We’ve posted before that the Brunswick “Human Rights Task Force,” originally formulated as the Brunswick “Race and Gender Task Force,” exemplifies a ‘solution in search of a problem.’ In recent months, it seemed to be fading off into the municipal sunset, lacking recent incidents to speak out against, atone for, and otherwise provide all the force of government righteousness to resolve.
Then we learned that after failing to convene for some time, the group was going to meet again - this time on Friday, November 18th. Which, oddly enough, was 10 days after the latest election, and long enough for, among other things, the Bowdoin student body and administration to publicly wring hands and gnash teeth over the outcome in the Bowdoin Orient. And untold thousands or area residents to rent their garments or any other handy blanky as well.
Cue the charges of micro-aggression, micro-oppression, micro-invalidation, triggering offenses, and all the rest of the lexicon of social justice warfare of our era.
http://wgme.com/live/brunswicks-human-rights-task-force-tackling-reports-of-hate
Now comes the above report, in which the brief video features Town Councilor Kathy Wilson, a member of said Task Force, speaking of how she has become ‘scared again.’ Both the included text and the caption below the video snippet are perhaps the worst documented reporting we’ve seen in recent years.
Both refer to ‘three town councilors’ taking action while citing only Wilson. Both refer to ‘reports of hate speech and confrontation’ without any examples, citations, or other substantiation. Apparently, said councilors believe the Task Force exists, among other things, to deal with ‘concerns about the recent election and Donald trump’s (sic) victory.’
Since the report is dated yesterday, we presumed we’d be able to find some sort of corroborating report in the pages of The Ostrich. So we searched the ‘home page’ on their web site for the last week or so, and found no related items.
Absent any such evidence in the local newspaper of record, we’re left to infer that Councilor Wilson trumped up these accusations in order to incite media attention, inflame local emotions, and reinvigorate the Task Force.
We will, however, look further into the matter, to see if acts of bias or hate speech have been reported recently. We’ll let you know what we find.
Meanwhile, Councilor Wilson can contact us with details of incidents she knows about, and we’ll pass those along as well. When she does, she can explain to us how the WGME report came about.
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