Despite the polemical aspersions and insinuations of “underhanded politics” by leading negative voices in our community, last Thursday’s local elections show that most citizens of Hamilton County want to move forward with new innovative efforts to provide quality education for our children instead of doing nothing other than criticizing every idea or proposal, or worse, advocating a return to the old discredited policies of our Jim Crow past.
The election results are neither the product of some conspiracy by “liberal zealots, ”and “former members of Barak Obama’s staff,” nor of “naïve voters” fooled by the “liberal elite” and “UnifiEd,”as some who have discovered that their voices don’t carry nearly the influence they thought they did, have arrogantly and insultingly asserted. They derive instead from the acknowledgement by concerned citizens of Hamilton County, both liberal and conservative, that we cannot wallow in the past and must move forward to secure a decent education for all of our children if we are to prosper as a community and a nation, and maintain the United States’ world leadership role in the 21st century.
Those folks who put five pro-progress in education members on the nine member school board are not the ones who “ain’t like us.” It is the ever shrinking minority of negative voices like Roy Exum and Rhonda Thurman who, as last Thursday’s election shows, no longer represent the majority of Hamilton County voters on education issues.
Mr. Exum asks, “Is this what you want?” The voters, influenced by nothing other than their own thoughtful consideration of the issues, have answered, “Yes, it is.”
Harry M. Hays