By DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, Monday June 26, 2017) — Let’s be clear. THE PLANET wants everyone to be themselves.  It may be fantasy, fiction or fact, but whether you “self identify” as straight, gay, lesbian, transgendered, queer, questioning, percolating, or “none of the above,” you have the right to free expression of who and what you perceive to be your authentic self. Simply put, you own yourself.

But does an LBGTQ-whatever gathering at Pittsfield’s Common warrant a page one story with photo plus next-day follow with rainbow banner across page one, with so many other stories waiting for anyone but us to pursue? Aparently, The Boring Broadsheet thinks so. THE PLANET wonders: Where is the tough, edgy, investigative work the new  owners promised? Nowhere. The BB wants to play the heavenly harps when it comes to the dying city. What little remains of its ad revenues depends on keeping alive the feeble fable.

Instead of an investigative piece exposing the rampant fraud in the use of taxpayer-funded city vehicles, for example unauthorized personal use, the daily rag wrote about how Pittsfield performs maintenance on its fleet. Stop the presses, already! Or why does Kristen Behnke, the school department’s finance direction, need nine women on her staff? There couldn’t be patronage jobs among them, could there?

Unfortunately, in dark blue regions such as Massachusetts, the LBGTQwhatever thing deals more with politics than personal and social justice. The point isn’t so much the admirable goal of personal freedom than the “state” granting license to indulge, giving government hidden control over people’s lives, usually without innocent folks, gay or straight, realizing their exploitation. There is no slavery so absolute than the one where not only does the indentured not realize his condition but actually thinks he’s free.

That’s the main reason why events such as rainbow rally at the Common find organizers and why politicians feel they have to show up. It comes as no surprise to this address that Mayor Linda Tyer spoke at the Common on Saturday. Politically she had no choice.

——– *** ——–

Be who you are, but stay ou t of our face with it. Let THE PLANET tell  you about Mystic Valley Regional Charter School in Malden. It has 1,500 students, 40 percent of whom are black, Latino, or Asian. The school has the lowest attrition rate in Malden, like Pittsfield a school district of choice — and it tops all the traditional public schools in the nearby six districts combined (source The Boston Globe). It has higher MCAS scores while serving students who are disabled, poor, or otherwise disadvantaged.

As a charter school, Mystic Valley operates outside the control of teachers unions — the biggest opponent of true education reform. That explains its superior performance. Mystic has a policy of not allowing any student clubs dealing with social issues. It wants the focus to be on education. The school has routinely turned down such requests without incident. Rules are rules. “The [trustees]determined that the school needed a policy to ensure fairness in assessing demand for clubs and in order to continue to operate in a financially responsible manner … with proper faculty supervision, with adequate compensation for faculty advisers, and with adequate student participation,” said Alexander Dan, Interim school director.

When student Rebecca Fisk wanted to start a gay-straight alliance group in 2014 and was turned down, however, it became a “cause.” Instead of realizing the need to comply with school policy, Fisk went to the ACLU. In fall 2015, rather than risk an expensive and likely unfriendly, Blue State court action, Mystic allowed the gay-straight club. The current events club? Turned down. Green discussion club? Forget it. LBGTQwhatever? No problem.

See, they are special. They are special not on the merits but because of insane politics. THE PLANET doesn’t buy it.

———————————————————————————————–

“I have not yet begun to fight.” — John Paul Jones

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

The usual disclaimer, pre previous posts.