Peoria Times
10 OPINION
September 2, 2021
For more opinions visit peoriatimes.com PeoriaTimes.com
/PeoriaTimes
Arizona’s most thankless job: school board member BY DAVID LEIBOWITZ Peoria Times Columnist
Most of us like to believe we’re decent people. We give a few bucks to charity, we volunteer, maybe even help a friend move. But be real: There’s being a decent human and then there’s going above and beyond. Like by serving on your local school board. If there’s a volunteer role existent in
Arizona today that I cannot wrap my head around, it’s that one. And the past year of headlines – full of protests, threats and extreme surliness – have only deepened my confusion. Our state has about 240 school boards and 1,200 board members. Each of them deserves a medal. Or our prayers. Because anyone who does that job for $0 a year deserves something in return. School board members begin their careers by running for election. You speak
at public forums, knock on doors, stand in front of Safeway, anywhere you can meet a few voters, most of whom pay attention for 14 seconds before pushing past you like you’re a human turnstile. Then, say you win. That earns you the privilege of going to 25 or 30 weeknight meetings annually, many of which last for hours and involve a “call to the public.” If you’ve never been to a school board or municipal council meeting, lucky you. I’ve attended many, and trust
me: Most members of the public who answer this call do so because no sane human being has ever listened to them for three minutes straight without dialing 911. It’s like open mike at an insane asylum, minus the lithium. And that was before COVID, before anti-mask protests, and before machinations over Critical Race Theory. Nowadays, your average school board meeting frequently resembles Jan. 6 at SEE THANKLESS PAGE 12
Joe Biden ‘finishing the job’ for his predecessor BY J.D. HAYWORTH Peoria Times Columnist
Barack Obama did not go gently into that good presidential retirement. While most of his predecessors departed once their “lease” at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue expired, Mr. Obama decided to remain. Now with his “No. 2” elevated to “No. 1,” the former president sticks around with an up-close view and an important role in Joe Biden “finishing the job,” as Mr. Obama put it in an interview with the New York Times. Sympathetic journalists take that to mean that the 46th president will work to complete the progressive policy goals envisioned by the 44th. Americans with a different political point of view fear the expression conveys a simpler and more sinister goal: the end of the USA as a democratic republic. While his immediate successor, Donald Trump, was widely viewed as “disruptor-in-chief,” it’s worth recalling that the Barack Obama of 2008 routinely pledged on the campaign trail to “fun-
damentally change America as we know it.” In many ways, he succeeded. From the enactment of Obamacare to the politicization of our military and intelligence apparatus, and on through the exploitation of racial disharmony, our 44th president lit long, slow fuses … now set to detonate. How does Mr. Obama avoid responsibility? Simple. He employs euphemisms and administers “verbal tranquilizers.” Though his mask may slip occasionally, such an occurrence is usually explained
away by an infatuated press corps. A recent example of Obama speaking softly and sticking it to Republicans can be found in his remarks to the American Library Association in late June. There, he was asked about his biggest concern for the future and responded this way: “The degree to which misinformation is now disseminated at warp speed, in coordinated ways that we haven’t seen before.” The former president then expounded on his “concern” by quickly adding a political dimension: “And that the guardrails I thought were in place around
How to get a letter published 250 N. Litchfield Road, Suite 100, Goodyear, AZ 85338 Email: christina@timespublications.com The Peoria Times welcomes letters that express readers’ opinion on current topics. Letters must include the writer’s full name, address (including city) and telephone number. The Peoria Times will print the writer’s name and city of residence only. Letters without the requisite identifying information will not be published. Letters are published in the order received, and they are subject to editing. The Peoria Times will not publish consumer complaints, form letters, clippings from other publications or poetry. Letters’ authors, not the Times, are responsible for the “facts” presented in letters.
many of our democratic institutions really depend upon the two parties agreeing to those ground rules, those guardrails. And that one of them right now doesn’t seem as connected to them.” Call it “accusation by insinuation and omission,” preceded by “indictment through redefinition.” All of it delivered in a calm, “thoughtful” manner. Translated into conservative context, Mr. Obama is basically saying this: “Let’s call investigative reports and asSEE FINISHING PAGE 12
JUDGE’S OPINION — King Features
