With typical understated reserve that would rival 10 tympani drums pounding simultaneously in a closet with tissue-thin walls, garrulous Steve Gourley tepidly digested last week’s suggestion that he change his mind and re-run for the School Board this summer.
On his way out of self-assertiveness training class, Mr. Gourley saltily offered unsolicited advice: “Start out your next story with this line:
“ ‘What Gourley tells you is true.’”
Two months ago he announced that one-and-done was enough, that his brief political comeback was over after four years because he felt too handcuffed by bureaucratic clutter in the California school apparatus.
Two ears ago he had told the newspaper that the damage caused by convoluted rules and bureaus of bologna that it would take 20 years to restore objective sanity to the school system
After Mr. Gourley had frowningly considered an essay urging him to go for a second four years because he is an unusually muscular asset, I opened our followup interview with an innocent inquiry, Is the door ajar?
“No,” he said with Gourley firmness. “How many times do I have to tell you?”
Nothing could change your mind?
“No.”
Last March, after detailing his exasperation with the tenure and awkward departure of Supt. Myrna Rivera Coté last June, Mr. Gourley said he was worn out by more navigational headaches than he had anticipated.
He said that he and other adults who seek to help children are being hamstrung by “a statewide educational community that doesn’t want to change its ways.”
And then he added a sobering coda.
“Quite frankly, most importantly, my wife, Sharon, is ill. She still is uncomfortable and tires easily, but she is doing better.
“I now realize, at 62 years of age, that if I had what she had, and had a month taken out of my life to get ready for surgery and a month later was trying to get over it, and deal with that while I am trying to earn a living and be a volunteer on the School Board…”
Well, said Mr. Gourley’s interloctuter, that seems to emphatically cover the subject.
With still a little seasoning to spare sometimes cynical satchel, Mr. Gourley sprinkled further salt on his closing comments.
“I thought it did before,” he said. “Your problem is that you deal with people who talk out of both sides of their mouth.
“You have gotten used to it. You should get used to me. I think you have, and that’s why you want me to run again.
“When have I ever lied to you or gone back on my word?”
The sound you just heard was a door slam, sadly.
