Vitamin Democracy! (Update on Assembly Meeting)
He’s at it again.
Tonight the Anchorage Assembly will be voting on Mayor Dan Sullivan’s latest appointment, and it’s a doozy. Presenting one Dave Bronson who has submitted his resume for consideration, and has been chosen to be a member of the School Budget Advisory Committee. Remember when Sullivan tried to jam his cronies Adam Trombley and Andy Clary through the door and on to the Assembly this spring because of their experience on boards and commissions HE appointed them to? He’s doing it again.
Presenting David William Bronson. In the interest of time, since you’ll only have a couple hours to call your Assembly members to ask them to vote NO, here are the highlights.
Here is a bit of his resume that he submitted as relevant for this advisory committee to the Anchorage School Board.
- Member of the Anchorage Baptist Temple since 1992
- Founding board member and current Chairman of the Board of the Alaska Family Council
- Volunteer Coordinator for the Repeal of the Homosexual Ordinance, Municipality of Anchorage 1994
- Officer District 30, Republican Party of Alaska
- Leader AWANA Children’s Bible Ministry
- With Alaska Family Council helped lead the effort against MOA O-64
- With Alaska Family Action, helped lead Alaskans for Parental Rights parental notification petition drive
Yes, that second to last one is the infamous Ordinance 64, which proposed to add the words sexual orientation to the city’s non-discrimination policy for housing, education, and use of public facilities. The Assmebly voted for it, and Mayor Dan Sullivan promptly vetoed it. And now he’s appointed this guy.
The item number on the Assemble Agenda is 9.d.6. for tonight, June 8, 2010. There is no public testimony. Up or down vote that is not subject to a Mayoral veto override. We only need 6 votes.
And ironically, this appointment to the School Board Advisory Commission doesn’t have children in the school district. Oh, he does have children… but they ‘re home schooled.
You can read more about him yourself.
An Alaskan Standard article comparing Obama to Hitler (complete with picture of Hitler, misspelling of “Barak” Obama, the opinion of his Nazi friend at a dinner party, and millions lying dead)
An Open Letter to then Assembly Chair Debbie Ossiander (in which he describes Ordinance 64 as a “dream ordinance for the likes of Barney Frank.”)
If you’ve decided that you don’t want this guy anywhere near deciding how money should be spent in our school district, including what textbooks we should be buying, and you don’t want to add another line on his resume for his future political ambitions, CALL your Assembly Member NOW.
The vote will be TONIGHT!
Click HERE to get contact numbers and call your Assembly members FAST.
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(UPDATE: The Assembly has voted 6-4 to postpone this appointment until June 22.
This gives you another week to call or email your Assemblymember(s) AND the Mayor’s office.
You can reach Mayor Sullivan at 907-343-1700 or email mayor@muni.org and tell him what you think of his appointment.
Contacted my assembly person, Paul Honeman, and let him know that I do NOT want this homophobe, religious zealot making decisions relative to the ASD for which part of MY taxes go. Where does Sullivan find these people?
He finds them at church, obviously.
This advisory position actually can influence which textbooks the school district purchases…
Can you say TEXAS TEXTBOOK REVISIONISTS? If Dave is confirmed, he will certainly do more than just kill time. He obviously has an agenda and must be STOPPED! I made my calls!!!
Leah Burton, of the blog God’s Own Party, has written numerous posts on this sort of thing: the appointment and election of fundamentalists to school boards and local, state and federal advisory boards in addition to running for office at all levels. I don’t know how fundy this man is, but you all need to get busy to ensure Sullivan doesn’t load the local government against you. His strategy seems close to the Seven Mountain strategy to revamp society according to their fundamentalist interpretation of biblical principles. High on the agenda of the Education Mountain is anti-gay, anti-choice, anti-intellectual goals as exemplified in the Texas State Board of Education and its recent revision of history texts. Here is Kansas they have tried repeatedly to revamp our science textbooks to eliminate evolution and install creationist theory amongst other atrocities. We moderates and progressives won back those seats this last election, but they are gearing up again. It is an endless battle.
Good luck. Be vigilant, be aware, and be active. It’s the only way you are going to ensure your kids get a modern, science-based curriculum and are able to compete for scholarships and jobs worth having.
Could Sullivan have picked anyone worse? Good luck Anchorage!
How can someone who doesn’t believe in the public school system (homeschooled children) advise the school board? Unbelievable!!
This guy has an agenda a mile wide, I hope you can keep him far,far away from your children.
More than unbelievable! I’d say incredibly harmful to the entire educational system…even Criminal! Would Sully think nothing of appointing/nominating an active alcoholic to sit on the board of the Baptist Temperance Committee? Oh, wait… beth.
(To be fair, it’s just been recently –here, in my area– that the law was changed so school boards/advisory committees have to be filled with men and women who have at least a high school diploma or a GED. Judges, too! b.)
Wow – that’s great: a threshold for those who would serve to monitor and change education. Where is this? We could use that idea here. To my knowledge there is no similar threshold.
Let me share one incident my husband faced when he taught in a small rural district. Every teacher took turns appearing before the school board, presenting overviews of their area of expertise, explaining what the students were doing and taking questions. One of the school board members took that opportunity to express his outrage that my husband was requiring the students to learn vocabulary words. Yes – that’s right. Technical terms essential to the area he was teaching. The very hard words were terms such as: primary colors, secondary colors, et cetera. The man even took issue that they had to learn what a kiln was in a ceramics class! He told my husband who holds a Master’s plus 60 plus hours in his specialty, that all kids need to do is learn how to keep busy during a class, “they don’t need no technical s**t. You’re going make them get uppity and move away.”
Sigh. Many things have changed for the better (not the least of which is we moved to a suburban school district where the emphasis is on things such as vocabulary, technique, analysis, and the like). However, every time I see someone who has no understanding of what education means, what effective teaching requires, and who does not respect the rigorous training most teachers go through in order to get and hold their jobs, it makes me more than sad. It is a tragedy because the really important parties to suffer are the students.
Therefore, you can see why your statement gives me at least a modicum of hope. Having a high school diploma or GED is bare bones, but at least it is a step up from having the ignorant (different from the stupid but often combined) run the show. Thanks, beth for that small hopeful tidbit. Sad thing though was seeing that you said “recently.” Sigh. We’ll get there eventually, but this country must realize that education is the key to a better life and a better understanding of a very complex world.
A quick follow-up…re: Judges (and requirements to be one of said), here.
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Most probate court judges are elected to four-year terms in countywide, partisan elections. A candidate for judge of the probate court must be at least 25 years of age, a high school graduate, a U.S. citizen and a county resident for at least two years preceding the election. In counties with population over 96,000, a candidate for probate judge must have practiced law for seven years and be at least 30 years of age. [emphasis added. b.]
http://www.georgiacourts.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=168&Itemid=0
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Unfortunately, even that ‘requirement’ oft times ends up with, shall we say, less than desirable bench-occupiers and bolluxed ‘rulings’? To whit, Judge Fowler:
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[...] Fowler’s been under investigation since 2008. The state panel says he found people guilty without letting them testify, allowed non-Spanish speaking people to serve as interpreters for defendants, and took money in lieu of community service and funneled it into a bank account he controlled. He also spoke rudely in court. http://www.gpb.org/news/2010/04/02/twiggs-judge-recommended-for-removal
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Pretty incredible, no? Funny, ‘we’ all are raised (and taught) to respect and ‘look up’ to judges; ‘we’re’ all taught that judges are wise, fair, impartial, law-knowing, yada, yada, yada…
I don’t know about you, but when *I* think “Judge,” I automatically think: “Lawyer” — but wait!, not so fast…
Ah, yes…there’s more:
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[...] Fowler and several witnesses testified this morning [28 Jan 2010] in a packed courtroom before the Georgia Judicial Qualifications Commission, which is hearing evidence as it considers whether to remove him from office.
Jon Helton, Fowler’s attorney, described his client as a well-intentioned man who has worked much of his life as a farmer in Twiggs County, a rural community just southeast of Macon.
A former part-time magistrate with a high school education, Fowler was elected in 2004 to the Probate Court. He attended a five-day, 40-hour class after being elected, Helton said: “That’s the only training he ever had, that’s all that’s mandated by the state of Georgia.”
Fowler testified he was quite conscious of his lack of legal training. “When I first took office, I was just as lost as I could be,” the judge said.
“In the beginning I was so scared of making a mistake,” he said later. “I’m no lawyer.”
Georgia law does not require that probate judges be lawyers.
[Emphasis added. The *whole* article is quite an eye-opener. b.]
http://www.atlantaunfiltered.com/2010/01/28/probate-judge-may-be-ousted-over-courtroom-conduct/
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Just for giggles, try doing the googles on requirements in your state for probate judge. You, too, might have your head-meet-desk and jaw-meet-floor moment when you discover what those requirements are. I know I certainly had mine when I started looking into ol’ Farmer-Judge Fowler. Aiiiiii – what an eye-opener! beth.
For more background on “Southern Gentleman” Fowler’s courtroom ‘problems’: http://www.atlantaunfiltered.com/2010/01/29/embattled-judge-is-he-a-southern-gentleman-or-incompetent/
I was just wondering if this crap is happening in my own state or is Alaska really “unusual?” Maybe a little of both and we should have an AKM in every state to point these travesties out.
I love your Senator Bennet. I have donated to him, and he’s in CO (and I’m an Alaskan). He was defying SP at the time (with FL Grayson), so I was showing him some Alaska love.
I like both of our Democractic candidates and can live with either one. I will vote for the one that has the best chance to win in November. Not clear to me which one at this point, The Repubs running for office here are so bad, too me it would be horrible if they won.
You!
I wish I were as brave as you AKM. Unfortunately we make our living working with a very conservative demographic right now and it would probably put us right out of business! We are hoping to move to a much more liberal part of the state soon where we will be among the like-minded (in fact,many there are even further to the left then we are!)
I have called all on the council (except Debbie Ossiander-rang and rand-no answer) and the mayors office to pull this and put forward someone else.
I looked at his resume. What does a pilot know about runing a school district? What can he add to help the school board decide how best to spend money? What does he know about running a large organization of any sort?
Please call Mayor Sullivan and tell him what a shameful appointment DAVID BRONSON is and to withdraw his appointment. Mayor Sullivan can be reached at 907.343.7100.
I so don’t like that picture of Sullivan…it gives me the creeps every time I see it!
I agree. It looks like a mug shot.
I so don’t like Sully – from what I’ve heard/investigated/learned about him, he’s not a very good or nice person. The picture, to my way of thinking, suits and reflects well his ‘resume’: Icccky. beth.
Holy shit! Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse for you up there. Dang I hope that idiot gets voted down. ZERO real qualifications!
He is a thug. Show us your father’s life insurance contract Dan!
From his resume I can’t figure out what it is that qualifies him for anything to do with any school board. Volunteering is great – that’s what I do a lot. But I wouldn’t put it on a resume to show that I’m qualified when it has nothing to do with the job. Good grief.
There’s a resume that gives me the heebie-jeebies. Yow. Hope he didn’t get confirmed tonight.
See update above. Vote will happen on 6/22. Still time to voice opinion.
Thanks for spreading the word about Mayor Sullivan’s unbelievable choice. Bronson is president of AFC, connected to the national anti-gay group Focus on the Family… and Sullivan wanted him confirmed during LGBT Pride Month! Tacky.
I am an ASD teacher, and when I emailed Mayor Sullivan I told him that I find it repugnant on a personal level that someone who seeks to step backwards in the area of the non-discrimination by sexual orientation would be involved in textbook selection, but that I find it repugnant on a professional level that you would have someone WHO CHOOSES TO EDUCATE HIS CHILDREN OUTSIDE OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM be involved in deciding how district money should be spent.