Character: A Deciding Factor to Endorse a Candidate

Toni Buckley Dockter – Founder; Publisher; Editor-in-Chief; Distribution Manager;

Intrepid Reporter; IT Guy; Coffee Girl

email: fwepub@aol.com

www.fuchsiawoman.com/blog

MOTTO: When telling the truth is a revolutionary act. 

All editorial     All social commentary    All for the common good

 Issue Number 44  –  October 21, 2020

********************

 

“To learn honesty, one must practice telling the truth. To learn justice, one must act in a just manner. The same is true of generosity, courage, kindness, patience… (and) applies to any worthwhile complicated human endeavor.”

– from Ethics: The Art of Character, by Gregory R. Beabout, Wooden Books Publishing, 2018

*****

As the election cycle in Ashland Oregon furiously lurches to the finish line, there has been a multitude of candidate endorsement letters printed in the local newspaper. Half of them are bunk–in our humble opinion, of course–because they are either highly exaggerated, reiterate the same tired plaudits, or are plain ol’ not true. If we were to respond to each one to correct the mis- and dis-information being bantered about, we would never sleep, eat, shower, or Netflix binge.

But two letters–both from the same writer–caught my eye. Because I know this person. I thought one letter sounded like her. The other one was smacked so far into right field that even Hank Aaron couldn’t catch the drift of that curve ball.

Here is our editorial comment:

Hi Susan!

Remember me? (Don’t you hate it when you get emails out of the blue like that?).

I am a former student of yours at OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute for those not familiar with the acronym). Took five classes from you–Shakespeare’s Sonnets; 3 Shakespeare plays; History of the 1876 election. I always sat in the back–scribbling notes–enjoying the lecture and other students’ participation.

I was the student who told you I had taken a gazillion classes over the decades and you were easily one of the best teachers ever–and that I was sure you had heard this compliment many times before.

I’m also the student who complained to OLLI about the graphic sexual assault scene (of a young Vietnamese woman by a U.S. soldier) in a documentary shown in a class about the Vietnam War. You were Director of Curriculum at the time. You helped secure changes.

I’m also the student who asked you what you thought of the ugly sexual assault scene in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s production of Timon of Athens (about which an usher told me as I fled the theater that many theater-goers during the season had also fled the theater after that banquet scene). You said it was “the director being edgy.”

I guess women (represented by life-size puppet dolls) who have their faces shoved into some guy’s crotch; suffer thrusting to their backside; have their arms and legs ripped off; their torsos thrown on the ground and stomped on; etc. while other men party on may be someone’s definition of edgy.

I found the play more like a definition of obscenity–as in you can’t define it but you know it when you see it.

I’m also the student who complained to the OLLI administration when a guy (in the front row) in a baseball class made a comment about Pete Rose belonging in the Hall of Fame. He said, “I love Pete Rose. I wouldn’t care if he raped my sister.”

I was horrified. I called out from the last row, “D___, don’t ever say that again!”

The teacher was aghast. The other students sat silent. Two guys (who had previously identified themselves as San Francisco Giants fans, MY team) turned around in their seats to give me the stink eye like I was wearing Dodger blue and a Kershaw jersey.

The other students were more concerned about the guy who made the comment than the content of what he said and the effect it had on me–or perhaps other women who remained silent.

That’s called “himpathy”–when men who commit acts of douchebaggery or “engage in other misogynistic behavior often receive sympathy and concern over the female.”  (from the book Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women, by Kate Mann). A perfect example is Judge Kavanawful’s confirmation hearing.

Ashland Oregon is saturated with himpathy. Good example: When Mayor Stromberg said the Parks & Rec recall election should be voted down because if it succeeded three commissioners “would be humiliated.” Not a molecule of empathy for the five women who lost their jobs for no good reason. (See the documentary Foul Play?)

And just so no one ever forgets this travesty–thereby making it easier to commit the same crime again, say their names: Chris, Darlene, Dorothy, Loretta, and Susanne.

Real people with real lives with real experience and real service and real dedication to Ashland were reduced to nonentities. Because City Hall thugs thought (and still do think) they can do what they want with no repercussions.

One of the women who lost her job was 88 years old. Did any of those character-deficit officials in City Hall give a moment’s thought what would happen to her? Her lifestyle was ruined. Who is going to hire an 88-year-old woman? Her reason to get out of bed in the morning was smothered to death in dirty politics.

Against her will she was thrust into the position of being a vulnerable Senior. Did anyone at City Hall check and see how she was doing?

No. Because no one in Ashland’s City Hall gives a crap about an 88 year-old-woman.

From a book about this subject: Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity, Patriarchy, and the Fear of Female Power. The author Sady Doyle says:

“White men with dangerous empathy deficits aren’t just spooky stories. They’re not outliers or aberrations…You can find these men in the White House, in the Supreme Court, in Congress, on CNN. We are swimming in it, drowning in it, all that masculine heartlessness; the patriarchal love of corrective, purifying violence is the basic currency of our political life, and the guiding ethos of our world.”

YIKES! That’s some declaration. Too feminist for you? I don’t think so.

You also previously wrote a letter to The Tidings to the sports guy that there was no need to differentiate “basketball” into “women’s basketball”–meaning a basketball game is a basketball game no matter the gender playing it.

Do you think the silence from the OLLI administration about what happened in the baseball class means advocating violence against women is OK? Or maybe they’re just sick of me pointing out how their organization isn’t as pristine as it thinks it is.

After I dropped the baseball class, I received a condescending email from a different OLLI teacher about this incident. This old-thinking white guy teacher disapproved of my response. He told me what I should have thought and how I should have acted.

Had I chosen to respond to being gaslighted by this moron I would have quoted Emerson:

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”

This is why when people claim Ashland is a “progressive” town I laugh. In many instances, better adjectives are patriarchal; punitive; parochial; prejudiced; petty; provincial; and puerile.

But back to the reason I’m writing. To comment on two political letters you wrote.

The first, your endorsement letter in the Mail Tribune (10/18/2020) titled “County Needs Terrie Martin.” You said:

“…three current county commissioners share a ‘good old boy’ mindset…The fact that all three have endorsed Terrie’s opponent suggests to me that they expect him not to ‘rock the boat,’ a boat that badly needs some ‘rocking.'”

I myself rail against the good ol’ boys mindset–in Ashland and in life in general–with much commentary about it in the Outlandia Gazette. I heard Terrie speak at the Ruth Bader Ginsburg memorial on the plaza on 9/20/2020. She stated up front that she is a feminist. She made excellence sense. Character check: 5 stars.

Therefore we at the Gazette feel it is an intelligent decision to support Terrie for Jackson County Commissioner.

Second, your other letter (The Tidings, 10/15/2020) titled: “Ashland Needs Graham.”

Again, had to laugh.

I thought:

You mean Ashland needs Ms. Graham Cracker* like a fish needs a bicycle?

Like a giraffe needs a laptop?

Like an armadillo needs a job?

Like Biden needs to verbalize sentences that start with ‘T’ or ‘B’?

Like your hometown of Anchorage needs Mayor Ethan “posts naked photos of himself” Berkowitz?

Like Covid needs more victims?

Like the Supreme Court needs Amy “My rosaries over your ovaries” Barrett?

In the first sentence of your letter you claim Ms. Graham Cracker “must be our next mayor.”

For the love of human decency, world peace, and never running out of toilet paper, this “must” not happen!

The rest of your letter goes downhill from there.

But first, let’s back up a minute — or more precisely, a few years.

I was the student in three of your classes who gave you a bunch of presents–pertinent to the subject matter. Various things–like a heraldry pin with a boar on it. Or a House of York stained-glass paperweight. Or a book about Thomas Nast, the father of modern political cartoons.

Or another book so heavy you could use it for bicep curls: The Monument: Shake-Speares Sonnets by Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, by Hank Whittemore, an Oxfordian and friend of Earl’s. (Isn’t everybody a friend of Earl’s?)

I was the student who remembered when you said at the beginning of the term that Richard III was your favorite King of England. You mentioned that you and he had the same birthday. I went home and googled Richard’s birth date–October 2nd. It just so happened that our class woulds be meeting on that day.

I was the student who brought a framed picture of Richard III with balloons and a bow attached to it and put it on the podium for you–with a note that said something like: “So glad we share a birthday. Let’s go grab a beer and celebrate — ‘for a quart of ale is a dish for a King.’ (A Winter’s Tale). Your pal, Dickie.”

Did you think me giving you lots of gifts was creepy? Did you think that I had an ulterior motive–like trying to get a better grade? Oh wait, there are no grades at OLLI.

Or perhaps I was trying to get you to call on me when I raised my hand? Oh wait, I almost never raise my hand.

Did you think I was trying to gain favor or influence you in any way?

If you had thought that my little show of appreciation was inappropriate I doubt you would have invited me to lunch as a way to thank me. I explained that I didn’t need any thanking–it was just my quirky personality at work. You insisted. I hemmed-n-hawed. Then finally agreed–if I could pay the tip. (Former waitress–patriotic duty to over-tip at all times.)

We met for lunch at Standing Stone–right before Thanksgiving 2017. You drank beer. I drank hard cider. Blah blah blah. You explained some of Ashland’s social underpinnings. You told me what a FIP was–Formerly Important Person. I had never heard that term before. I got a kick out of it. I’ve used it from time to time–recently in a Gazette issue.

So why are we traipsing down Memory Lane? Because your other pal besides Dickie, Ms. Graham Cracker, wrote a derogatory letter about me claiming that my donation to her opponent had nefarious purposes. And could people please donate to her poor campaign to offset my donation.

You’ve been the recipient of my natural generosity. Does Ms. Graham Cracker‘s trash-talk letter sound reasonable to you? Or more like a smear tactic from a cry baby?

I did donate money to Ms. Graham Cracker: $10. At first I got a thank-you email. Then the money was returned.

You’ve spent decades employed in high school. Does this sound like the mature response of someone who you claim “brings people of diverse views together”? Or more like petty mean-girl stuff?

Or an act of desperation to grab at any straws that may turn the tide of defeat?

Maybe you should read her St. Crispin’s Day Speech from Henry V. It isn’t about money. It’s about the spirit of brotherhood that people will remember “from this day to the ending of the world.”

You mention that one of Ms. Graham Cracker‘s qualifications is that she attends every meeting. Is this a petty swipe at her opponent who had to forgo perfect attendance due to a serious medical emergency in her family?

But here’s the second to the most important clincher as to why your letter misses the mark as widely as the Tongass National Forest.

The very reason you endorse Terrie Martin–-that she is a non-good-old-boys mindset candidate–is not even taken into consideration with Ms. Graham Cracker. It makes no sense for you to endorse Terrie for her particular mindset and then endorse Ms. Graham Cracker who has the exact opposite mindset.

What’s up with that?

Unequal enforcement of standards?

Faulty logic for political expediency?

What’s good for one goose is not good for the other goose?

In case you hadn’t noticed, Ms. Graham Cracker couldn’t be any more good-ol’boy if she tested positive for an XY chromosome.

She is a yes-man in female slacks.

She is endorsed by three past-their-expiration-date councilmen–Rich Rosenthal, Dennis Slattery, Stephen Jensen–graduates of the old-thinking white men school who have been honored by the Cognitive Himpairment Society.**

In addition she has been endorsed by the oldest-thinking of them all: Mayor John Stromberg.

In case you hadn’t noticed, the Stromberg administration is to city politics as the Hindenburg flight is to aviation safety. (That’s on this year’s SAT.)

You called Ms. Graham Cracker an “independent problem solver.” Name one instance.

You claim Ms. Graham Cracker does her homework. How would you know? Do you give her an assignment and then correct her work?

We can name many rubber-stamping votes–which takes zero independent thought. And some votes were followed up by a reversal of position–depending on the direction the political winds are blowing. Like the Adam Hanks contract debacle.

Any chance you are a fan of Aesop? He said you can judge a person by the company he/she keeps. Endorsers of Ms. Graham Cracker–the three councilmen mentioned above–wrote falsehoods about me on-line–two of which are legally actionable.

Another friend of hers–Linda Gadfly Peterson—accused me on-line without an ounce of proof–of writing and mailing an anonymous and illegal (mail fraud) postcard. With friends like these…

And this is the quality representation you think Ashland “needs”?!

In addition, you totally misread the purpose of ACES (Ashland Citizens for Economic Sustainability) and its pledge. No one is being handcuffed.

What’s up with that?

Forgot to put on your glasses?

Can’t understand text not written in 17th century blank verse or iambic pentameter?

[Note: Decided not to insert a joke about Aricept.]

You say leaders need a way to go forward.

The Graham Cracker approach is not moving forward. It’s stagnation. It’s got us where we are today–a grim financial situation in another leaking boat that definitely needs rocking. As times and conditions change–after twelve years at this point–the status quo way of doing things ages into obsolescence. Its champions devolve into irrelevance. Or as you call them, FIPs.

Contrary to what you think Ashland needs, it needs change. It needs a viable future. It needs quality peeps–honest elected officials who are not self-serving blowhards but instead understand the concept of serving the citizens that elected them.

Ashland cannot thrive with a boatload of ethically-challenged Bumbling Bureaucrats. You know what happened to Humpty Dumpty, don’t you? And Falstaff? (Long-lost relative of BuBu’s.)

The Number One Clincher in your faulty endorsement of Ms. Graham Cracker: You forgot the importance of a person’s character!

You quote Emerson in your letter: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” Emerson was way more concerned about character than he was about pea brains.

He said:

“Character is higher than intellect.”

“The force of character is cumulative.”

“No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character.”

“Men of character are the conscience of the society to which they belong.”

“Conduct is the best proof of character.”

“Nearly all men can stand adversity. But if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”

Emerson also said:

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”

“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate…”

Other folks cared about character:

“Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong. It is character.” – Albert Einstein

“Good moral character is the first essential in a man.” – George Washington

“Only a man’s character is the real criterion of worth.” Eleanor Roosevelt

“Because power corrupts, society’s demand for moral authority and character increases.” – John Adams

“Intelligence plus character–that is the goal of education.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike.” – Theodore Roosevelt

“The formation of one’s character ought to be everyone’s chief aim.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.” – Gen. Norman Schwarzzkopf

Examples of Ms. Graham Cracker’s lack-of-character actions have been documented in the Gazette.

But if you don’t want to read what we have to say, how about one of Ms. Graham Cracker‘s former employees: the recently-departed President and Chief Science Officer of Geos Institute. A person who worked there for 14 years and prior to that worked for 13 years as the Director of the U.S. Forest Program at the World Wildlife Fund. A person who has authored over 200 peer-reviewed studies and books. A person who gave the Geos Institute its credibility.

I believe scientists. Do you? Seems to me if Ms. Graham Cracker were the “independent problem solver” that you claim she is, she could have figured out how to keep the most important person in her organization.

The scientist wrote a letter to The Tidings (9/05/2020) like you did. But unlike you–having known Ms. Graham Cracker up-close and professionally for fourteen years–he chose to endorse her opponent.

By the way, in case you hadn’t noticed, after the lunch at Standing Stone I never took another class from you.

We never spoke again for years…until one semester at OLLI when there were still face-to-face classes being held. You were teaching a class in Room D while I was taking a class in Room E. You had cranked the sound to a film you were showing so loudly that a guest speaker in our class was drowned out and we couldn’t hear him speak.

In typical OLLI fashion, no one did anything. The students just sat there. The teacher just stood there. It was so rude to the guest speaker. So once again I had to be the one to do something. I barged into the darkened classroom next door, looked around for a teacher, and marched up to–lo and behold–you. I had to yell, “Turn down the volume!”

Same thing I’m doing right now.

Lastly, there’s a situation like the Capulet/Montague acrimony going on in Ashland, dontcha think? Possible topic for a class you could teach: Compare and contrast Verona and Ashland.

Prince Escalus warned: “If ever you disturb our streets again, your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.” Things did not end well in Romeo and Juliet. Maybe Ashland will fare better?

Our solution: New leadership. Better leadership. Principled leadership. Not the same ol’ shit.

So what have we learned here?

That before you turn 88 years old, best to move out of Ashland Oregon.

That a person who excels at teaching does not necessarily qualify as a political pundit.

That the absence of character in City Hall could leave you with something akin to a toxic dump heap in place of a well-run city.

That sometimes a student can teach a teacher a thing or two.

*******

* See Gazette Issue 34, 8/20/2020.

** See Gazette Issue 40, 10/03/2020.

###

In an unrelated event, three Ashland actresses–trained in fooling the general public–tried out for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s upcoming production of Macbeth. We obtained a photo of them. Here are Cathy Shaw, Tonya Graham Cracker, and Linda Gadfly Adams auditioning for the roles of The Witches:

 

 

Their lines:

“Double, double toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble. Cool it with a baboon’s blood. Then the charm is firm and good.”

None got the part. The casting director felt they would be too scary for most children in the audience. Some adults, too.

*****