I have a picture of four stentorian leaders on the School Board sinking to their knees every late night, in their jammies, leaning both elbows on the side of the bed.
Worriedly, they aim their wandering eyes toward the heavens. Fervently, they beg their god to please, please force one of their reluctant colleagues to speak out on T.G.M., The Gourley Mess, so they don’t have to.
Do you suppose the four leaders on the Board not named Steve Gourley think that David Mielke is the worst person in America, that he is a no-count “liar”?
Observing their 100 percent inaction, I judge that to be the case — that Scott Zeidman, Kathy Paspalis, Pat Siever and Karlo Silbiger agree with Mr. Gourley that Mr. Mielke is a dirty, rotten, rootin’, tootin’ liar.
We may also assume that they think Jimmy Garfield was the best President of the last 130 years.
Since the leaders have not indicated a position either on the quite late Mr. Garfield or the regularly bullied Mr. Mielke, we are free to assign pro or con positions to them.
I grant that it is excruciating to publicly or privately reprimand a vexing, out-of-control colleague.
But leaders have a responsibility to the community. Would they brook this behavior from their children?
Imagine your family visits certain friends a couple times a month. On every visit, one of your darlings plants his feet and says to your host, loudly, harshly, “You’re a liar,” “you’re a liar,” “you’re a liar.”
Would you ignore it, as the School Board has done for months?
Would you say, “That’s Dilbert being Dilbert”?
Or would you look at your host, your longtime pal, and say “Hubert, you have been uncomfortably liberal with the truth”?
If you belong to a social club, and every meeting the loudest mouth blew up and called one of your number, “liar,” ‘liar,” “liar,” so loudly, so furiously that you didn’t know whether to summon the paramedics or the cops, you, Mr. Average, Ms. Average, would do something.
Wouldn’t you?
Now meet four leaders living on hope.
Four leaders hoping nobody in the audience is listening to T.G.M.
Four leaders hoping that all televisions and computers in Culver City magically are taken offline on School Board meeting nights.
Four leaders perhaps hoping that everyone in the audience is named Helen Keller.
Or is it the reverse?
Aren’t leaders elected to lead?
