Saturday, September 21, 2013

It's Obvious: We Need to Fire John King



My old friend Kevin used to call it an Eddie Albert moment. If you're old enough to recall the premise of Green Acres, it seemed to hinge on Eddie Albert's and Eva Gabor's diametrically opposite worldviews. Eddie wanted to be a country gentleman in a town crammed to the gills with country loonies and Eva or Lisa Douglas seemed hellbent on carving out her own little penthouse among the sagging chicken coops, mastitis clogged Holsteins and crowing roosters at dawn. Though his plan of moving a wannabee socialite with a knee deep Hungarian accent to the deep country might seem daft to some, the reality of the show was that Eddie's character Oliver Wendell Douglas was the only sane person in the place. What was painfully and sanely obvious to Oliver as a rule made no sense to anyone else in town. And whatever screaming lunacy the rest of them passed off as rational and plausible caused Oliver to go into atrial fibrillation. Great comic tension at every turn and I think an insanely funny piece of old t.v.

I was lately enrolled in yet another opt out friendly group on Facebook by its facilitator whom I greatly respect and admire. I appreciate this invite but I have my doubts about the longevity of my tenure in said group. So far I find I last about a week until political crazies of both sides overwhelm the discussion and accusations begin to fly, many an inner child is insulted and I simply have no time for the nonsense. What's remarkably different this time though is the similarity and frequency of the complaints. Parents and teachers, a lot lot lot MORE parents now I notice are rebelling against the Common Core, NYSED and John King in particular. King's lack of leadership, his non style and his petulant insistence that his will shall prevail are all coming together to bite him in the ass in a way I haven't seen until now. Eddie Albert moment of clarity, epiphany, whathave you: And as long as we're all pissed off and this guy doesn't care what we think (if we can paraphrase CC's David Coleman who enjoys telling critics I don't care what you think)  What is keeping us from having this public SERVANT removed from his duties? 

Somewhere in all of the imperatives and APPR's and snarky remarks about Buffalo Public Schools Commissioner King has lost his mind and his way. He serves us we don't serve him. So before this goes on for much longer I suggest we start flinging some shit locally and statewide. If Carl can roll into City Hall demanding Pamela Brown's dismissal on far more minor infractions than what this corporate puppet has committed then I am fairly certain it's time we demand his resignation, removal or reassignment to the data silos where he is truly at home among his own kind. John King must go. NOW. By any means necessary.

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