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Thursday, June 19, 2008

WHERE IS THE BROTHER


Can anyone tell me how to get a hold of the brother. He got some definite opinions about affirmative action which just absolutely blew me away... You may find yourself facing these types of notions sometimes yourself... White males are being exploited; Blacks have got more than enough right now... The system favors them and that is reverse racism...

Here's Mr. Pirkle's article:
Federal Way Mirror
No link exists between diverse Federal Way School Board and better education
BILL PIRKLE, The Pirkle Report
Published: June 18, 2008 2:00 PM
Updated: June 18, 2008 6:56 PM


The concept of diversity was born when set-aside contracts and employment quotas for minorities came under legal attack.

The problem for the Civil Rights Movement was, how do we continue to discriminate against white males in this new legal environment based on reverse discrimination? The solution to the problem was the idea of “diversity.”

There are colleges that routinely turn down a white person for admission whose grades and test scores were higher than a minority who was admitted so as to have a diverse campus. Although that may sound nice despite the fact that a harder working student was discriminated against, it leaves unanswered a fundamental question: How does a diverse campus improve academic learning? Seems to me that the professor’s delivery would be color blind.

The last incarnation of the Federal Way School Board had four white men and one white woman. There were three Mormons, a majority. Yet little was accomplished. This school board lineup has two white women, one black woman, one white male and one black male. That seems pretty diverse, and if school board diversity is the answer to our problems, I would expect to see an improvement in standardized test scores. Standardized scores like the WASL are important since the teachers tend to give good grades to make everybody happy. It’s called grade inflation and is the teachers union’s answer to better education.

I would pose a derivative of this question to the school board. How does a diverse school board improve WASL scores? Let’s look at it logically, a thing that is rare these days where logic takes a backseat to emotion. The school board implements policies that improve learning. How does a diverse school board come up with better policies than a non-diverse school board? Hopefully, a diverse school board would be color blind.

We can assume that the most diverse school board possible would not have any white men of Anglo heritage. If there was such a person, then the school board could be made more diverse by replacing him, since diversity really means non-white.

Yet the connection between diversity and good education policy remains obscure. If there was massive discrimination in schools, one could assume that their policies would end it. Yet the minority kids go to the same school, use the same books and have the same teachers as the other kids. It’s the law.

If you think that there is discrimination in schools, the solution is not to make the school board more diverse. The solution is to go into federal court and file a discrimination suit for civil rights violations. That this is not being done means there is no evidence to support that assertion.

Diversity may even be harmful. Everybody brings to the school board their values and their agenda. As you increase diversity, you increase the complexity of the negotiations as we experience what we call agenda conflict stemming from value system conflict. We see this daily in American politics as the government is now deadlocked between liberals vs. conservatives, rich vs. poor, old vs. young, minorities vs. non-minorities, the legal American vs. the illegal Americans. Every law passed becomes a compromise of interests, making the law virtually useless at solving the problem that gave it birth. Yet we can claim a diverse government.

The fact is that we can no longer govern ourselves.

Hopefully this will not happen at school board meetings, but it is certainly possible.

We should remember that the goal here is better education for our children and not a diverse school board. If there is a link between a diverse school board and better education, someone should be able to express that link in words. I challenge anyone in Federal Way to write an article for The Mirror that explains this link. The gauntlet is tossed.

I know that I will be called a racist by even posing this question. I know this because racist labeling is the final refuge of those who can not defend their position with a logical argument.

Federal Way resident Bill Pirkle can be reached at bpirkle@zipcon.net.



I decided that it was time the elders in this country starting talking straight to each other and I sent this e-mail to his e-mail address: bpirkle@zipcorn.net.
Dear Mr. Pirkle: I read your opinion piece with interest, sadness, and disappointment.
I am an African American male, now 67 years old (which means I am looking at my own mortality squarely in the face and I no longer have time to get caught up in I know better than you what is real thinking). So let me offer you a very brief outline of my experience.
I am a minister, committed to the belief that God loves us all and wants us all to care for and support each other. For thirty years of my life I had the honor of helping students of all colors to meet their needs at Seattle University.
During that time I went through my finger pointing, self righteous phrase, and I honestly believed that the Affirmative Action plan was meeting the economic needs of the white women and men who oversaw the programs and the universitites who used government funding to build departments (where predominantly white professors taught).
I, sadly, often participated in the ongoing divisions across the races that have kept us apart since the founding of this country. As a footnote, I think that the diversity issue began here when the first settlers and the Native people forced each other to kill each other.
What do you really think about interracial relations in this country... I mean, beyond the cliches about having some really good black, brown, yellow, and red friends (notice how the division between Americans always begins after we have said the friends' part to one another)
At the same time I did not pay enough attention to the wonderful white women and men, and the parents, faculty, staff, and students of all colors who worked very, very hard to become people who respected the life of learning, their gifts, and each other.
Sir, you appear to an individual who also will not see another fifty years. I earnestly invite you to move beyond either/or thinking, see both sides of our living and struggling in America at this time, and ask yourself this question: how do you want to be remembered when you have gone on to our loving God... as one who judged others or one who understood others...

Sincerely concerned for all of our children's well being, I am

Joseph

Here is the response I got back from Yahoo
Hi. This is the qmail-send program at yahoo.com.
I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses.
This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.

:
Sorry, I couldn't find any host named zipcorn.net. (#5.1.2)

?????!!!!!!

Will someone please answer these two questions for me...
How can I contact Mr. Pirkle?
What is going on?

29 comments:

Stephanie Frieze said...

Perhaps Mr. Pirkle should be called Mr. Prickle.

JosephMcG said...

Isn't this just too fascinating..
that's what Mr. Spock would call it... "Fascinating!!!"

Stephanie Frieze said...

I've sent this editorial to two family members who teach in Federal Way and am waiting for a response.

This fellow seems a very unhappy sort.

Stephanie Frieze said...

Joseph, if you go to the Federal Way Mirror website, there's a "contact us" button at the bottom of the page. You might be able to contact the Pickle, Prickle, Pri...whatever,that way.

JosephMcG said...

Spoke with Mr. Hobbs, the editor of the Mirror... he thought it was strange that my email had not gone to Mr. Pirkle as they communicate by email all the time... Mr. Pirkle is not employed by the Mirror, he is a volunteer...

Mr. Hobbs is the editor... his email address is editor@fedwaymirror.com

Stephanie Frieze said...

I am glad to learn that he's not being paid to write such rubbish.

Stephanie Frieze said...

In the final analysis, even grumpy bigots are protected under the First Amendment. While we might want him to have am epiphany and mend his ways, we would be unhappy if he hadn't a right to his opinion.

Kim Thompson said...

When I looked at the article online, at the bottom of the article, you see an icon for "Letter To Editor." When you click on this, you go to an area that has a form ready to go with your letter addressed to Mr. Hobbs along with an automatically generated title of the article you are responding too. I suspect that this article will get a good deal of response.

JosephMcG said...

Let me step up to the plate... there have been many, many times over the long, frightening, confusing years when I have made general statements about White People, while I enjoyed the company of some fabulous individuals, activists, teachers, mentors...
I got a little older and I began to realize my hypocrisy... I couldn't have it both ways, dogging a group and loving a few,
Dogging was just the occasion for my becoming a brute... cynical, resentful, bitter... but my friends stuck with me, I got zapped by people who loved God a few times (both Black, White, Brown, and Red people) and I started appreciating the power of loving and being loved.
So I'm not going to get in labelling anybody anything...I am going to do the best I can to keep listening, learning, and loving...
And news... the editor passed my letter on to Mr. Pirkle and the editor asked if he could publish it in the Letters to the Editors...
If I can stay real (humble and open to honest loving), then I am delighted...
When I start finger pointing, sisters and brothers, tell me to back off...
I would like to grow up someday

Stephanie Frieze said...

Congratulations, Joseph, on getting your say!

JosephMcG said...

Thanks, Stephanie... it is our say... the conversation in the neighborhood... the great friends like yourself I have come close to,
the demands of honest writing... the soul searching, the elation of seeing thoughts coming out in an orderly, beautiful way...
the people who touch me... in Marriage Encounter, at the hospitals, and to my delight, more and more I am recognizing the value of having people spend time with me and share their sorrows and joys with me...
the demands of our times... because I think there is no more time left for us to sit back in our corners and wait for someone to save us (president, governor, mayor, minister, our spouse, our closest friends... no one can save us)
We need each other...
So, this is not my say... it's our say, and I humbly thank each one of the bloggers of In Your Neighborhood (that includes Mark B too) for being there for me

JosephMcG said...

Thanks Mizu, for getting me moving on this one... your brother,

Lorraine Hart said...

How right you are Joseph...we need each other. The human diversity provides the actual threads of this country, woven by history/herstory, into a fabric unique and beautiful.

There isn't a soul alive who hasn't made snap judgements, who hasn't slapped unwarranted labels on another human being in some moment of their lives.

Behavior Modification 101: "The only behavior we have the ability to change is our own."

Let's lay down our burdens and lift up our responsibilities. Let's teach the Mr. and Ms. Pirkles by the intent of honour, respect, humility and love in our own actions every day. There's a new revolution of Love in the offing...and I'm soooooo ready to move forward with it. Let this country be a shimmering exotic fabric, strong in its weave and amazing in its colours. I don't want anyone to be blind to that.

JosephMcG said...

Mr. Pirkle has contacted me. I have invited him to share his concerns with you.

Jaynie Jones said...

Way to go, Joseph!

JosephMcG said...

Jaynie: thank you... and here's an SOS for you and other members of the blog squad...
Tomorrow evening I shall be posting an article on Black students who have succeeded in completed their high school education...
And this is what I learned...
YouTube... the videos on Black Students deserve a failing mark...
either focused on rap, dirty dancing, or fights...
The news articles point out that, percentage wise, Black students are having a terrible time graduating from high school...
I think there is a need that three truths be told... 1. poverty is the root cause for the failure of the schools to support students of all races in graduating successfully; 2. positive images of all teenage groups needs to be hightlighted... and young women of color need to be presented in ways that emphasize their strengths...
3. programs and individuals who are supporting the efforts of the public schools to be successful need to be written about CONSTANTLY

LET THE TRUTH BE KNOWN

bill pirkle said...

This is Mr. Pirkle (Mr Prickle, funny, but let's try to be serious given the probelms we face.

The problem in the ghettos is due to the lack of Black leadership. The Blacks who benefitted from civil rights have good jobs and have moved on, turning their backs on their own people.

We Whites cannot do anything about this.

bill pirkle said...

I am an unhappy sort Stephanie. I do not like watching my country going down the drain.

Jaynie Jones said...

Welcome aboard, Bill!

I read your comment that you do not like to see your country going down the drain. None of us want to see that, but it almost certainly means different things to different people.

What are your thoughts and views about that? What is your definition of the 'country going down the drain'?

Lorraine Hart said...

Mr. Pirkle, I disagree that this country is going down the drain...it's just not going the way you'd like it.

On what authority do you claim to know there is no black leadership? When did you experience living in the "ghetto" to have the knowledge you state? Where is your proof of what you have to say? Have you read the TNT lately? I've read about many great examples of those who benefitted from the Civil Rights Movement and have reached down (as Tim Russert was fond of saying) to lift others up.

Your essay's point seems to be a woeful tale of discrimination against white males, with no hard facts and figures to back your statements up. What are your sources in your research into this discrimination? Show me the statistics that illustrate African Americans have it easier in achieving higher education and better jobs than Caucasian Americans. If you're going to make statements as large as the one you've made, you better have the facts, figures and sources to back your words up.

What speaks loudly, in your writing, is your fear...and for that, you have my compassion...but not my agreement. May I also ask, what leadership roles you take on in your community, state and country?

bill pirkle said...

country going down the drain ...
1. aids epidemic
2. corruption in congress
3. corruption on wall street
4. failing schools
5. motherrs killing their children (abortion)
6. rampant sexuality among kids
7. failing economy
8. healthcare crisis
9. involvment in a religious war
10. an idiot culture

that's enough for now

bill pirkle said...

lorraine,
yes there is some leadership in the black community but it's fractured. Bill Cosby was critized for speaking out about black fathers abandoning their children.

There are a lot of people making a lot of money off of black plight and they do not want the problem to go away. civil rights is an industry now producing jobs and creating wealth on the backs of blacks.

my leadership roles?
I was an officier in the Navy

I started the federal way fencing club and taught kids to fence for free. My best student was black.

I write about education in our local paper.

I attend school board meetings.

I work on local political campaigns

That's a lot more than most people do.

bill pirkle said...

I am not a racist. But let me play the role of a racist.
I am giving a speech to the American Association of White Racists (AAWR)

Good evening ladies and gentlemen. I have a progress report for you on the Black Problem. I can report that things are going according to plan.

The Blacks are locked up in ghettos and hooked on crack. Few are finishing school so in a couple of more generations they will not be able to read just like in the days of slavery.

The family unit has fallen apart as fathers leave. Most children are born out of wedlock and there are many abortions.

Black on Black crime is way up but so what, let them kill each other.

We must pump billions of dollars into the ghetto but we have the money and this is just the cost of doing business.

Soon there will not be a Black problem. Thank you and good night.

Stephanie Frieze said...

Mr. Pirkle, I see that you've offered no proof or sources for your accusations or even evidence of your lack of racism. From where do you get your information? Your only point that has ANY validity is that we are fighting a religious war. There are things which I would like to see changed about the United States, but making sure that every citizen is honored, regardless of race, creed or gender is paramount. Only by learning about each other do we have hope of true equality.

Another reader commented that she believed that you are a lonely man. I replied that I believe you to be very unhappy. Unhappy people usually look to outside elements as the source of their unhappiness. Certaily if you actually believe your assertions to be true it is no wonder that you are miserable.

bill pirkle said...

Well so far I have been called lonely, unhappy and have no credentials to even have an opinion on civil rights.

I am quite happy being retired on two pensions. My son is grown, makes a 6 figure salary and I have 2 grand daughters. Things are fine with me. I have full medical coverage and my home is paid for.

It has been my experience that when one talks to liberals and make an irefuttable point, the response is to attack me personally. This seems to be the rule here as well.

So I won't be posting again and I wish you all the best of luck in making the world better.

What I am doing to make the world better is that I sponsor a little girl in Honduras through the Christian Children's Fund CCF.

I send them $24 for her schooling and medical care and I send her and her family $25 each month - a fortune down there. It's a month's wages for her grand father. I get letters and pictures and I am watching her grow up. She is six now.

I choose a girl over a boy because I think that anything I do to help her will make her a better mother and my money will last for generations.

Since I am leaving I will post the url of my personal website where you can find out everything about me, listen to my piano concerto, read my poetry, listen to my pop songs and download a free copy of my software that composes classical music. Enjoy.

BIll Pirkle, happy camper

http://www.bpirkle.com

Stephanie Frieze said...

I believe we would like to know where Mr. Pirkle got his information. Certainly, many of his issues are genuine, but attempting to keep the Federal Way School Board white and undiversified does not address any of those issues.

JosephMcG said...

Thanks everyone...

Lorraine Hart said...

We've read more of Mr. Pirkle's writings, which also have no stats to back them up...and lots of letters from respected members of the Federal Way community that excellently refute his words. It seems Mr. Pirkle is well-known in his community, though not quite as the respected leader he would have us believe. Sir, I gave you every respect in my comments...and, if you wish to speak with me again, my name is Ms. Hart.

Today (Monday, June 23rd) there is a brilliant column in the TNT by Leonard Pitts, addressing this very subject. I would suggest we all, especially Mr. Pirkle, sit down for a good read.

Lorraine Hart said...

The Drain List:

1. AIDS epidemic
The country was slow to take action due to the far right agenda of homophobia (God's will codswallop) and lack of honest sex education. We've made some great strides against it and continue to do so. Did you know the numbers for Lyme disease in North America are larger than the AIDS numbers? Just giving a little perspective here.
2.Corruption in Congress
Hmmmm...who seems to have profited at our expense...who seems to be the ones caught with hand in cookie jar? Mostly older, rich, right-wing white males...hmmmmm.
3.Corruption on Wall St.
See above.
4.Failing Schools
Lack of funding...the "No Child Left A Dime" approach. Lack of the Arts.
5.Abortion Rights
Women's bodies and difficult choices are none of your business sir. Perhaps if there was decent and honest sex education...and boys were properly taught about their role in birth control, women wouldn't so often be placed in the lifelong trauma of this decision.
6.Rampant sexuality among kids
Ever has it been so...especially when desire is forbidden instead of explained.
7.Failing Economy
Well...we were doing just fine before this last administration. Ask yourself, are they all better off now than eight years ago? Hell yes! And us...?
8.Healthcare crisis
You're right, Mr. Pirkle, there is definitely a healthcare crisis, since medicine became big business and doctors became micro-managed. We're ready to change that and stop people's lives from going down the drain. This is a cause for celebrating change.
9.Involvement in a religious war
No matter what the religion, the responsibility for "crusades" lies squarely on the doorsteps of those who do not walk the core truth of their religion. There is no honour in taking up God's, Yaweh's, Allah's, Khuda's, (etc.) banner and soiling it with another's blood. America could be a shining beacon in its example of tolerance and the separation of church and state. We're trying to get there.
10.An idiot culture
This is just a meaningless phrase in the beautiful "tossed salad" of cultures we enjoy in this country.

No matter if someone tries to spin us clockwise in the northern hemisphere...or counter-clockwise in the southern hemisphere...we ain't going down the drain. We're (as Joseph said) growing up!

Interesting that Mr. Pirkle would feel attacked as a minority...and leave. Peace be with you sir.