DEAR EDITOR:
It has become my opinion that the full intent of Ms. Walker’s
agenda can be summed up in one word,
”
control.
”
By control, I don’t mean a dictatorial form, but the kind of
control that is achieved by the deceptive manipulation of
information.
DEAR EDITOR:
It has become my opinion that the full intent of Ms. Walker’s agenda can be summed up in one word, “control.” By control, I don’t mean a dictatorial form, but the kind of control that is achieved by the deceptive manipulation of information. Ms. Walker uses her talent as a sophist to create a negative opinion base on every issue she writes about, with the exception of issues of her personal life. (A sophist is a person who reasons clever, but fallacious arguments, with the intent to deceive.)
Ms. Walker’s opposition with the public school system, which she has suggested, is nothing more then a conditioned response method teaching (paraphrase), has become a platform from which she promotes home schooling as a superior education.
In October Ms. Walker wrote a two-part column that intended to expose the lack of concern for the quality of education, as well as the total disregard for the student’s concerns in this issue, by suppressing opinions. In response to this outrage, columnist Dennis Taylor took an uncharacteristically premature stand with Ms. Walker. Unlike Walker, Taylor took the next responsible step and confronted the GHS administration with the allegations, a move that both Mr. Zappa and Ms. Walker criticized.
After his interview, Mr. Taylor concluded that the only facts were that Ms. Kim Lemos had been laid off from GHS. Mr. Zappa could not resist jumping into the mix, in order to take pot shots at Taylor, under the pretext of defending his friend. In his opening statement, Zappa provided her with a safety net in the form of a disclaimer, which stated: “From time to time, those of us who write on these pages make errors. I believe most of these are unintentional. They maybe due to sloppiness or carelessness, or our sources may have provided us with incorrect or false information.”
Mr. Zappa’s defense strategy was to claim that “Cynthia Walker interviewed a student and wrote HER story.” Therefore, Walker was telling the truth as it was told to her, if the story is wrong and the source lied. Also that Mr. Taylor was an unreliable witness because his “… inaccuracies are legendary.” But the assumption that there was an interview was only based on the alleged quotes. Nowhere in the columns does Ms. Walker state that she ever interviewed any student. Ms. Walker followed up with her own defense in her Nov. 28 column, in an attempt to confirm that her account was factual and that Taylor’s rebuttal was “baloney!”
For me the question of whether there were ever any student interviews becomes even more of an issue. Starting with paragraph 8, here Walker writes, “I hope that students who remember signing the petitions last year will write in to The Dispatch to say so. I hope that the students who had the petitions taken away will write in to say so, and if she remembers who confiscated them, will name names.”
This is the problem: If Walker had, as it was alleged, interviewed a student and failed to get the whole story, what was her reason for repeating it? On the other hand if she does have the whole story and has confirmed it, why not tell it herself and name names. Why is she putting it back on the students? Paragraph 9, here Walker suggests that should the students find the “… courage to write in,” that students will be plagued by a number of creative forms of retaliation. An allegation that can not be proven till after it has happened. But what of the student that Walker named in her column? Where was the concern for her? Does she still attend GHS? What of the 1,200 students who signed the petition? Has there been any reason for them to be concerned? What about the parents who worry their children will not “… get the letters of recommendation … that the school officials will obstruct the parents attempts to get better curriculum for their kids.” Then maybe all that gloom and doom was just a cover story, a little preemptive CYA (cover your arse).
I’m partial to this theory in light of Walker’s Dec. 5 column. It seems some members of the Alliance for Academic Excellence are recycling the previous excuse. Ironically, a week later, after showing a display of what was supposed to pass as empathy and concern, is now being referred to as ridiculous, unconvincing, absurd, silly and cowardly! If this was to be a confession from Walker’s “… heart of hearts …” it was best left there. Such open thoughts cannot win the support needed for a mass movement towards home schooling.
Ms. Walker was inspired to fulfill her agenda, after having lunch with Arlo Guthrie, then joining him in a sing along at Alice’s restaurant.
I had a nice interview with Eric Hoffer on the subject of the true believer. He was nice enough to give me this little bit of advice to keep in my wallet “… thus people haunted by the purposelessness of their lives try to find a new content not only by dedicating themselves to a holy cause but also by nursing a fanatical grievance. A mass movement offers them unlimited opportunities for both.”
My unsolicited advice to Ms. Walker is to rethink the application of her agendas and not let deceit become her only legacy.
Harold D. Williams, San Jose
Submitted Wednesday, Dec. 10
