School Board Karma

This is what I get.

When I heard that the Republic, MO school board had banned Slaughterhouse Five and another book I couldn't help it. I felt superior. Couldn't have been helped. Republic was home to our mortal enemies as I grew up after all. So, I certainly took no pleasure that books were being banned. If it was going to happen, however, I supposed there was no better community to play the fools than the Republicans.

Then a column appeared in the Springfield News-Leader defending the school board on the grounds that the book wasn't really banned because you could get it elsewhere and that colleges are full of liberals. At least, I think this was the point. It was a profoundly useless piece of claptrap, and under normal circumstances I could simply have filed it in my conservative idiocy mental file. But this column concluded with a devastating final paragraph:

I have two disclaimers. One, I have not read any of the three books in question. Two, I am a member of the Willard R-II Board of Education. The opinions expressed in this column are solely mine and not necessarily the position of the organizations of which I am a member. It's a sad commentary on our society when I have to state the obvious.

If you think the devastating part is that this man has never read Slaughterhouse Five, well you have a point. But it was the next line that was the knife to my heart. Willard R-II Board of Education?

NNNNOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Now my hometown is caught up in this mess as well. And its demonstrated opinion is apparently that book banning and poor logic are both perfectly acceptable behaviors out of school board members.

And in case you fear that this man's column is just a momentary lapse in judgement, I point you to his very own website. One the the nuggets of knowledge you will find there:

"Plight of the homeless -- People who are victims of their own poor choices with the exception of the mentally incompetent"

The man also has many of his own Powerpoint presentations explaining various conservative tropes, but never providing any evidence they are true.

I couldn't be more proud.