Now Everybody Hates Me

This post isn’t going to win me any friends, and will likely create more than a few new enemies. I should probably know better than to write this, but I’m me. And I never did learn.

If you’re familiar with my ongoing coverage of the tragedy that is the Beaumont Independent School District, then chances are you know what I’m about to write, and what you’re about to read. But you’re wrong. I promise.

With that out of the way, let’s begin…

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The great problem with unity is that you’re lumped together with people you have no more in common with than a like-minded goal of Accomplishing Something bigger than yourselves, which sounds great in theory, but in practice it amounts to nothing more than lingering too long in close quarters with a guy who smells like feet just because you share a similar interest in politics but have totally opposing views on personal hygiene.

Such may be the nature of most any cause that unites people to come together in opposition to a common foe, but one has to draw the line somewhere. Just how willing are you to stand shoulder to shoulder with people who are not who they present themselves to be, who practice the same dictatorial thought policing of your enemy and who, despite all claims to the contrary, are very likely no different from the very people you’re fighting against?

We see this all the time with revolutions: a charismatic leader emerges to unite the people and overthrow an evil dictator, only to install himself in the throne he just spilled the blood of the people to empty. The problem, says Sir Terry Pratchett, with revolutions is that they always come around again. That’s why they’re called revolutions. And he’s right. Here comes the new boss, same as the old boss. Until another new one comes along…

I do want to note here that I am not referring to any of the specific opponents trying to replace sitting board members. I don’t know any of them personally, and have encountered them only on the most cursory of levels. Instead, I’m talking about their supporters. Or some of them, at least. A lot of them.

The thing is – and this is the first bit that isn’t going to win me any friends – BISD is right. They always have been, at least to a point. This all started with race, and it continues to play a strong role in the unending drama. You see, the group now known as Beaumont Board Watch came from a citizen’s group called B.E.T.T.E.R. which stood for…something I can’t remember because I hate acronyms. (In response, BISD supporters formed a group called B.E.S.T. which also stood for something I can’t be bothered to remember.) Anyway, the B.E.T.T.E.R. group grew out of the whole South Park fiasco (read my take on that here), and deep down at the chewy center of that particular gobstopper lies the bitter nougat of racism. (And this is the first bit that will make new enemies.)

I’m not saying everyone involved in opposing the destruction of South Park did so directly out of racist intent, but race is in there, mixed up in the swampy soup of disdain some area residents have for the current school board. It’s a very old wound that goes back to forced desegregation and the state forcing the two area districts (the wealthier South Park district and the less wealthy Beaumont ISD) to combine. And while that alone might not motivate someone out of racist hatred, the element of race cannot be overlooked. People are still butthurt over desegregation. The BISD board is still “getting back at the white folks” from so long ago. Race is a big part of all of this, and to dismiss it is to shy away from a contradiction that might hurt your argument.

Which brings me to my second friend-losing bit. Many of the people on BBW are not who they present themselves to be. This isn’t surprising, as people generally aren’t who they want the world to think they are, but this goes beyond the superficial. I had an exchange with a BBW member tonight on a totally unrelated topic to BISD, which ended in this person deleting any presence of information that contradicted his point. He didn’t counter any of the points; he didn’t make an argument against the veracity of the contradictory comments. Instead, he simply deleted them and pretended they never existed. This avoidance of fact and an evasiveness to address even the simplest of contradictions is exactly the behavior I’ve come to expect from the BISD school board, not one of the more prominent BBW members who routinely cries out for justice and transparency. It was shocking to see this sort of thing from this particular person, who is normally very cordial and level-headed…as long as you’re agreeing with him, I guess.

My third and final bit involves politics and how I hate them. I hate national politics, I hate state politics, I hate local and city and group politics. I will not like them on a train, I will not like them on a plane. I will not like them here or there. I will not like them anywhere. And BBW is nothing but politics.

The group is filled with the sort of staunch “I don’t know why I’m a Conservative but I just am, dammit and guns and Jesus!” type of right-wing fanatic that’s typical of this area, so it’s no great shock to find them gathered together en masse. Because this is Texas. Any time you get five Texans together, chances are six of them will be radical conservatives and at least one will be bad at math. What is shocking, although that’s probably not the best word for it, is the amazing disregard many members have for anyone who doesn’t align perfectly with their world view. And they post their world view constantly, eagerly soaking up the Like clicks from an army of symbiotic sycophants who all go around Liking each other’s paranoid tirades in a giant circle jerk of electronic validation.

They hate Obama, and they post about him regularly. They hate liberals, and they post about them regularly. They hate Muslims, and they post about them regularly. They hate the federal government, and they post about it regularly. They hate so many things, it’s a wonder they can squeeze in enough time between Obamacare Raging and Tea Party Fellating to even remember that they’re supposed to be fighting the corruption of a local school board rather than taking on all the ills of the nation from the confines of a small, 1,600 person Facebook group.

What happened with BBW is that its cause attracted people not motivated by race or seizing power, but out of a desire to put an end to corruption and heal a dysfunctional school district to improve the lives of all the children it’s failing to educate. These people then got stirred up in the big pot of goopy stew and every single member now has bits of everyone else floating around them. The group actively drives out people with differing world views on certain topics and encourages a hive-minded groupthink in place of reasonable discourse. If you want to be accepted by the group, you say the things they want you to say, not just about BISD but about everything else. Ever. On the planet.

If you know me, or even if you just read this blog from time to time, you know that I don’t give a crap about political affiliations. I believe in personal freedom at my core, but I lean left on some topics and right on others. I believe in the power and responsibility of the individual, but I also believe in…well, it doesn’t matter. What matters is, I don’t fit their mold. Neither do many others, most of whom eventually choose to leave the group altogether rather than associate with people who routinely insult and belittle anyone who isn’t a hardline, ultra right-wing neocon Tea Party whatever.

The only way this whole BISD situation is ever going to get any better is if the Texas Education Agency comes in, dissolves the board and appoints a conservator for the district. (Spoilers from the future: That’s exactly what happened.) Clean house, get things back in shape, then hold city-wide elections for new trustees. If the three potential board members had won their court case today to win their seats, I was ready to make the request that their first act be to resign and ask the TEA to come in and take over. But I didn’t think that would happen, because I don’t think power ever surrenders power. Even when it’s the only way to achieve the goals everyone claims they’re fighting for.

So anyway, what you have now is a group with a whole bunch of really great people who joined it to try and make Beaumont a better place mixed in together with people who want to seize power, who can’t even see their own racism, who won’t even acknowledge contradictory facts when they emerge and/or who are just there for attention and ego-stroking. It’s just a mess. And I’m walking away from it.

I’ll probably continue covering BISD here, and I’ll probably still go to the meetings and live blog them for whatever dwindling audience might still care. After this post, I don’t expect to have many friends left on either side of the fence, but I told you before. I never did learn.

Want some books? 'Course ya do!

NOTE:  I know times are hard and yeah, I need to make a living too, but if you want to read any of my books but can't afford to buy them right now, hit me up.

I'll take care of it.

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