Organized partisans 

Why is it that far-right Republicans are more organized than the rest of us?

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Progressive-Dems have plenty of causes to push their desire for equality to new levels of activism. But all they seem to accomplish is protesting and talking.

There was the whole controversy over Paso Robles Joint Unified School District board member Chris Arend—who believes systemic racism is a fallacy and yells at Spanish speakers because the district translator doesn't translate very well—as well as some of Arend's ideological cronies on the board—who are worried that teaching a high school ethnic studies course will unfairly target white students. (Insert eye roll.) These elected officials represent a school district that is majority Latino with a high percentage of families who speak Spanish at home.

Did all of the outraged lefty-besties come together to get the district to hire a translator who can actually translate and organize a recall of board members so Paso's Latino community can get better representation? Nope, nope.

There's the Cuesta College board of trustees, which actually censured board member Pete Sysak for being a racist, misogynist, demeaning dipstick on social media. Sysak also believes that racism isn't actually a thing and felt super persecuted by the community members who demanded he remove himself from office for practicing his First Amendment right! (Poor guy. Not!) And that was as far as the pushback against him went. No Sysak recall petitions in sight.

But when it comes to school board members who follow public safety protocols and state requirements regarding COVID-19, some righty-tighties got their ducks in a row. Well, actually, just the first couple of ducklings have starting forming a recall line against three Lucia Mar Unified School District board members. But I have faith in the power of Gov. Gavin Newsolini haters to put their signatures on the petition line.

The group of parents in charge of the effort, Central Coast Families for Education Reform, seems to be very organized, even having a press conference about the recall effort on May 4 and publishing notices in a local newspaper on top of sending out a press release!

Seriously? Who's pulling the strings? It's not progressives, because the most organized thing those lefty-besties can do is protest. This group, which claims to be nonpartisan, is definitely anti-"the governor's ridiculous guidelines."

Recall effort leader Shannon Galvan, whose kids attend Arroyo Grande High School, made her feelings about the district's so-called safety rules very clear. Although her kids are back attending in-person classes, it's just not the same. Her kids' classes are empty.

Must be the school board members' fault that a majority of kids have opted not to return to classes. It's definitely not parents taking COVID-19 pandemic precautions.

Group Vice President Michael Mulder claimed that theses three board members don't support the best interests of students, in part because they voted against school resource officers on school campuses. Putting cops on campus is definitely the best way to show you care, duh!

"For the past six months we have watched our school district go downhill," he told a crowd of supporters on May 4 without a trace of nonpartisanship.

Meanwhile, the district followed health and safety mandates, county guidelines, and reopened classrooms as quickly as it was allowed—all by unanimous decisions. So why pick on just three of seven board members? I'll give you one guess. Yes! Partisan, partisan, partisan. If you say it three times fast, do the partisans disappear?

If the group is successful in its recall efforts, the district will need to shell out $350,000 for a special election.

"A lot of these parents talk about student needs, and it costs money to pay for services," Lucia Mar Unified Teachers Association President Cody King said. "Spending a bunch of money on a special election doesn't seem like a good use of those resources."

Touché, man. King called the recall effort a "witch hunt." Where have I heard that before? Oh! It was one of President Donald Trump's favorite turns of phrase. Only in this case, it seems to appropriately classify what's happening.

Just like the California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA) seemed to appropriately classify the city of San Luis Obispo's efforts to strengthen its tent and shopping cart ordinances. In a letter it sent to the city, it claimed the ordinances would further target and criminalize homeless individuals in the city. Well, City Attorney Christine Dietrich, took umbrage with that classification!

In a response letter to the CRLA, Dietrich said that city staff does not agree that the ordinances specifically focus on unhoused individuals. Banning tents from public spaces definitely sounds like a community-wide ordinance. All those people putting up tents for a short picnic lunch ought to be ashamed of themselves!

Oh wait, that's not actually a thing. It's unhoused individuals who need a private place to sleep who put tents up in public spaces, because they literally have nowhere else to go. As far as shopping carts go: Obviously, housed residents ride them around town all the time! Not. Dietrich also said that staff recommended that SLO City Council wait to make a decision on the ordinances' final adoption while the city figures out whether the CRLA will make good on its legal threats. Nice! Δ

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