SSCP exposed

Regrettably, the SSCP has been distracted of late and has not been able to contribute to the surfeit of opinions coursing through the veins of the world-wide web. Would that some of it was actually worth reading. Anyway, I am back and hope to keep you both informed and entertained.

A letter I had written to the Daily Herald about the sham objections to the candidacies of several candidates for the board of trustee elections in April (see earlier posts about this) finally got published this week, about two weeks after I had first submitted it. I got wind of this when I received an e-mail note from a member of the community, who seemed to take exception to the fact that I had not explicitly identified myself as a member of the faculty. If you care to read the letter, and the even more entertaining comments that it provoked, you can do so here.

Here is the note that my letter provoked. Its author wanted me to share it with my colleagues, so I guess I can share it more widely than that.

Mr. Jarman,



I would like to state that you do have a right to your opinion and did so today in the Daily Herald. What I find completely distrubing is the fact that you submitted the letter under the guise of just being an ordinary citizen of the community who didn’t like the way a protest of candidicy was handled. If you are going to have any legitimacy at all, at least have the balls to acknowledge that you TOO have a vested interest in the outcome of the election, as you and the entire faculty, hiding behind your PAC – “Friends For Education”, are trying to get a number of left-leaning liberals elected to the board so that we the taxpayers of this county can pay even more to hire a bunch of teachers who think they work for Harvard, when its just a 2-year community college! Your salary sir, (modesty has moved me to remove the figure but feel free to insert enormous number (ed)), is a disgrace to all the taxpayers of this county! There are professors at 4 year schools in this state and around the country not making that! Yet you and your comrades believe the school should hire only PhD’s to work there?! Right! As a taxpayer, I wouldn’t hire any. A 2 year school should be a training ground to move on to a four year institution. Similar to the minor and major leagues in baseball. COD is the minors and as such, minor league players make less, not more or “equal” to their major league conterparts.



You, all of your liberal fat-cat comrades, have all opened the door to further scrutiny about what is going on at COD, and for that I thank you. It is high time that the residents of this county realize what a Black-Hole that place is for money. You work at a Community College, not an Ivy League school. Get over yourself! Thank God for people like Mr. Atknison, who I know personaly, for making sure people are following the law. Trust me sir, had it been another conservative voice attempting the very same thing, I’m sure you and your comnrades would have risen up against them for the very same thing. Don’t think for one minute you can hide behind the idea that you are supporting “Democracy” when that is the very thing you are trying to squelch.



COD is going to be under a new watchful eye by concerned citizens in this county. We are going to expose any and all waste that occurs at the school. I look forward to the challenge and I plan on assisting Mr. Atkinson in the future on protecting the rights of the voice’s and the hard earned tax dollars of the citizens of this county.



You have been exposed for what and who you are, and I recommend you let all of the other teachers there know that when they come out under the appearance of the “ordinary citizen”, they will be exposed too.



Good Day sir!

My new, not-so-secret admirer, a certain Terrence Wittman turns out to be a trustee of the board of Roselle. He was a member of the rent-a-crowd that showed up at the college to protest the invitation to William Ayers (which had already been rescinded). He knows Kory Atknison personaly (sic). When the latter (I am counting the days) takes his leave of the college, he will be paling around with with Mr. Wittman on the Roselle board. I shudder for the citizens of that fair burgh.

Apart from the author's obvious shortcomings when it comes to spelling, I am offended by his pejorative remarks about the quality of a community college. Okay, Harvard we are not, though I refer to COD affectionately as the Harvard of South Glen Ellyn. Who can brook that argument? We are, it seems, the minor leagues, a training ground; as such we should not have any expectation to earn a decent living? Of course it is pointless in engaging the likes of Mr. Wittman in any kind of constructive discussion; I suspect that Mr. Wittman has low regard for intellectual pursuits of any kind. I would put it to him though, that when it comes to the teaching part of education, in which the community college faculty are more completely engaged than their glamorous counterparts at real universities who are dedicated to research for the most part, the challenges presented by under-prepared students far exceed anything that a typical university professor has to worry about. Teaching really gets pretty easy when you have the best students. Fortunately, most of my students, regardless of their preparation, have minds more susceptible to learning than morons like Mr. Wittman. Roselle's loss with the arrival of the Objector will undoubtedly be COD's gain.