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A novice's take on the local, state and national political scenes
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David Allen
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17 comments:
You people are pathetic. The little cartoon in the paper is total BS. If your child had been threatened you might think it serious but instead you make your not cute at all jokes. Real nice. Way to support local youth.
What is really pathetic is how a parent that is a member of the school board will have the local paper print false information. What is he teaching his children? How to not take responsibility for their actions? Truth is his son was not attacked he was actually the one that was making rude comments and pushed the other boy first. I was a eye witness and what was reported in the Traveler was completely false information that was fabricated by an embarrassed parent that should be more worried about why the majority of the student body can not stand his son rather than trying to make someone else look like an attacker to the public.
The word from the kids is that this incident happened over a girl, and was not at all random. It is also said that the Reese boy instigated it.
This whole tolerance and inclusivity phooey is so overblown. It needs to be sent back to the left coast where it belongs. We do just fine in middle America without the aclu and people for the amerikan way wackos trying to tell us how we should think.
What is really pathetic is how a parent that is a member of the school board will have the local paper print false information.... I was a eye witness and what was reported in the Traveler was completely false information that was fabricated by an embarrassed parent that should be more worried about why the majority of the student body can not stand his son rather than trying to make someone else look like an attacker to the public.
November 21, 2008 6:59 AM
I believe you are liar. There is a lot of bullying going on at that school and it gets worse everyday. The hispanic and black kids think they run the damn place and the staff is letting them get away with it. You are wrong to make such a statment.
Who are you to say that someone who says they were there and saw the incident is lying? Were you there?
Where does the blog u r replying to say anything about a black or hispanic kid? The way i read the statement is that someone was WRONGLY accused of being an attacker! Who r u to say it was a lie? If u were there why didnt u prevent the fight from starting in the first place? There are minorities in every school and the majority of them DO NOT instigate fights because of people like u who automatically blame them! The funny thing is it was WHITE boys that were involved, 2 of them brothers and the other a white boy also who by the way was the one BEING ATTACKED not the attacker as you seem to believe according to my best friend and yes it was over a girl that likes this attention. I know this girl well and i believe she gets a kick out of this which is NOT COOL!
I've let some unverified information through on this thread, but it's starting to get out of hand on the back and forth accusations, especially when certain people are easily identified.
Please keep it constructive
DAS: I make the same offer as it is consistent with my appointment. The AC Human Relations Commission would be willing to facilitate dialog on this topic, whether it be a real or perceived problem.
Dialog is in an open non-threatening forum is always the most productive and most mature step towards reaching common ground.
There! It's out there. We can keep throwing stones from behind trees or we can come together and try to identify an acceptable path forward.
I mostly appreciate Charles's offer but isn't it kind of funny how hard he is trying to make the human relations board relevent?
If you witnessed the fight why didn't you do anything? Are you part of the problem? If you are an adult who witnessed it- what the hell does that say about you?
Anonymous said...
I mostly appreciate Charles's offer but isn't it kind of funny how hard he is trying to make the human relations board relevent?
Actually it is not so funny for me. In each sermon, I close the service inviting someone to make a choice to accept Christ. Not coincidentally, many people have the same attitude about that but I still offer it because I beleive in what I am "selling."
I offer because I should. Something to ponder is that my term as Chair and as a member of the HRC ends in January. The mayormakes such appointments and has not, as of this day, ask me to continue.
So here is another even funnier thing. Why don't you apply for the board and then you make it relevant or, if it be your preference, irrelevant.
Deep, breath, step back, and let's just all relax. First and foremost we should remember that there are children involved here and we should be extremely careful regarding what we say regarding any action or reactions on the part of the children. I know Darren Reese,over the years we have had disagreements, but whatever Darren said to the paper regarding the incident itself I am sure he believes to be true. I am not in anyway supporting the statements I am just saying that I believe it is beneath him to willfully misrepresent the situation to gain public sympathy.
The whole situation is not the best but it will get no better through third parties making accusations of lies and misrepresentation. In this situation if the comments are not constructive to reaching a solution then they should not be made.
Remember these are children involved and I implore you are to recognize this and do what's best for them and cease dialogue that could turn harmful. They will only be kids once so all of us should be adults and give them that. Dr. Ron Ballard, without a doubt, is very capable of managing the situation to create the best of outcomes and I am sure that he will.
As for the comment regarding the human relations commission being relevant. If the this, of all bodies, is not relevant then that is a very sad commentary on the type of community this has become. I have served in elected office and I know first hand the temptation to serve a personal agenda. My agenda was always the kids. Always will be. Charles Jennings has an agenda. That agenda is to serve the City of Arkansas City in the best way that he can. I fully believe that the human rights commission is a relevant body and with Charles at the Chair can and will become an increasingly relevant tool that will help distinguish Arkansas City as a community of choice willing to embrace all who choose to call it home with an atmosphere absent of racial, religious, or gender based malice. Or at least I believe that can come to pass if we all recognize that relevance of humanity and the commission that embraces the thought.
As usual my comments are not hidden behind an anonymous moniker.
Children are only children once. Let's help them preserve and enjoy the experience.
I am the parent of the other boy involved in the fight with the board members boys.
I have kept quite because I do not think we should be throwing stones at each other, however, when I open the paper every day to see that another ugly comment has been made that makes my son look bad, and then I am told to read this blog, I have had enough.
The paper has painted an ugly picture of my son, which is not fair! He is not a bully, he has never been in a fight before, he has never been in Real trouble, he is an A-B student the majority of the time, he is active in school events and clubs, he has always gotten compliments from his teachers about how respectful he is and how they love having him in their class.
I will not defend my son for being part of a fight but I will defend him in the fact that according to him and other witnesses he was not there to instigate a fight, he was only there to talk to a classmate (not the Reese boys) about a rumor they had started about him. Unfortunately a fight is what happened after Mr. Reese’s son got out of his truck (not blocked from entering his truck). Words were exchanged between the boys, which resulted in my son getting shoved first but ended with the 2 boys on top of my son with one of them holding my son down while the other was choking my son. Again I have never nor will I ever approve of physical violence and my children know this. But, if they are pushed into it I do expect them to defend themselves. Which according to my son along with witnesses is what happened in this case. It is also my understanding that it was my son that reported the incident to school officials the following morning.
I have spoke to the editor of the paper and ask that he not print any more statements that paint this ugly picture since he does not have all the facts or both sides of the story. I did assure him that the school has handed out punishment for this act. My son took his punishment and is doing what he is supposed to do to rectify his part in the incident.
My son is a good kid that doesn’t get into any more trouble than the next, he is16 and he is not perfect nor is any other 16-year-old child.
Kids will be kids & fights will happen no matter how good of a parent we may be. This is where we as parents come in and teach our children the responsibility of accepting the consequences of their actions. Some will learn from it some will not, unfortunately this is life and no one is perfect.
I give anonymous comments the consideration they deserve: none. Thanks to Charles and John for stating their opinions clearly, in competent English, and for having the class to be responsible for them by including their actual names.
Taresa said it best in my opinion. It's the parents responsibility along with the community of would be adults, teachers, judges, lawyers, principals, etc, to "teach" the children that they have to answer for and except repsonsibilty for their actions. God or bad, they own it! This is how "we" learn. Not that we can't help them, advise them, assist them, but that they have to handle it on their own. This has to start out though at an early age and NOT 16. Little late at this point! They end up learning the hard way and this is why we are seeing more and more law enforcement contact with the kids at midnight out on the streets! Where the heck are the parents???
This is all quite sad for Ark City. So many judgemental people worrying about things that really are none of there business. This involves children, their families, and the school system.
If a parent or family chooses to remove a child from a school, that is there business and should not be a topic of rampant speculation for the entire town. Just because someone is a business owner, in public service, or even (gasp) a little different that the average Ark Citian, does not mean they should be dis-respected by ignoring there right to privacy and to raise there family as they see fit.
It is also very sad that the young man whose family owns the hotels was harrased in such a way. Look at the world around you Ark City - look at our president elect and how the world as a whole is responding to him. Things are changing and AC is behind the times as usual. 20 or so years ago we had ACHS students painting confederate flags at the high school without much concern from the school district, and now harrasment of this sort now. How sad! Ignorance breeds ignorance. I can only hope that all of the students involved - both the perpertrators of this harrassment and the victims - can reflect thoughtfully with family, friends, and community members to make this a better community for all.
I do not know many of the school district officials well, but I do know well enough that they care very much for the young people and patrons of the district. We should trust that they will reflect on the situation and implement necessary changes needed to make the district a better place. AC schools are now very strong on test scores, as the government now mandates. Unfortunately this may be leading to a lack of judgement and character in the young people, maybe not.
Some things that make me wonder - Why is the local paper as well as local "news" sites and radio stations responding to matters that should really be between students, parents, and the schools? (I do know that some of the paper reporters and editors do wonder about this too). Why is text messaging suddenly considered to be an accepted source of information and enough for a story to be printed? Why do local police officers and/or "unnamed" school staff feel it is appropriate to make statements on matters that should likely be kept to the parties involved?
I know technology exists that can block cell phone (and text messaging) signals. Maybe ACHS needs to look at doing this.
Maybe we should all worry more about making sure we are all productive members of society working for the good of the community and all of its members. Maybe when we here of situations that do not involve us we should think of the parties with empathy and hope for a positive result and a good future for those involved.
Just some thoughts.
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