Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Really guys, this isn't funny. Ross needs those pills to keep himself under control.Don't believe me? Check out this guest opinion piece in The State. Shealy has a strange, stalker-like obsession about someone who's a philanthropist trying to improve education, property rights, and political accountability around the country. Instead of just talking a good game, it more-or-less looks like Howie Rich is actually trying to do some good. Consider school choice: If he had started his own school—to give more choices to parents in South Carolina—how many students could he help? Maybe 6oo? Maybe 1,000?
And how many children would be helped if every single parent in the state of South Carolina were to have the ability to choose the best learnin' option for their child? Oh, about 600,000. Oh.
So Mr. Rich could have chosen the easy way out. If he gave a couple of hundred thousand dollars to USC—like the adorable Darla Moore—everyone would raise their champagne glass to him and toast to "our good friend from New York." But Rich thought about what would help the least powerful, most abused segment of our society—disadvantaged children. A good education is the surest way out of the poverty trap and towards a life of independence and dignity.
After trying to help the least among us, what does Howie Rich get for his troubles? The wrath and rancor of one crazed political lunatic whose own career will never involve trying to help get our poorest and most troubled into a better life. They say no good deed goes unpunished.
Now Shealy is trying to make this about the integrity of our political system or some such nonsense. Oh, please. Shealy is a couple of beers short of a 6-pack but even he knows the way that politics really works. He knows that the legislators are owned by the education bureaucracy, the big school contracting corporations (hello M.B. Kahn!), and the big unions. Sometimes they even forget that children exist. Now parents are finally getting their voice heard, their interests represented, their agenda pressed. Now all of a sudden Ross Shealy is the protector of the American Way.
Memo to Ross Shealy: Here in America, it's still legal to make campaign contributions. It's still legal to have an opinion. It's still legal to support candidates with your blood, sweat, and tears—and your financial wherewithal.
Remember, our Founding Fathers pledged their "lives, fortunes, and sacred honor" to the cause of American Independence. I dare say that they were better men than you.
Posted by Bill Smith at 7:58 AM |
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