by Robert M. Traxler
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” — First Amendment.
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” — Tenth Amendment.
One would think that school board meetings are covered by the Constitution. Nothing is more local than a board of education, unpaid and locally elected by the people in the school district. It is what the founders had in mind when they drafted the Constitution of the United States of America and the Bill of Rights: local control of the lives of local people.
I served on a state board in Illinois for five years that oversaw a school district that was a financial train wreck. The Board of Education (BOE) had spent every penny they could borrow until the interest on the loans and the obligations the BOE incurred were more, a lot more, than the available funds.
The choice was bankruptcy or the state stepping in and take financial control of the school district with some 6,000 students. If they went bankrupt it could impact the bond interest rate on every district in the State, so it could not be allowed, along with the problem that neighboring districts would have had to assume the new students with the cost that incurred.
Needless to say, the BOE was not happy, and staff members were not pleased with cuts in pay and benefits. The public meetings were heated and loud, but no one was ever cut off and everyone got to speak their minds. The local police were present, but never needed; it made for a few long nights with people loudly and verbosely speaking. Protesters showed up at my home and marched outside the meetings, but no one was ever arrested or ejected from a meeting; all people were treated with respect and allowed to be heard.
Calling in the Federal Bureau of Investigation to make parents equal to terrorists, using the Patriot Act against parents or other folks who publicly speak their minds at a local BOE meeting is just one more example of federal overreach and a violation of the spirit and letter of the Bill of Rights.
The local police have the ability to police their local folks; if they fail, then the county steps in. If they fail, then the state and finally the federal government. From what I have read, the local police handled the situations when people protested teaching Critical Race Theory and the 1619 project.
Calling in the FBI before even allowing the county or state to handle the “problem” is a violation of the Constitution, but who cares? It is all in the name of social justice, whatever in the hell that really is.
For a socialist government to control our nation, the Constitution in general and the Bill of rights in particular must be relegated to the trash heap of history. The core belief of the socialist movement is that the federal government is not only a force for good, but the only allowable force for good. The absolute belief among socialists is equal outcome for all, not equal opportunity for all.
As the socialists gain control, what George Orwell wrote about in his two works, “Animal Farm” and “1984,” the socialist government then embraces nationalism, left wing nationalism, and “some animals being more equal than others,” establish a new ruling class.
Calling in the FBI to investigate people who speak out at BOE meetings has a chilling effect on free speech, a tactic necessary to bury dissent at the most basic level. God help us all.
My opinion.
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