Listen up, people of Brunswick’s several communities; our betters are hard at work trying to unravel great mysteries. Even if you didn’t know the mystery existed.
Do YOU know who YOU are? Are YOU sure?
We shouldn’t be surprised this deeply metaphysical question is a subject for public discourse in a town full of ungrounded academics, snowflakes, social constructionists, and elected employees who’ve decided they know who WE AREN’T and who WE ARE. The latter have apparently decided WE ARE to model ourselves after them. Keep in mind that YOU are included in WE.
This is as we should expect in a ‘community’ obsessed with affirmation, validation, confirmation, and other forms of personal introspection, discovery, and declaration. No matter how fluid they may decree such individual and human characteristics to be; it’s perfectly modern to follow the feelings of the moment, at least in politically correct spheres of our existence.
Enough gobbledy-gook and contemporary psycho-speak; let’s get down to what brings us to this page. That being an article that recently appeared in The Ostrich. On May 23rd, on the front page, under the headline “Group binds town together.” The group, in this case, is Brunswick’s municipal Human Rights Task Force (HRTF), about which we’ve posted in the past.
The article contains a number of noteworthy quotes by various town employees, some elected, some not. Knowing that almost no-one (of note?) buys or reads the paper anymore, we feel an obligation to bring the highlights to you, together with our thoughts on each. The format will be official citation indented and italicized, followed by our thoughts, which will be neither.
“Town Councilors Sarah Brayman and Kathy Wilson head a human rights task force and said the catalyst for the creation of the group was a rise in incidents that involved racially charged and sexually demeaning rhetoric.
‘Charged’ and ‘demeaning’ are entirely subjective terms, intended to raise passions whether warranted or not, since we have not seen the words reported in these incidents, which as we recall, are largely anecdotal. “Inappropriate” is a popular term these days, but would not have stimulated the same sort of urgent town leader response. Additionally, we believe we’ve read in recent months that reported ‘incidents’ have been virtually nil. No matter; the town has dug this hole, and there is no socially and politically legitimate way to fill it in and move on. The HRTF is now a permanent fixture of our governance, needed or not
“The group discusses issues of importance to all communities in Brunswick — including classicism, sexism, ageism and racism, and the power dynamics involved.”
Notice that instead of Brunswick being one community, we are now implicitly divided into several. How many “all” amounts to is unknown, but we would suggest that identity group politics, which is what this amounts to, will not help resolve any perceived “rights” issues; it will instead heighten the sense of differences and victimization claims that consume discourse these days, especially on college campuses. For example, take “classicism;” who knew there is pent up prejudice and animosity towards the classics? Or does this mean classic architecture, of which there are many examples in “all communities” in Brunswick? What about classic cars?
Ageism? Hell; we’re in our dotage. What’s Brunswick going to do for US? How about forgiving half of our property taxes? Instead of constantly raising them?
“Brayman and Wilson said they…..want people to feel as though they are listened to. “It binds the community in a way,” Wilson said.
Listened to? Are they kidding? Like the night Harris shut me off mid-remarks? “Listening” only matters in those cases where someone tells them what they want to hear. We’ve spoken innumerable times in front of the town council, as have many others, and we can say with certainty that the last thing you feel when you do so is “listened to.” Unless you’re coming before them to affirm their already decided/known positions.
Binding? In bondage to spending and increasing taxes would be a more accurate description.
“I am an ally, and also as a citizen, I want people to feel safe and welcomed here,” said Town Council Chairwoman Alison Harris
No doubt Harris received applause for using the PC language of the day (ally; allyship). This counts as a microreach-out, microaffirmation, and microvalidation. She is now a full-fledged member of the campus community….just ONE of the numerous communities in Brunswick.
Too bad Harris and the other elected employees don’t want us older folks to feel like we have an ally when it comes to controlling town spending and taxes. And in avoiding silliness like back-in parking, raised crosswalks, town acquatic centers, and such. We know; each “community” should get what it wants, even if other “communities” have to pay for it.
“A panel discussion is slated for the fall where community groups, citizens and town officials will be talking about the possibility of town identifying as a sanctuary city.”
So….we want to be a “sanctuary city?” We want to publicly declare that we are a city of laws, but only in those cases where we like the laws? And want to officially pronounce and proclaim that we will ignore those laws we find politically unacceptable? How about we declare ourselves a speeding city, where speed limits are no longer in force? It’s already clear that we are not “a nation of laws.” It will be refreshing to have the town come straight with us and tell us we are not “a community of laws.”
So now we see what the HRTF has become. A useful tool for various identity and advocacy groups to manipulate town government into giving them their way. We’re so glad this idea is coming into its own. But what will they do for the “just leave us alone” community?
“Wilson said President Donald Trump has given permission for the expression of hatred toward people considered outsiders.”
It’s become abundantly clear that councilor Wilson sees herself as the social and political justice warrior on the council.
But before The Ostrich runs such inflammatory quotes from Wilson, shouldn’t editors ask to see a citation proving the President has “given permission?”
Since the editors will not do so, being ideological soulmates of Wilson, we will. Councilor Wilson, please send us the citation that substantiates your assertion about President Trump. When you do, we will publish it here.
“Pender Makin, assistant superintendent of Brunswick schools, said it says so much about Brunswick that it has a human rights task force.”
Talk about speaking in the abstract, indefinite, and ambiguous. We think it says “so much” as well, but it’s obvious we don’t agree on the specifics.
““It is a good place in a darkening exterior world,” she said, adding it should be celebrated how open, loving and caring the community is. She said she often hears stories of great kindness and generosity in town.”
Funny; we thought the HRTF came into existence because Brunswick is not good, open, loving, and caring. Nor one community. Telling stories, good or bad, is the stuff of shaping poltical opinions, in the hope of driving policy (sanctuary city, anyone?).
“She said the district has conducted school climate surveys and have set goals to meet.”
That’s a story for another day; you probably haven’t seen the survey, or the results. We have, and it’s an example of how “experts” and “consultants” lead the public schools into becoming social and cultural thought shaping institutions instead of focusing on the basic skills and traits required to be a responsible, self-supporting adult.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
“The Human Rights Task Force will meet again next month.”
We encourage you to attend; one of these days the HRTF will make a formal declaration of who WE ARE, and in the process, you will find out who YOU ARE, whether you want to or not.
We can’t wait for the enlightenment.
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