropped constantly.”
North Country Public Radio talked to a half-dozen superintendents around the region, but most did not want to go on the record because they feared the attention it would bring to them and their school board might incite more anger.
What the superintendents fear and we all should worry about is that those relationships between parents, teachers and school board members are being irreparably damaged for the political gain of one individual.
North Country Public Radio reached out to Rep. Elise Stefanik for comment on its article but got no response, which is not unusual. It might be for the best if she had that type of response all the time.
Favorite weekend
This is another one of my favorite local weekends.
It starts with St. Patrick’s day - I love corned beef and cabbage and my mother is from Belfast - and the NCAA tournament on Thursday, and continues with the state basketball tournament at the Cool Insuring Arena beginning on Friday and continuing the rest of the weekend.
And spring is almost here.
Missing Dango’s
One of my regular St. Patrick’s Day stops over the years was at Dango’s on Maple Street for corned beef and cabbage. It was an enormous tradition for all in Glens Falls with revealers spilling out into the parking lot where a tent was set up.
There was Irish music, NCAA basketball and plenty of beer.
Sadly, Dango’s on Maple Street remains closed. I miss it.
Racing reporting
The Times Union held an online event on Wednesday morning where veteran editor Brendan Lyons facilitated a discussion about the newspaper’s six-month long series on the horse racing business with reporters Emilie Munson, Rebekah Ward and Matt Rocheleau.
This is the type of important journalism that we don’t see as much of anymore. Munson reminded us that New York State racing has been subsidized by $3 billion in state aide since 2008. While Saratoga remains a destination race track, it is one of the few in the countries. You can’t help but wonder if that money could be better spent to address some of New York’s significant problems.
The series continues this weekend.
It's true, all you wrote, Ken...and all that the others have written. As someone who has taught for 30 years, i am horrified by the attacks promoted by Stefanik and many in the Republican party--not just against school boards and masks but also in terms of banning books about history, civil rights, gay rights, and their attacks on election officials or anyone really who questions the lie that Trump won the election. Threats, attacks, cheers by those attacking are disgraceful...are not and should not be part of our community. We should debate ideas. I have not heard any substantive ideas by Stefanik other than criticizing and demeaning our president and obsessively repeating that the socialist communist nazis democrats are destroying our country. Instead of raising substantive issues, Stefanik and her right wing comrades threaten and attack...and are dangerous in terms of promoting violence against good people trying to live their lives with integrity and care.
Like the people in Ukraine, people working hard and trying to lead a good life.
There are two forces acting here: historically, the right wing has subverted public schools for the simple reason that an educated public is more difficult to control. I didn’t dream that up; review the history of school battles in the 1900s and agin the 1930s . Second, there is a rhetorical device in play: if your root argument is vulnerable, do as much as you can to subvert your opponent, in any way.