Margery Eagan hears from the Elephant.

This weblog was created in response to problems that are being allowed to fester in the New Bedford School System.  But the problems that exist there and in the greater community of New Bedford are anything but unique.  Lots of communities have poor quality leadership in their mayor's office and school committees.  Lots of communities have some equivalent of Pia Durkin sending her flying green monkeys to terrify and abuse the Dorothy's and the Maura's struggling to manage classrooms full of students who are apathetic or violent.  And lots of communities have a dying media outlet like the Standard Times that exhibits the behavior of a drowning man, violently pulling anything and anyone nearby under water in an effort to stay afloat.  For some reason Bob Unger has chosen to drown school teachers.  Only he knows why but the image of a troglodyte gleefully torturing a puppy does come to mind.

New Bedford's problems mirror America's problems, and that's why some of my material appears to have no direct connection to New Bedford...

One of my readers left a comment in my "Campaign Slogans" post in defense of Jerry Remy, probably because he or she listens to his radio program and finds him to be likeable.  I've never heard Remy's show, never heard him interviewed, and never met him.  I might like him too if I met him.  Too bad his personal likeability is irrelevant.

This is Jerry and Phoebe Remy's 35 year old son, Jared Remy.

Jerry and Phoebe Remy, like the parents of convicted murderer George Huguely, used their wealth and influence to make sure their chronically violent, criminal son never feared significant punishment from law enforcement authorities and never felt any legal or moral obligation to place any priority on the lives and safety of others.  Jared was arrested 19 times and each time his parents actively and knowingly undermined an already barely effective justice system by bailing him out and providing an attorney to play the system.  Jared Remy is a large, physically powerful steroid user with a long history of violence.  Jerry and Phoebe Remy knew they were placing Jared's previous victims and the general public in danger by repeatedly securing his release from jail.  Apparently the safety of others doesn't concern them.  Jerry and Phoebe Remy may be nice people on a personal level, but their performance as parents was undeniably criminal and I consider them to be accessories to murder.

Your wondering about Boston Herald columnist Margery Eagan...

"April 26, 2014

Margery Eagan
The Boston Herald
70 Fargo St.
Boston, MA. 02210

Dear Ms. Eagan,

The subject matter of Jared Remy's recent literary masterpiece raises an important question about parenting.  Is there a job description for parents written into our nation's laws?  It's increasingly obvious that there should be one, but the subject matter of parental incompetence is something of a third rail for politicians.  They won't touch it until it becomes routine to read and hear of it in the media.  Submitted for your consideration is my opinion of what every parent's job description should be:

A parent's duty to every other citizen in our society is to transform an infant member of an aggressive predatory species into a civilized young adult, preferably by consistent role modeling.

As much as I enjoy horrifying our nation's more conservative elements, this letter really isn't about personal entertainment.  Criminally incompetent parents and the violent sociopaths they produce are a danger to us all and there comes a time when someone must be willing to acknowledge the elephant in the room.  It's time for the public and their elected representatives to become accustomed to routinely reading about this problem and hearing it discussed in the media.

Are you willing to get involved in solving this problem?"

I also courtesy copied the Boston Globe, Boston Public Radio, and both my state and federal representatives and senators.

In all honesty, I expect little to change but it was worth a try.

Every campaign needs campaign slogans.

Whether you are preparing your nation's population for war, marketing a product, or running for public office, every campaign needs a list of campaign slogans.  Slogans need not be remotely factual or logical.  The two basic requirements are that they precipitate a strong emotional reaction and they are easy to remember.  And everyone old enough to be reading this knows how they work, whether they realize it or not.

If you are seen driving this model of automobile, drinking this brand of high end liquor, or wearing this brand of clothing you will be admired by all and given the respect you've always deserved but never received.  You'll be more masculine, sexier, more sophisticated, healthier, or richer.  You will finally be accepted by a higher class of people.  You will be happy.

Yeah...sure I will.

Product marketing slogans attempt to convince you that you'll receive something you badly want.  And they work because no one wants to feel and look like a fool for buying a product and then having to admit that they actually bought it in an effort to become more masculine, sexier, etc., only to end up just as dull and ordinary as ever.  No one dares to complain when those lofty and ludicrous promises fail to be fulfilled.  Everlasting hope combined with fear of embarrassment is a confidence man's greatest ally.

Political and war mongering slogans work a bit differently.  Both offer the audience someone to follow and someone to blame for their problems.  Vote for me because America could be a paradise if it weren't for the liberals, the conservatives, the PAC's, the gun lobby, OPEC, bloggers, the gay liberal agenda, the Muslims, big evil corporations, tax evaders in the underground economy, and of course...the teacher's union.

Who among us can deny the corrosive effect of professionally trained educators?!

There's a scapegoat for all seasons and always a charming sociopath willing to hammer away at it.  Who can resist being charmed and disarmed when Pia Durkin flashes her Wicked Witch of the West smile and takes your hand into both of hers?  So pleased to meet you.  Would you like to humiliate a few teachers before dinner or freshen up first?  Because I live by the maxim that charming people tend to be sociopaths, I'm put on alert rather than charmed.

By now readers know that I place the blame for many of our nation's problems on the institution most responsible for teaching people right from wrong, America's precious and unimpeachable Institution of Family.  Parents choose to produce children and choose how to role model.  Parents are the first place our nation's media and law enforcement community should look when a Jared Remy or its high school aged equivalent appears.  We need a campaign to destroy the social taboos against doing this.  And like all those marketing firms and politicians, I have a few slogans designed to precipitate a completely irrational and highly emotional reaction.

Raising a bully is like defecating in the village well and then attacking anyone who dares to mention the taste of your parenting skills.

Bullies are like human feces.  They emerge from the orifice of family character and find a strong sense of belonging in the cesspool of community character.

Those of you who've been abused and then blamed for the abuser's criminal behavior thought of specific individuals when reading them...didn't you?

Write a few of your own.  Be creative.  You know you want to.

Governor Deval Patrick hears from The Elephant.

My apologies for not blogging more often.  It's one of the downsides of not being rich enough to retire.

I just sent an e-mail to Governor Deval Patrick.

"Superintendent Pia Durkin's method of discouraging violent behavior in the New Bedford School System is disturbingly reminiscent of both Columbine Principal Frank DeAngelis and the historically ludicrous but loveable Sergeant Schultz.

"I see nothing!"

Do you believe as I do that preventing tragedy is better than making excuses afterwards?"

I strongly suspect that the third assistant undersecretary to the governor's second assistant will scan it quickly and forward it to Deer Island...but you never know.

Sith Lord Durkin and her hounds have a new teacher to torment.

Joanne Maura, the 60 year old woman bravely challenged to a duel (chairs at 20 paces) by Dragon Slayer and Honorable Knight, Sir Kemar Omar Roselus has been exonerated, but as fate would have it another teacher has found herself in the crosshairs.

An unnamed female teacher at the DeValles School in New Bedford is under investigation for assaulting a nine year old student.  Fortunately for the Sith, this incident was not recorded on video so railroading this teacher should be a much less arduous affair.

I can easily imagine Darth Durkin's threatening rictus as she bares her teeth in hungry anticipation of the slaughter.

Stay tuned folks.

By the way...how's Eduardo Irizarry doing and have adults in authority bothered doing anything about his attacker's violent behavior?  Young, violent sociopaths are always looking for new victims.  Is their safety even a concern to the adults in authority?

Naaaaahhh!!!!!  Why bother?  Kids will be kids.

From the mail sack...

Before I became internet aware I made use of snail mail to do what I'm doing now.  I have an extensive collection of letters that bear some significance to the problems that exist in the New Bedford School System and I'll reprint a few of them here from time to time.

Once again...I'm typing slowly for the benefit of people with Ph.D.'s.

September 24, 2000

Letters to the Editor
Boston Herald
P.O. Box 2096
Boston, MA.  02106-2096

Dear Editor,

The teacher shortage described in the September 24th article, "Teachers wanted" can be solved fairly quickly.  Stop blaming teachers for the effects of parental incompetence.

Regards,

The Elephant

No...I didn't sign it with "The Elephant."

This one's even older:

May 23, 1998

Letters to Editor
Sentinel & Enterprise
808 Main St.
Fitchburg, MA.  01420

Dear Editor,

I am writing about "Tension and fear at schools-but no easy answers", a poorly titled article which appeared in the Saturday, May 23rd edition.

The claim that there are no easy answers is inaccurate.  It's a relatively uncomplicated legal problem.  There are two groups of people who's basic civil rights are in conflict.  On paper, children have the right to an education, free from violence.  In reality, criminally incompetent parents have the right to use the public school system as a warehouse for their violent, sadistic offspring.  Anyone who's been assaulted or threatened while attending school quickly learns that the criminal's right to warehouse is far superior to the student's right to an education.  They also learn that adults will typically place the blame on the weakness of the victim, an incredibly stupid message of approval that guarantees an escalation of violence.  Reverse the importance currently placed on the rights of these two groups of people and the problem is solved.

Hey Pia!!  If a former student shows up one day and stages a media event do you have a ludicrous scapegoat ready?  Will Marilyn Manson be mentioned?  How about video games?

No!  Wait!!...I know...

Blame something vague and amorphous like the declining morality of society and the insidious influence of an unregulated internet.

Yeah.  That's the ticket.

The Elephant declares that all of the really important butts have been covered.

The Elephant reaches out to Pia Durkin again.

If at first you don't succeed...

I sent this e-mail today.  Perhaps it will even be read.  I also courtesy copied the school committee, the mayor, all of the city counselors, Misters Brown, Unger, and Urbon at the Standard Times, and a few others.


"Dear Dr. Durkin,

 

There exists an opportunity to avoid convincing a potential killer that all people are evil and deserve to be punished.

 

The case of Eduardo Irizarry caught my attention recently and I immediately thought of all of the missed opportunities involving other young victims of community sanctioned cruelty.  Will the criminal who attacked him and broke his jaw suffer the same laughably ineffective punishment as chair throwing Kemar Omar Roselus?  Will the victim receive the same message received by countless victims of bullying before him?  Will he be blamed for what a violent sociopath chose to do to him and intimidated into staying quiet?

 

Will Eduardo Irizarry one day be added to the list that includes Timothy McVeigh, Eric Harris, and Adam Lanza because 15 years after Columbine, adults in authority still refuse to pull their heads out of that warm, comforting well of denial and take a good look at what's going on around them?

 

Sincerely yours,

 

The Elephant

http://theelephantsnewclothes.blogspot.com/

 

The Care and Feeding of the American Domestic Terrorist.

Transforming an otherwise healthy adolescent into a serial killer, mass murderer, or domestic terrorist is a three step process.

The first step involves establishing a relationship between the individual and the public founded upon a sense of betrayal.  This involves failing to protect the individual from abusive behavior, then shamelessly avoiding the imposition of any significant punishment upon the abuser.  If the abuser is a relatively high status individual it's especially effective to praise and reward him for his athletic ability, his fighting skill, his anatomical correctness and so forth.  If the abuser receives a lot of female attention, that's also helpful in generating a general sense of hatred toward the public.  Routinely insulting and/or blaming the terrorist trainee and referring to him with labels like wimp, faggot, pussy, etc. cannot help but reinforce the hatred he'll feel toward everyone around him.  Now that the internet exists, the terrorist trainee will almost certainly learn that this sort of barbaric behavior is normal all over America.  This will help to widen the scope of his hatred toward just about everyone.  The terrorist trainee is now able to place no value on human life without losing sleep over it.

The second step is less controllable.  The trainee must develop a general sense of failure strong enough for him to lose hope in a better future.  He must feel as though he has nothing to lose.  The length of time required to complete this step varies widely.  Eric Harris was 18 when he orchestrated his attack on Columbine High School while George Sodini was 48 when he started spraying bullets inside a Pittsburg health club.  The inability to make and keep friends or maintain healthy relationships with the opposite sex, the inability to find a job that actually pays enough to live on, and the inability to pay for higher education can all be important factors in convincing the trainee that the world hates him and wants him to feel like a loser.

The third step involves the trainee embracing a philosophy where he will acquire a sense of purpose and reward for killing people.  He may embrace a radical religion or he may simply make something up on his own.  In his personal fantasy he's fighting evil and will be lavishly rewarded in Heaven or when the virtual reality game ends.  In a world where videogame and virtual reality escapism is a multibillion dollar industry, this is pretty easy to do.

But without fulfilling the first step by establishing a sense of betrayal in the trainee, the second and third steps become irrelevant.

The manner in which you treat another individual or group of individuals and the value you place on their lives and safety is a function of your relationship.  Timothy McVeigh, Eric Harris, and Adam Lanza obviously had a strong negative relationship with the public.  They had no moral difficulty killing and maiming large groups of people and the reason for this is anything but mysterious.

Here's Dr. Pia Durkin's homework question for today:

What kind of relationship will be established between the community of New Bedford and the recent victim of violent crime, Eduardo Irizarry?  Will the criminal who attacked him and broke his jaw suffer the same laughably ineffective punishment as chair throwing Kemar Omar Roselus?  Will he simply be moved to another school building and put on "double secret probation?"  Will young Mr. Irizarry be taught by example that adults in authority place no value on his safety?  Will he learn the same lessons learned by the three mass murderers listed above?  Or will the criminal actually be treated as what it is?

I know what you're thinking.  Lots of people are bullied without turning into killers.  I encounter this argument routinely and my standard response is always the same.  Lots of people drink and drive without ever crashing into anything.  In fact, between 1978 when I graduated high school and 1984 when I enlisted in the military I operated a motor vehicle after drinking more than the legal limit well over a thousand times.

How would you feel if I addressed the senior class of New Bedford High School and argued that drinking and driving is statistically safe?

The Elephant will be following this story closely.  Try not to get anyone killed.

Love and peanuts,

The Elephant