Peoria Pundit

I created my sister site Blog Peoria
to get other Peorians into
blogging.

One of the success stories has been Bill Knight
, a former reporter and
editor at the Journal Star who now teaches at Western Illinois, and also
does a ton of freelance work and commentary for Illinois Public Radio.

He posts versions of his work at Blog Peoria, and they are always an
interesting read, albeit from a more liberal — he would say progressive
– point of view. But remember, Blog Peoria has no “house” ideology.
Opinions are those of the post’s author, not me.

A case is point is this recent post about tort reform
, originally heard
on Illinois Public Radio.

*UPDATE:* Folks, you can buy Bill’s books

on Amazon.com.

Not that long ago, I was posting about the situation at District 150. The board was in the process of ridding itself of its superintendent, who happens to be black.

There were those in the community, the media and on the board who opposed this decision and they believe that race played a part in that decision.

I happened to think that Kay Royster simply had burned all her bridges through her arrogant, take-it-or-leave-it attitude and decision-making processes. I believe, and still do, that those who are crying racism are simply playing the care card.

It was almost as if her defenders were complaining of a lynching, I thought. And so, my original draft of that post included a line that evoked the name of Emmitt Till, the young man who was lynched in 1955 Mississippi for the crime of whistling at a white woman. The purpose of invoking that name would have been to ridicule the position that Royster was a victim of bigotry.

Obviously, what has happened to Royster is not comparable to murder, and at the time, no reasonable participant in this discussion had tried to make this comparison. And so, I decided to not mention Emmitt Till. It would have been unfair and inflammatory.

I read today’s Journal Star account of the “raucous” meeting in which the board officially put Royster on administrative leave, and hired two of its own retirees, Chuck Fabish and Ken Hinton (himself a black person) to serve as co-superintendents until a full-time replacement could be found.

And how did one member of the board describe these actions:

Board member Martha Ross, who along with Garrie Allen voted against the suspension and the hirings, said, “This action was nothing less than a lynching of an individual who does not deserve this type of treatment.”

So much was wanting to raise the level of the debate.

Let’s look at the facts.

She was hired by the school board — the majority of whom are sitting on the board now — at an annual salary about $192,300. Since her hiring, there were controversies over social promotion of students (teachers said it was happening, Royster disagreed), the food services contract (she defended the iffy bookkeeping that showed a profit was being made, and students complained bitterly about a decline in food quality), school newspaper censorship (students at Richwoods said they were threatened), student discipline (teachers said principals and administrators wouldn’t back them up, under orders from Royster’s subordinates), treatment of special needs students (hard of hearing and deaf students were moved to a building that wasn’t designed for their use and parents were never consulted about the move).

To make matters worse, every instance in which the board and the community tried to get these concerns addressed, Royster’s supporters would complain that the complaint was based on race. Either the board was racist or that student discipline was racist or that opposing social promotion was racist.

Tests scores were up and the district was on solid financial ground, they said. Therefore, complaints about other issues didn’t matter and were, therefore, racist.

Royster did nothing to these efforts by her defenders create a racial divide in the district. This gave the work of the co-called “Campaign of Shame” her tacit endorsement.

In the end, the good news on test scores and wasn’t enough to save her job.

She will negotiate the terms of her leaving. She will probably get paid every single cent the 11 months that remain of her contract. That’s more than 90 percent of $192,300.

It sounds like a generous lynching to me.

The biggest losers in this mess will be any student, parent or teacher who is a victim of actual racism in the future.

There have been so many people crying “wolf” over poor, mistreated Kay Royster, no one will believe it when it really happens.

I think not.

Because the Super Friends were cool, not like these wannabes. At least they were, until they got all politically correct with “Black Vulcan” and “Apache Chief.”

superfriends,superman,batman,wonder woman,aquaman,robin,black vulcan,apache chief

http://peoriapundit.com/images/briansetzer.jpg

Maybe the “Stray Cats” will get back together and he’ll get back in
shape for the tour.

… so I’ll be posting later today.

Enjoy the eye candy.

? State: Manual principal vote violates Open Meetings Act

/On Friday, two African-American groups called [William Salzman's]
appointment “a concerted effort” by some board members to
“circumvent the process.”

They said the hiring was a violation of the state’s Open Meetings Act.

The act requires 48-hour notice on action items. “Adding to the
agenda by addendum” means the appointments could be considered but
no final vote could be taken, Walvoord said.

Board president Aaron Schock said the board has been adding
principals at the last minute for years.

“This is the way they’ve been handled, but because of all the
discussion about it, we put it on (the agenda) to be double sure,”
he said.

Asked whether he was concerned about violating the Open Meetings
Act, he responded: “I don’t have any concern about that. Frankly,
it’s the way it’s always been done. Because of concerns raised by
community members, we’re not going to argue about it. We’ll put it
back on the agenda and do it again.”/

Let us put aside for a moment the source of the complaint were people
struggling for reasons to criticize the district’s handling of
Superintendent Kay Royster (who will likely be put on administrative
leave tonight).

Schock’s attitude toward this issue stinks.

The Open Meetings Acts exists for very good reasons. Illinois isn’t
exactly a state known for open and inclusive government. The Open
Meetings Act attempts to set up rules to force the government to operate
in the open, so that major decisions do not happen in private and and
without an opportunity for public scrutiny.

No one rationally expects politicians and elected officials to never
talk amongst each other — as long as they are not in a group large
enough to equal a majority of a quorum. They will form alliances and
voting blocks, and that’s what’s happened on this badly divided board.

If Schock — who wants to represent Peoria in the Illinois General
Assembly — cannot grasp this fact from a moral perspective, perhaps he
can grasp this: They’ve given their critics a hook onto which they can
peg their complaints. That’s bad strategy.

And consider this: What if Royster supporters were the majority on the
board, and the people opposing the new principal hires were those
demanding she be fired? Schock certainly would be among those demanding
that the act be followed.

The defense that the district has operated in this way in the past is no
excuse … and it casts the press in a very bad light for not noticing
and reporting on this before.

Journalists need to be advocates for the public’s right to know. They
were asleep at the switch on this one, and it took a a group of
agitators promoting a lousy cause to point this out.

? John Deere, Saint Francis parting ways

/The insurance company is parting ways with OSF Saint Francis
Medical Center and its physicians network beginning at the end of
this year.

Instead, John Deere [Health Plans] is partnering with Methodist
Medical Center and its affiliated physicians, specialists and
facilities. The agreement is for five years. /

Guess who is going to have to get a new doctor.

Anybody know a good physician affiliated with Methodist?

I have no complaints with WEEK’s report on blogging, available here.

Hey, nice work getting the link up so soon, but would it have killed you guys to hyperlink back to me?

I was kinda under the impression they were going to talk to other people, but I was the only guy they talked to. No problems. I’m happy with it. Thanks guys.

To tell you the truth, I had completely forgotten what I said under Mike Dimmick’s harsh interrogation. I’m glad I didn’t stumble over my tongue too much.

Generally, I said that a blog is what its writer makes of it, and that it gives everyone a voice in the media and that I do it for fun, not money (ain’t that the truth.)

On a personal level, I’m always surprised to hear how high-pitched my voice sounds to other people. It almost makes me want to take up smoking. And I needed a haircut.

Of course, Dimmick made a point to mention Drew Barrymore and the eye
candy, which was all over the site at the time they filmed the segment.

I really liked Tom McIntyre’s lead in. He went from a report on the Democratic Convention by mentioning that bloggers were credentialed to cover it.

And I’m surprised they mentioned their own blog, because there is just ONE post and a bunch of comments.

Operating on the assumption that tonight’s WEEK segment on blogging (reaction to which will follow) might bring in a few new visitors, I think it might be appropriate to provide some sort of official welcome, as well as an explanation about what this site is all about.

*Backstory*

I’m a native Peorian. I attended Kingman School, then Glen Oak the
Woodruff High School until 1981, when they had enough of my nonsense and graduated me. I later attended Illinois Central College and four short years later, I was allowed to attend Eastern Illinois University. Despite my best efforts to the contrary, I graduated with a degree in journalism in the fall of 1987.

I’ve worked at small dailies, weeklies, bi-weeklies and twice-a-weeklies all over Illinois and once in Cape Girardeau, hometown of Rush Limbaugh. I was a student intern at the Peoria /Journal Star/, back in the days when it was owned by Henry Slane. I also worked at the LABOR Paper. My last stint was as editor of the /Peoria Times-Observer/, which fired my
sorry ass on my one-year anniversary. Apparently, they were hoping to
avoid the cost of a cake.

There have been period during the last 20 years when I swore off working
for newspapers. I’ve worked in the technical support field, which is
neither glamorous or well-compensated.

During my stint at the LABOR Paper, I got involved in politics in a
small way and was a precinct captain for the Democratic Party. I was
also committed to serve as a delegate for the very pro-labor
presidential candidate Tom Harkin back in 1992. It’s ironic considering
how much I harp on the need for objectivity these days, but I didn’t
consider myself a mainstream journalist at that point.

In was during another stint away from journalism when I underwent a
political conversation from liberal Democrat to the Libertarian Party. I
was an actual card-carrying LP member, and I would take the card out of
my pocket to prove it.

September 11, 2001, changed everything. Soon after watching the images
– literally disbelieving what I was seeing — I learned that the LP was
opposed to military action and in fact blamed the United States
government for policies that made other nations hate us.

I quit that party and have considered myself a lower-case libertarian
ever since. These days, I vote for the candidate with the best
character, provided his or her policies are not too far to the left of the right.

It was also soon after that that I applied for and started working for the Times-Observer. It was then that I started noticing for the first time that I know longer made the same liberal assumptions that I used to make and my co-workers and bosses made about virtually every issue having to do with politics, government and culture.

Let’s just say it caused friction.

*The Internet*

I’ve been involved with the Internet for close to 10 years now, and have had a Web site of some sort or another for almost as long.

My first attempts on the Web were as amateurish as one would expect. As someone who had a lot to say and no real way to say through the
newspapers at which I worked — one must remain objective, you know — I enjoyed having a forum. But it was still frustrating, because it took an incredible amount of time to not only write what I wanted to say, but to get it on the Web in a form that other people could easily read.

About three years ago, I discovered the phrase “Weblog” or “blog” and
immediately knew that this was the Next Big Thing. The World Wide Web
has the power to turn anybody with a computer and an Internet connection into a publisher. But “blogging technology” — which is actually nothing more than a way to write something and with one push of a button put it on your website — made is possible to publish everyday without rewriting the basic code of your Web page.

I stated publishing on Blogger, a free Blog service and soon bought my own domain billdennis.net, which I long ago allowed to expire. I bought billscontent.com and have since moved everything over to
peoriapundit.com, where this site is now permanently located.

The community of bloggers — called the “Blogosphere” — provided a
ready-made potential audience. If my posts were funny and informative, I would get visitors. And I have one. I get close to 2,500 “hits” a day at last count.

I can go to any Internet ready computer, open a Web browser like
Netscape or Explorer and write something that will be read by /one
thousand people/ that day. That sounds like a lot, but there are blogs that get that many visitors in an hour. Call me the Instapundit of Peoria.

I may be “Peoria’s best-known blogger,” but I have always encouraged
others to blog. I
started a companion site, Blog Peoria
, that lets other Peorians in on the
act. I also encouraged others to start their own blogs, including Chase
Ingersoll and Vonster
.

I’ve also spent a lot of time harping on Peoria media to improve their
Web offerings, and perhaps to start offering blogs on their own sites.
So far, only WEEK has one

and it has just one post and 36 comments (buy a clue guys: Thirty-six
comments means there’s an audience, and it would serve the useful
purposes and supplementing the news product and providing interaction
with viewers).

In an era of increasing concentration of media ownerwhip — indeed,
where newspapers and broadcasters are bought and sold like porkbellies
– I can think of nothing more important to the survival of democracy
than creating new venues for peoples’ opinions to be heard and read.

Besides, blogging is fun.

*What do I write about?*

Well, I started blogging when when I was in furious Libertarian mode. I hated everything to do with Democrats and Republicans and I concentrated on writing about national politics. I also wrote about my personal life. Few people noticed, although I picked up a few reciprocal links.

Oddly enough, I calmed down a bit after Sept. 11 (except my consistent position that the War on Terror is a Good Thing). During my stint with the Times-Observer, avoided about writing about local or state politics, or local news. Not a bad idea, since it allowed me to maintain what little objectivity a formerly avowed liberal Democrat turned card-carrying Libertarian could muster.

Soon after my dismissal from the PTO, I rededicated my blog to covering the local media and local politics. It is here that I think I’ve found my niche.

I also write a column about local media and politics for the Community Word . I also run their Website.

I’m through with full-time journalism now, unless, of course, someone
wants to pay me big (or medium-sized) bucks to blog full-time or manage their Web site. Considering the hand grenades I’ve tossed at some of the media companies in town, I doubt that is going to happen anytime soon.

*You may have noticed the pictures of the pretty girls*

As a lark, I once posted a picture of Drew Barrymore and professed my
undying love for her. Soon after, someone wrote to ask for more and I
complied. That was the beginning of the “Drew Barrymore Update” category of posts. I’ve also shamelessly post pictures of good looking women wearing as little as possible. These are “eye candy” posts and are intended to draw in male readers.

Some of my lady visitors have asked me to start posting pictures of guys. Don’t count on it.

One of the most fun activities in my day is actually looking for pics of Drew and other pretty girls. I have no intention of diverting time from that activity toward looking for pics of hairy-chested men. But if women want to mail me pics of likely prospects, I might consider it.

*Where do I stand on local issues and institutions?*

Economic development: I love it — provided it is driven by the free market.

The Peoria City Council: Owned and operated by the developers who want to take resources that should go to basic services and divert it to economic development schemes.

Peoria Schools: They need a disciplinarian for superintendent to stop
the White flight which saps financial and political resources away from the poor, minority students that need it.

The /Journal Star/: I love the /Journal Star/, but think it lack
substance and deviates far too much from standards of objectivity.

The other local media: They devote far, far too much time and energy
covering the outlying area for my tastes.

Republicans v. Democrats: It’s like arguing over Coke vs. Pepsi. I drink RC.

2nd Amendment: Someone explain to me how the other nine amendments in
the Bill of Rights give the people rights the government cannot deny,
yet the second is supposed to give members of National Guard the right to possess weapons and has nothing to do with the individual right to own a gun? I’m waiting.

Municipal elections: Marcella Teplitz, Gale Thetford, Clyde Gulley and Mayor McCheese David Ransburg have got to go. Period. They talk the talk on neighborhoods, but they vote otherwise.

*My favorite posts*

In no particular order, here are some posts that are near to my heart, and illustrate where i stand and what i blog about.

? Hey! State Legislature! Peoria has $1.65 million it doesn’t need and
you can have back! Seriously!

? Murders make perfect sense to anyone paying attention

? Open meetings? We don’ need no steekin’ open meetings!

? Stenson changes his story

? It raised eyebrows when it happened, too … but not at the Journal
Star

? OK, BBC: Let’s discuss Peoria

? Blogs, J-blogs: What’s the diff?

? JS criticism of Web sites has stench of irony

… being called “Peoria’s best-known blogger” is sort of like being
called the “best French chef in Creve Coeur.”

I just saw a spot promoting tonight’s WEEK segment on blogging. Geeze. I
may have made a mistake.