I have been afraid of this for some time. The Dartmouth Schools are now indisputably under attack by right-wing fanatics. If you are a liberal or progressive who doesn’t want to see the banning of books and diversity programs come to our schools — and better yet, you are the parent of children in the school system — now is the time to stand up for those pretty words on the sign sitting on your front lawn — and run for School Committee.
The present Dartmouth School Committee consists of: conservative Chris Oliver; ultra-conservative and would-be book-banner John Nunes; liberals Mary Waite, Kathleen Amaral, and Shannon Jenkins. Kathleen Amaral and Mary Waite’s seats are up for re-election this year. Mary Waite has not filed papers. So assuming Kathleeen Amaral keeps her seat, it is Mary Waite’s now being challenged by Lynn Turner, Troy Tufano, and Erica Lyn Morney.
Now that we find ourselves in the George Santos era, it’s worth knowing something about the increasing number of reprobates running for office. So here’s my best attempt at a survey of the School Committee candidates.
I still don’t know much about Ms. Morney, so if anyone has any information to share, please contact me and I will update this post.
However, I am familiar with Lynn Turner — whom I wrote about the last time she ran for the School Committee. Turner is an evangelical book-burner who wants to dismantle diversity programs. I looked into Turner’s background last year and also reported on her campaign remarks at a candidate forum. She is a two-faced piece of work who literally quotes Martin Luther King as she tries to undermine everything he stood for.
Joining her this year is Troy Tufano, a self-described political consultant who has dabbled in both Republican and Democratic politics. Regardless of whatever party he is enrolled in, judging from his abandoned Twitter account Troy Tufano is also an evangelical book-burner who wants to dismantle diversity programs. Besides Tufano’s bromances with domestic right-wing personalities like Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Ben Shapiro, Charlie Kirk, and prosperity gospel mega-preacher Joel Osteen, Tufano has frequently re-Tweeted European neo-fascists like: Ragnar Gardarsson of the Danish Nye Borgerlige Party; and Marine LePen of the Rassemblement National Party. Tufano has also retweeted conspiracy theories, such as the long-discredited accusation that the Clintons had Vince Foster killed. If Tufano’s tweets should mysteriously disappear during the run-up to the town election, you can find a zipfile of screen shots here.
Dartmouth’s Town elections are only two months away. This year the town election is April 4th. I hope that kind and decent people will step up. Candidates need to pick up filing papers at Town Hall no later than February 10th, collect 50 signatures (double or triple that in case of challenges), and submit the paperwork to the Town Clerk by February 14th.
Especially if you are the parent of children in the Dartmouth Schools, now is the time to step up. That sign on your lawn is nice and all, but British social philosopher and Liberal John Stuart Mill said it best: “Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.”
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