To the Demagogues and Local Extremists Among Us

The Waking Bear© has been expressing itself for better than five years. In that time, thousands of emails have crossed the desk of this editor. The following is a plea for sanity, which will likely be ignored but one that I must, in acting responsibly, make.

The fanatical "right" screams of the burden that mounting taxes have on them and their families. They speak of having to leave a community they have lived in for more than thirty years. They tell of how they managed to contain costs for education, in their time, and of how parents today make no such effort. They speak of the apparent thoughtlessness of the Board of Education. They explain in long prose just how terribly saddened and angry they feel about the greediness of the teachers unions and the blindness of parents who support every expensive proposal made by the District's superintendents - first from mary barter and now from john sonedecker. [The misspellings being intentional.]

And, the fanatical "left?" Well, their an animal of a different kind. They rant about the Bear's very existence, of how we don't understand the educational process, that our authors are "paranoid, maladjusted, mean-spirited, stupid, arrogant [we liked that one], teacher hating bastards." Basically, they ALWAYS attack the messenger and NEVER, ever the MESSAGE. Why is that? Could it be that the truth hurts and that they have no intelligent arguments against what is written? Are these the same kinds of people that argue for the politically correct. That would, in one breath and a New York minute, argue for the right to speak their mind but deny yours. We think so. And we are taking a momentary repast from the school budget issue to make a very important point about Freedom of Speech and the cost to those non-believers who would deny us that privilege and guaranteed American right!

For about one month now, supporters of The Waking Bear have seen fit to advertise - via various public postings - our internet existence and the coming school budget vote of May 16th. We thank them for that.

Early on, we were beginning to believe that the teat-chers and "blind to the truth" parents had suddenly come over to our side, as no effort was being made to destroy those postings. Astounded, we looked forward to an even greater upset on election day than originally imagined.

As May 16th grows closer, however, we expect that to change. Some evidence has already appeared. And, some of our readers have seen people tearing down or painting over Bear site posters and references to the school budget. Soooo,...

To the supporters of the Waking Bear©, we ask that you show patience with their childlike behavior. Many of you have already expressed your intentions upon again seeing it occur. We advise against your taking any of the violent actions proposed. We suggest instead that you think of the "perps" as... special. You know, like in the school systems sense of "special" and forgive them their trespasses. In the spirit of Easter, forgive of them as Christ did his tormentors, as in "they know not what they do."

If it makes you feel any better, send us what information you have about these people and WE will contact them. None of them are worth your being arrested over!!! [ Please, do not send us any more information than than asked for - who [description & license plate number for example], what they did and where they did it. Do not mention any violent intentions you may be harboring. We have reformatted and destroyed all local and server records of earlier communications in this regard. Do NOT send any more, as the police might find it necessary to subpoena our files. ] And, then....

To those of you who do not support the intentions of the Waking Bear©, we respect your right to disagree. Get your own platform. You might try "KID PACK" again. But, having said that, we have the following sage advice and ask you to carefully reconsider any senseless projects you may be entertaining. YOU, along with Herr Sonedecker and the Board of Education, have NO concept of how much anger there is in this community over these issues. YOU, along with Herr Sonedecker and the Board, are perceived as people looking to deny the public the information they need to control their own lives. YOU have made of yourself a "target" for whom I, personally, hold no sympathy.

We are going to try this only once. PLEASE, read and internalize what the following message has to say. Then do as YOU wish. As the editor of the Waking Bear©, I do not care for you or what becomes of you for the following reasons:

ONLY THOSE PROFITING FROM "WRONG" STAND TO GAIN FROM SUPPORTING LIES.

ANYONE PREEMPTING THE RIGHT OF FREE SPEECH DESERVES NO QUARTER.
IF OBSERVED VIOLATING THAT CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT, YOU ARE LIKELY TO RECEIVE NONE.

COUNT UPON THAT, IF LACKING ALL OTHER INTELLIGENT CONVICTION.

Recently, the index page for the Waking Bear@ received more than 5,000 visitors. Thanks to word of mouth, even more people are going directly to our teachers directory and by-passing the index. Once at our site, those same readers have produced another 23,000 hits. To those of you unfamiliar with internet jargon, that means people are reading a great many articles supporting our beliefs. And, there is still another four weeks until the voting occurs.

Those wishing to suppress our efforts are too late. We are already something of a household word in the Three Villages.

If you disagree with us, say so. DON'T, at your own peril, deny us our right.

If a parent, don't be a pawn of those whose interests lie in profiting themselves and not your children. And don't advocate, support or involve your children in political efforts to interfere with our right to free speech, as one very embarrassed women of a few years ago did.

Sitting at the cross roads of the rancor, I am privy to what others are not. And folks, though taking a personal liking to the contentiousness, this is becoming unnecessarily explosive. Not everyone is willing and able to simply uproot themselves to suit the greedy among us. Some are frothy mouthed, pissed off.