Tuesday, November 30, 2010

"A House Divided Against Itself . . ."

How many ways can our small city be divided? There's "old Hudson" and the newcomers. There's the south side and the north side. There's black and white. There are the perceived "rich" and the poor and working class. But tonight at the special meeting of the Board of Education, two new ways to divide us emerged. 

On the one hand, there are those who think Steven Spicer is a gentle and humane leader and should be the principal of the high school; on the other, those who think Tom Gavin is fair and well-respected and should be the principal of the high school.

And then there are those who believe, like Bill Hallenbeck who is one, that the fact that HCSD is the only school district in Columbia County with "safety officers" (retired law enforcement officers who seem to be a combination of truant officer, EMT, and riot police) is something to be proud of, and those who think, as Alan Skerrett does, that "if we're the only school district in Columbia County with safety officers, there's something wrong."

Which side are you on?   

3 comments:

  1. Bravo, Carole. If one could write haiku about tonight's two-and-a-half-hour (official) meeting, that's it. My head is still spinning.

    --peter b. (member of the BOE)

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  2. Is this a test about not being able to see the forest for the trees?

    Stand back and take a good look at the BIG picture of HCSD as Carole is doing. The same goes for the City of Hudson. Is there a vision for the greater good alive and working here or does decades of layers of dysfunctionalism reign supreme ?!

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  3. Carole has put it perfectly.

    Vince, the "BIG picture" is often in the eye of the beholder's perspective, and that holder's power. Where lies the the power of the holder? It is ours if we so lead, fail if we don't.

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